YouTube Censorship Is Destroying China Uncensored

YouTube is pushing pro-CCP content — and burying 
China Uncensored. Now we have the evidence.

Welcome to China Uncensored. I’m Chris Chappell.

YouTube knows what you want. What you *really* 
want. The more than 2 million of you subscribed  

to this YouTube channel might think you want to 
watch videos exposing the Chinese Communist Party.

But YouTube knows that’s not true. 
What you really want to watch are  

videos about how incredible 
China’s high speed rail is. 

And how there is absolutely no genocide 
in Xinjiang, the land of happy Uyghurs  

and dancing cotton. Or dancing Uyghurs and 
happy cotton. Don’t question the algorithm!

When I started this show 12 years ago, I 
knew it would be hard to fight censorship  

from China. But back in those innocent days, 
I never imagined I’d soon have to fight an  

even scarier boss: Censorship 
from American tech companies.

You see, I just did a deep dive 
into YouTube’s censorship. And  

the results absolutely shocked me. 

And this is not my first 
YouTube censorship rodeo. 

YouTube’s censorship really 
got going in late 2016, 

when YouTube started pulling 
ads from videos—that is,  

demonetizing them—if they 
deemed them too controversial.

That included YouTube reaching back 
in time and demonetizing old videos,  

including one of the first videos I ever 
posted on this channel. It criticized  

the New York Times for doing a 180 on 
their reporting of human rights in China.

“It’s really weird that there was such a big 
shift after 2001. I wonder what happened?”

But despite YouTube’s demonetization, I 
kept going. In 2019, I flew to Hong Kong  

to cover the Hong Kong protests 
and inhale more tear gas than I  

thought humanly possible. And guess 
what? YouTube demonetized us again!

It was so bad that the media even covered it.  

That financial pressure should have 
been enough to stop us, but it wasn’t.

It got even worse in 2020. YouTube started 
outright deleting videos we made about the  

Coronavirus. Like the one I made about how the 
cure for coronavirus isn’t authoritarianism.

After YouTube deleted it, we made a big stink 
about it on social media, including Twitter. 

And thanks to public pressure,  

YouTube reinstated the video. Even though 
they demonetized it and age-restricted it.

YouTube continued to do 
that throughout Covid. Even  

though more people were watching 
China Uncensored than ever before.

In the summer of 2024, we did a subscription 
push at the end of some of our episodes. We  

got more than 30,000 new subscribers in just 5 
weeks—blowing us way past 2 million subscribers.

But then in early November 2024,  

we noticed something new happening to 
our videos—and it was weird. Suddenly,  

our views tanked. They were only getting a half 
or a third of the views compared to normal.

The majority of our videos couldn’t 
even get 100,000 views anymore. 

On a channel, that now had 
over 2 million subscribers.

And the way the algorithm works, lower views 
means YouTube recommends our videos less,  

which leads to even lower views. This is 
creating a death spiral for China Uncensored.

So I had a phone call with our YouTube 
rep, and she said *we* have a problem.  

Our viewers just aren’t engaged. We need to 
do more to increase engagement on our videos.

In other words, don’t question the algorithm!

I started wondering, am I out of touch? Do the 
kids not want to hear about the CCP anymore? 

Do I need to travel to China 
and make videos about how great  

China’s high speed trains are. Or 
how luxurious the labor camps are?

But before I could book my ticket to 
China and get my organs harvested,  

I got an email from fellow YouTubers the CCP 
doesn’t like that much: Serpentza and Laowhy86.  

They said they were experiencing something weird: 
all of a sudden, almost overnight, the views  

on all four of their channels had cratered. 
Was China Uncensored seeing the same thing? 

Why yes, we were! We compared notes and 
realized this had happened to all of our  

channels at the same time: right around 
the US presidential election in November. 

So wait, the problem wasn’t me? When YouTube 
claimed we didn’t have enough engagement,  

were they just gaslighting 
us? That can’t be it, can it?

So we asked you. We posted a 
survey in late December 2024,  

and more than 6,000 of you responded.

And the results were shocking.

More than 1 in 4 of you said that YouTube  

had secretly unsubscribed you 
from our channel at least once.

More than 1 in 3 of you said YouTube 
had secretly deleted your comments,  

often multiple times. There goes our engagement!

More than 1 in 5 of you who have 
notifications turned on said you  

are NEVER getting ANY notifications 
for China Uncensored episodes.

Oh, but it gets worse! Almost half of you told us 
YouTube is  “never” or “almost never” recommending  

China Uncensored episodes for you—even 
though you’re subscribed to this channel. 

Same goes for other channels 
that criticize the CCP.

Serpentza and Laowhy86 did 
their own viewer survey.

The vast majority of their respondents said 
YouTube is “never” or only “occasionally”  

recommending their videos 
to their own subscribers.

Meanwhile more than a third of you said YouTube 
*is* recommending Pro-CCP videos—including Chinese  

state-run television as well as vloggers in 
China saying very positive things like “Look  

at all the high speed rails,” and “There’s no 
genocide happening here in beautiful Xinjiang!”

We also discovered when you search YouTube 
for “China”...China Uncensored is not in  

the search results. But you’ll get tons 
of positive videos about China. Scroll  

down and you’ll see a lot of these channels 
have fewer subscribers and views than China  

Uncensored...but to see our channel, you have 
to scroll all the way down to position...95?!

This isn’t even a video! 
It’s just our channel logo. 

But YouTube would claim we just don’t 
have as much “engagement” as the other  

channels YouTube promotes, like the one 
with only 400,000 subscribers that sings  

the praises of China’s high speed train in Wuhan.

Don’t question the algorithm! 

We actually repeated this experiment many 
times on different computers using different  

incognito and private browsers. In all of 
these times, when we searched for China,  

we only found a China Uncensored 
video once. It was video number…552. 

We also noticed something 
else odd. In this search,  

we went back and counted the number of videos 
that were positive versus negative about China. 

In the first 100 videos, 65 were positive 
about China. More than half of those were  

travel vlogs about how great Chinese cities 
and high speed rail were. Only 21 videos  

were negative about China. Those were mostly 
news reports about a new virus in China and  

China hacking the US treasury. Six videos were 
neutral and 7 videos weren’t about China at all.

That means there were more than 3 times as many 
positive videos about China as negative videos. 

We then counted all 552 videos. That was more 
balanced. But the majority of the videos were  

still positive about China. And a lot of the more 
critical videos were bunched up toward the end. 

But let’s be real. No one scrolls through more 
than 500 videos. What’s that, Shelley? Ok,  

no one scrolls through more than 500 videos 
other than Shelley, who did this repeatedly. 

Most people probably don’t scroll past 100 videos, 
or even 50. So it’s…interesting…that YouTube is  

recommending so many positive videos about China 
at the top, and burying the negative videos.

We’re not the only ones who have noticed 
a possible pro-CCP bias on YouTube. 

Rutgers University’s Network Contagion Research 
Institute just released a new study about TikTok. 

Unsurprisingly, they found that TikTok 
was brainwashing America’s youth.

In fact, it’s the first peer-reviewed 
study to show that TikTok is actively  

manipulating perceptions of China 
and the CCP through algorithmic bias.

Ok, not that shocking, since TikTok is owned 
by a Chinese company with ties to the CCP.

But this peer-reviewed study also found evidence 
of a possible pro-CCP bias within YouTube, too.

Part of the study looked at engagement, which 
is what YouTube says drives their algorithm.  

The more you like and comment on videos, 
the more they show up, right? Right?? 

Well, not according to this study. They 
found that YouTube showed slightly more  

pro-CCP videos when they searched for terms 
like “Xinjiang” and “Tiananmen Square.”  

That’s despite the fact that the anti-CCP 
videos had more than twice as many likes,  

and more than three times as many 
comments as the pro-CCP videos did. 

So if engagement was the main 
thing driving YouTube’s algorithm,  

then the anti-CCP videos should have shown 
up way more. But they didn’t. Interesting.

So to recap: Two months ago, China Uncensored,  

Laowhy86, and Serpentza, three of 
the biggest anti-CCP YouTubers,  

all experienced a mysterious, sudden and 
huge drop in viewership at the same time. 

A survey of China Uncensored viewers shows 
YouTube has unsubscribed many of you,  

deleted your comments, doesn’t 
notify you of our videos,  

doesn’t recommend anti-CCP videos to 
you but does recommend pro-CCP videos. 

YouTube searches for “china” almost never 
show China Uncensored videos, but do show  

lots of positive China videos, especially 
at the beginning of the search results. 

And a peer-reviewed study from Rutgers University  

found evidence of a pro-CCP bias 
in YouTube’s search algorithm. 

Ok, it’s time to question the algorithm.

It looks like YouTube is up to something new. 
They’re stepping back from simply deleting  

people’s videos for being controversial. Overt 
censorship is too easy to track and measure.

This new thing is much worse, and 
much more dangerous. YouTube is  

quietly redirecting viewers away from 
China Uncensored and other channels  

critical of the CCP—despite these viewers 
demonstrating that they *want* this content,  

by doing things like subscribing, leaving 
comments, and turning on notifications.

What YouTube is doing is called “soft 
censorship.” Why would YouTube do this?

Well, I can only guess.

Perhaps it’s because YouTube’s parent company  

Google has quietly started 
working with China again.

Which is great. The Chinese Communist 
Party literally considers itself at  

war with the United States, and 
Google just goes to work with them.

In 2017,  

Google opened an AI research lab in China.
Google opens new AI research lab in China

Does Google hope to get its search engine 
unblocked in China? Probably not. They  

just want access to user data from a billion 
people, without the pesky privacy restrictions  

you have in democracies. How else can 
they train their AIs, including Gemini?

But it turns out, there’s a 
horrible horrible downside  

to partnering with an evil regime bent on 
controlling the minds of its own people.

VOA reported in 2024 that  

Google’s Gemini parrots China’s propaganda.
Google AI Gemini parrots China’s propaganda

For example, “Gemini said that the Chinese 
Communist Party ‘represents the fundamental  

interest of the Chinese people,’ 
a claim the CCP itself maintains.”

And “During VOA’s testing, Gemini had no 
problem criticizing the United States.  

But when similar questions were asked 
about China, Gemini refused to answer.”

So is Google’s leadership intentionally 
suppressing YouTube channels that criticize  

the CCP, so Google can maintain its 
data operations in China? Maybe.

Or it could just be malicious decisions 
by a YouTube employee who doesn’t like  

channels criticizing China’s Dear Leader.

Or that employee could be a Chinese 
agent. Think I’m exaggerating? 

I’m not. A Twitter whistleblower revealed 
the company had a Chinese agent on payroll! 

Twitter whistleblower says company 
had Chinese agent on payroll

Another explanation might be that Google has 
spent seven years training its AI based on  

Chinese data. And YouTube’s algorithm might 
operate partly based on that AI training.  

So after many years, YouTube’s AI starts to 
act more like the Chinese Communist Party.

Whatever the cause, the result is 
Americans are being fed pro-CCP  

narratives at a time when China is 
actively trying to destroy America. 

We’re not going to take this lying down.

There are a bunch of things we’re 
going to do to stand up to YouTube  

over the coming weeks—like reaching out 
to the media and the US government. And  

it starts right now with *you*—that’s right, you.

If YouTube claims we “don’t have enough 
engagement”, let’s show ’em engagement! 

Years ago, I started calling you, the 
supporters of China Uncensored, my 50-Cent Army.

That was a tongue-in-cheek reference to the CCP’s  

50-cent army, the wumaos who comment 
on China’s internet to praise the CCP. 

Well, now I’m asking for help from you, my 50-Cent 
Army. This time, to troll the CCP. And YouTube. 

I’m officially launching Operation Honey Pot. 
NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH OPERATION HONEY TRAP! 

Here’s your mission, should 
you choose to accept it:  

I want every single one of you to like and 
leave a comment on this video. And I want  

you to include the honey pot emoji, which is Xi 
Jinping’s favorite, since he is a honey bear.

Leave any comment you like that includes that 
emoji. It can be simple, like “I honey pot  

China Uncensored” or “Hostile foreign honey 
pot.” Better yet, come up with your own.

Just don’t write anything that would give 
YouTube an excuse to delete your comment.  

Don’t write anything “offensive” and don’t 
leave more than one comment per person.

And don’t just like and comment on this video,  

do it on all of our videos. We publish 
four videos a week, on Mondays, Wednesdays,  

Fridays, and Sundays. If you don’t see 
them in your feed, come find them. 

In fact, go back and like and comment 
on the videos that we’ve published  

since November. Don’t forget the honey pot. 

The more people who like our videos and leave 
comments, the more engagement we get. And one of  

two things will happen: either you will directly 
help our views dramatically go back up, or our  

views won’t, and you will help us expose exactly 
how YouTube is screwing with China Uncensored.

We’ll keep track of how many honey pots  

show up in the comments. If this goes the way 
I think it will, this is only the beginning. 

I’ve put the honey pot emoji in the 
description so you can copy and paste  

it. So like this video and leave your 
honey pot comment below. Do it now!

I’m Chris Chappell. Let’s fight that censorship!