Soridata - Non-Organic Views

In January 2026, Soridata was targeted by a coordinated brigading campaign. Certain fanbases (more like one in particular), unhappy with data showing a high volume of non-organic views (views not counted as organic by Youtube Charts), contacted my hosting provider with false claims of "fake news" and the site as "misleading" and "authoritative" in representing these views as Ads. Despite clear disclaimers that these figures were estimates based on official YouTube data, my host exercised their right to suspend the service unless the information was removed.

Initially, I decided to shut down the site entirely. Soridata began as a hobby to aggregate Korean Music metrics and monitor news and metrics, eventually even to educate the public on how views can be misleading—a fact recognized by Billboard US in 2025 when they removed YouTube data from certain charts for lack of transparency. Either way, I felt I was too old to argue with people in denial, specially children who are still getting the ropes on how life works.

In time, however, I realized I missed my own site. Soridata has always been a unique, unbiased, and non-editorialized source of information where data is automatically gathered from sources and presented to the public with no human input. I decided to bring it back, but with a different focus. I have removed the Non-Organic Views data and other sections I originally added just to "complete" the site to please others. The result is a leaner platform that focuses on the information I personally care about.

To those who participated in the harassment, metrics are not the foundation of music. Whether a group is a global leader or a "nugu" (niche) group, their value comes from the music and the love of their fans, not from sales, awards, or inflated view counts. Attacking a "whistleblower" for presenting audited data does not change the reality of how platforms like YouTube operate, nor the love shown by fans towards their bias.

A Note on YouTube Metrics: YouTube does not exclude millions of views from groups like Babymonster, Aespa, I-DLE, or ATEEZ out of malice. They do so to maintain the credibility of Youtube Charts by filtering out non-organic views from bots, repeats, and paid advertising. While these views appear on a public counter, they do not represent "organic" intent. This does not diminish the talent of the idols or the passion of the fans, but it is a metric the industry uses, and people should always be mindful of when data can or cannot be trusted - the public view counter can't.

I considered keeping the section active with a stricter disclaimer (or even an IQ test for access for fun), but ultimately decided against it. No host or service provider deserves to be harassed by people who refuse to accept data-driven reality. If you wish to understand organic reach, you can manually monitor Youtube Charts and compare them to public view counts yourself. With the amount some of these videos have of non-organic views, it is trivial to notice that despite having enough public views to show on Youtube Charts, they don't. Do your math (hint: Youtube week counts from Friday to Thursday, PST time, with data released on Saturday)

As a fan of many of these groups, I have to say that what I enjoy is their music, choreography, and aesthetics regardless of how many promoted views or good/bad metrics they have. My advice is simple: enjoy the music, stop focusing on "make-believe" awards, and let the music play.

NOTE: No, I am NOT bringing back the non-organic section, in fact, I reduced emphasys on Views across the whole site. Music Video Views do not matter and that was always the lesson.