Universal and Sony Music have both had their YouTube view-counts and channels drastically cut by YouTube. A spokesman for YouTube was cryptic about the slashing, saying "This was not a bug or a security breach. This was an enforcement of our viewcount policy." The DailyDot repeats speculation from Black Hat World ("a forum where users trade tips about unethical search engine optimization tactics") where users have suggested that the entertainment giants got their ears pinned back after they were caught buying fake "likes" and "views" from a crooked botmaster.

Sony/BMG was the second largest sufferer, dropping more than 850 million views in one day, bringing its total number of views to a mere 2.3 million. RCA, which got off scot free by comparison, dipped 159 million views. Its tally now sits more modestly at 120 million views.
In addition, each label's YouTube archives are now surprisingly thin. UMG, which had long held a heavy hand in YouTube operations, now only boasts five videos on its YouTube channel, none of which are actual songs—and none of which last more than 1:23.
Sony's page, by comparison, is currently empty. The company did not respond to the Daily Dot's request for comment.

YouTube strips Universal and Sony of 2 billion fake views [Chase Hoffberger/Daily Dot] (via Reddit)

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MORE: Business • corruption • music • spam • web theory • youtube

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entertainment giants got their ears pinned back after they were caught buying fake “likes” and “views” from a crooked botmaster.

Isn’t that corporate fraud or something illegal like that? IANAL, obviously.
- Florian Bösch
  
  Seeing as there where likely ad-revenue payouts based on this, I’m pretty sure it’s fraud. Mostly advertising providers don’t go after offenders of viewfraud/clickfraud because the economic damage is comparatively small and the cost of entering legal proceedings would exceed the damage. They usually just ban offenders for life, or a very long time.
  
  However viewfraud/clickfraud to the tune of billions is bound to be enough to pay a couple lawyers full time for a couple years, so they might just.
nixiebunny

What about VEVO? They are ripe for this.
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  I’ve actually watched videos on the VEVO channel. The others, not so much.
PhosPhorious

There are more than a few videos that I would like to un-see.
xzzy

Are Universal and Sony going to have to return all those theoretical dollars they made off those view?
http://twitter.com/metal_max Max Allan

And these are the companies who try to fine people gajillions of units of currency for illegally downloading their crap. How about for every fake page view, someone gets a free download.
The sooner these dinosaurs fade away the better.
- Boundegar
  
  How about if every fake page view “cost” Youtube $500,000? That would be fair, wouldn’t it?
Xof

I hope YouTube does the right thing and distributes those views to the poor.
- Finnagain
  
  No, they will melt them down to make brand new crap views.
- The Rizz
  
  No, they’ll just pay for their next lawsuit loss in slightly-used pageviews.
Yarmouth Bands

It wasn’t just the big guys it was every honest Youtuber. They nailed everyone including those that did nothing illegal.
- http://thisisonlya.blogspot.com robcat2075
  
  No, not “everyone”
- Jake0748
  
  I see that Gangnam Style still has over a billion views. So no, I don’t think they “nailed” everyone.
Baldhead

Often wondered what counts as a view. I’ve seen plenty videos where it was just crap and switched off after maybe 8 seconds. Does that count as a view?
http://thisisonlya.blogspot.com robcat2075

“Corporations are people, my friend,” especially to their imaginary, paid-for friends.
nixiebunny

I consider views of my videos to be a bit of an ego boost, but nothing more.
Are you trying to tell me that some people consider them to be worth something more?
- http://daruiburns.tumblr.com/ Dlo Burns
  
  If you become really popular and enable ads on your vids you might make 3¢
ocker3

It couldn’t have happened to a nice group of guys
Culturedropout

Oh, the delicious DRM-flavored irony… XD

YouTube confiscates 2 billion views from Universal and Sony

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