It can also be because marketing certain things is common practice. The reason they don't treat everyone super fair (which... if you pull it down to its harshest straw would mean promoting everyone??? It's obvious why that doesn't work) is because it's an open platform. It's simply impossible for every single creator to make it.
That said, it's one thing to promote series or do campaigns. It's a completely different thing to manipulate statistics or try to get in the way of someone's growth under the surface. I don't want to believe that this is what they're doing but the timing and aspects of this situation makes it look VERY suspicious.
I would suggest that anyone intending to do something like this approaches calmly and with caution. While I do believe there's a risk webtoons could gradually die, I don't wish for it to happen. The whole webcomic business and many of its creators suffer on many grounds (revenue, reputation, exposure, stability) when a big site dies off.
Also, while I am very suspicious I also have fresh in mind the madness that ensued last time a comic site got caught in drama. People took speculations and ran so far with them that when the misstep was corrected and explained noone believed it because they were so deep into their beliefs of the situation.
Suspicion is healthy in situations like this. As for action, it might be good to keep on the low until we have a better idea of what's going on.
This is very true. Technically they can cut the cord whenever they feel like it and we won't have a thing to say about it from a legal standpoint.
On tapas there is a slightly better security that you will keep getting paid in the long run and you have better immediate control of how much you get paid. More updates = better ad rev. Create rewards and promote them correctly = better tips. On webtoons you can kind of just try to time your updates well and hope it goes well?
Regardless my main problem with all of this isn't the pledge program. It isn't the "unfair treatment". It's how shady everything looks. Subscriber gain suddenly going this bad and then not improving despite it's competitor (with fewer users) going back up to normal.... It just doesn't sit right with me