Borderline content
Also called: limited recommendations
Since 2019 YouTube has run a separate track for material that comes close to breaking Community Guidelines without actually breaking them, along with harmful misinformation. The video stays up. It stays searchable, it stays on your channel page and subscribers still see it, while the systems stop suggesting it to people who have no connection to you. YouTube has said this covers under 1% of what sits on the platform, and reported a 70% drop in watch time on recommended borderline material in the US after the change. Creators experience it as a video with normal engagement from subscribers and almost nothing from browse or suggested. No notification arrives and no strike is issued, which is why it gets mistaken for a shadowban.