Popular YouTube Channel Linus Tech Tips Taking Break Following Massive Controversy [Update]

Linus' technical advice focused on conflicts of interest, malicious attempts, and the ever-increasing ambition to publish too much content too quickly. The media empire, worth more than $100 million, is reviewing its internal operations and hiring an outside firm to investigate allegations of sexual harassment.

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The Linus Tech Tips YouTube channel is a media company turned media company that covers a wide range of PC gaming and technology , enjoying the combination of strong opinions with master tools. Check out Mythbusters to see if the latest commercially available platform can run Cyberpunk 2077 at high settings.

The problems started at the end of July. During a video tour of their offices and labs, Linus Tech Tips said that one of the things that sets them apart from other content creators in the field, like Gamers Nexus and Hardware Unboxed, is that Linus Tech Tips tries everything from scratch. . . Collecting data for a new video.

“Based on my 20+ years of experience, when you have to tell everyone how good your tests are, your tests usually aren't good,” Hardware Unbox responded on Twitter a few days later.

Gamer Nexus detailed just some of the tests in a 45-minute video posted on August 14. Instead, his umbrella company, Linus Media Group, ramped up its production, churning out dozens of videos and podcast episodes each week to fuel its content, questioning the lack of quality and authenticity. When the algorithm did this, Gamer Nexus sparked a much wider debate about the ethics and sustainability of online content creation and created warring camps among YouTube's experimental tech channels.

The PlayerNexus video requested a written response from the company's founder and current chief vision officer, Linus Sebastian , prompting a rebuttal from PlayerNexus in a second video. This prompted Linus TechTips to release a 22-minute video apology , in which several senior employees and executives promise to do better after reading from a teleprompter.

"All YouTube video production will cease immediately and our teams will spend the next week focusing on long-term workflow changes to sustainably improve our content," director Yvonne Ho said in the video. He and others pledged to use the time to review the company's guidelines and best practices to avoid mistakes in the future.

In its first video, Gamer Nexus presented a few errors in some of Linus Tech Tips' test data. Fixed an occasional bug where on-screen stars or updates would be pinned in the comments section, but videos wouldn't be edited or re-uploaded. In other cases, user error or confusion has resulted in results that do not accurately reflect the product being evaluated. The largest example was the experimental construction of a copper tube water cooler prototype by Billet Labs. In the video, which he describes as excessive garbage, Sebastian complains about poor performance after installing an unsuitable cooler on his GPU. When criticized, he defended himself in an episode of the podcast, saying that it was pointless to spend hundreds of dollars on labor time only to try again later.

Things got even more complicated when Gamer Nexus announced that it was selling the prototype to Linus Tech Tips instead of returning it to Billet Labs. Sebastian later clarified that it was not sold to increase the life fund of Children's Miracle Network Hospital, but was sold at a charity auction. Linus Tech Tips eventually got Billet Labs to cover the costs, although they initially agreed to refund the entire test unit.

Linus Tech Tips from Gamer Nexus video took a shortcut, occasionally posting reviews and videos, then getting defensive and telling them to hide the truth. Everyone makes mistakes, but apparently the YouTube channel raised red flags to win them over and consider the value of growing them. Summing up employee feedback, many say it takes them longer for each new video they create.

At least one former employee now says the workload and the behavior of company executives took a toll on his mental health. In 2021, YouTuber Madison Reeve, who worked as a social media coordinator at Linus Tech Tips, posted a lengthy Twitter thread on Aug. 16 detailing a cruel and degrading work environment that included allegations of sexual harassment.

"My time with this company has made my mental health better than it's ever been," he wrote. “You can talk to people around me at my workplace and they will confirm. I wouldn't recommend working there to anyone I know, especially with my experience as an office lady."

Linus Media Group CEO Teren Tong told Kotaku in an email that an outside investigator would be hired to look into Reeve's claims and that the working conditions described since his arrival six weeks ago did not match his experience with the group. He continued:

We're all ready to deal with this internally, so we're late, but we're starting to go through our staff files, past memos and correspondence to see if we can verify what was said.

Because this will take some time and because of our responsibility for the privacy of our employees, we cannot provide a full statement until our investigation is complete.

However, I also don't want to keep your readers in suspense, so here's what I have to say: I'm surprised to read these complaints. They do not meet the requirements of our company. They don't compare to my experience with the team in the six weeks I've been here.

We pride ourselves on maintaining a safe and inclusive environment. In addition to our existing whistleblowing systems (anonymous and otherwise), today we are reaching out internally to encourage our team members to take prompt and decisive action to report any harassment or bullying at work.

Our HR team will further review the complaints. In addition, we engage a third-party investigator to investigate complaints and report findings and take corrective actions that arise. We'll make an announcement when we're ready. At this point, I would say we want to give our team as much time as possible.

Sebastian stepped down as CEO earlier this year and was replaced by Tong. "I wasn't ready for this, and I'm tired," Sebastian said in a June video announcing his departure as CEO. "I can't take it anymore" I'm tired. And I knew that if I tried to take another ten years of corporate governance, I would kill myself and possibly kill the company and community that I love so much. Process

Tong, the former director of marketing for Corsair Games, ended the video by apologizing to Linus Tech Tips, talking about his and other employees' responsibility for quality control and preventing sponsors from interfering with content. What he or anyone else didn't address in the video is whether or not Linus Tech Tips can grow to its current level or continue to grow on YouTube and other platforms. - Forms are the first source of carelessness.

Chief technology officer Luc Lafreniere said in a video apology: "We still have a lot of work to do and we need to adapt and move on, we need to avoid accusations without being defensive." Sebastian, for his part, now admits it was a mistake not to give the Billet Labs solid-state cooler another try. "I owe you better and I'm sorry," he said.

Update 08/16/2023 1:11 PM ET: The first article explained that production was halted for a week.

CORRECTION 08/16/2023 1:19 PM ET: The apparent weekly number of videos in the fifth paragraph has been revised to reflect that it is wholly owned by Linus Media Group and only offers one podcast per week.

UPDATE 8/16/2023 3:47 PM ET: This story has been updated to include additional statements from Reeve about Tong's workplace complaint and his work at the company.

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