This fucked with me a bit. Al Jazeera have 15million subscribers. Even less than two years ago, they had videos getting tens of millions of views. Now, everything has dropped off a cliff since then. Most of it sits around 5-15k, but the shit about JD Vance, or Israel, or Big Tech? 1.6k, 1.9k. There’s outliers, stuff the mainstream media is talking about international students under Trump, that’s got 57k. But I’m terrified to say we’re watching the suppression of independent media, right in front of us. Holy fucking shit.
Calling Al Jazeera „independent“ is quite a stretch. They are funded by Qatar, a authoritarian monarchy based on sharia law, where homosexuality is punishable by death, women’s testimony is worth half of that of men and they have fun punishments such as stoning and flogging.
That doesn’t mean YouTube is not suppressing media. In fact, in my experience the algorithm heavily favors right wing propaganda and has done so for years.
So maybe Al Jazeera has fallen out of favor. Or maybe they have themselves inflated their numbers previously with a method that no longer works, or they are just focusing their propaganda efforts on other, stupider platforms, like TikTok.
I mean NGL they used to be pretty unbiased for quite a while which was very odd considering they have direct ties to Qatar. I can’t speak for their recent coverage though and there’s probably something to be said about them falling out of favor.
This is true. While I appreciate Al Jazeera’s coverage of Gaza, at the end of the day, they’re a mouthpiece for an autocracy. And their primary media contrast is, well, other mouthpieces for other autocracies.
I hate watching the news. It’s terrorist empires and wannabe empires having pissing contests with each other.
I am afraid you are “fucked” if you think AJ is an example of independent media and that YT numbers are enough proof for media suppression. Most people on this planet do not watch YT. And the ones who do tend to be influenced by their algorithms that continuously change. That makes YT numbers as slippery as an eel in a lubricant factory. By which I mean unreliable to start a conspiracy theory about a poor, cash strapped, impeccably impartial artisan media outlet from Qatar. Slash s.
that’s probably to be expected from youtube
AJ is a government mouthpiece for Qatar, they probably are pumping their numbers with bots. I peg them in the same category as RT and FN, which are also mouthpieces for their respective nations.
Nah, Al Jazeera went batshit a few years ago imo. It’s also partially owned by the Qatar government, so it probably sways with them.
