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Why Billie Eilish Wants To Punish You, What "Couch Guy" TikTok Exposes, Facebook Whistleblower - YouTube
Channel: Philip DeFranco
[0]
- 'Sup, you beautiful bastards,
[2]
welcome back to the Philip
DeFranco show, and hey,
[4]
so excited to get to finally
announce it's the biggest
[7]
and best drop of the year,
our October drop is now live!
[10]
Yeah, let's go through the awesomeness,
[11]
starting off with, y'all
wanted tie dye, so boom,
[14]
two "emotionally exhausted"
shirts just for you.
[16]
And if you really love
that burnt orange color,
[18]
I've also got you covered
with that sleek hoodie.
[19]
Also, we want to be a little more
[20]
exhausted inclusive, right?
[22]
People have been saying,
"You know, I'm not just
[23]
emotionally exhausted, sometimes
I'm physically exhausted,
[26]
mentally exhausted,
exhausted of people's shit,"
[28]
so, boom, the sequel!
[29]
Just "exhausted," available
for you on our premium
[31]
and ultra comfy shirts,
hoodies, and in those
[33]
cropped hoodies that you
ladies have been making
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our best seller every drop.
[36]
You also requested the return of the
[38]
"One day, we'll all be
skeletons," and this is awesome.
[40]
Both minimal and loud and proud,
we want the gold foil here,
[43]
clean and sleek on the front,
big and loud on the back.
[46]
also yes, it's available
in a shirt, a crew neck,
[48]
a cropped hoodie, and
for the first time ever,
[50]
please stop yelling at
me, it's happening now,
[52]
a zip-up hoodie, grab it,
[53]
and now you're gonna be nice to me again.
[55]
Also, we just dropped
our awesome vert-stack
[57]
"Don't be stupid" gear.
[58]
And since it's been one
of our most popular lines,
[60]
I threw it several color-ways at you.
[61]
And finally, for this drop,
the most requested item,
[63]
specifically from people who bought
[65]
"Don't be stupid, stupid" masks,
[67]
just in time to make your
Thanksgiving dinner interesting
[69]
and you'll look good while doing it,
[71]
the "Vaxx'd" line, available
in multicolor, red, and white,
[75]
with some sweat pants
to complete the look.
[76]
I will say, I thought y'all
were all talk with this one,
[79]
but this one's already, like, it's flying,
[80]
so if you want these for sure, grab them.
[82]
You beautiful, instigating
bastards, I suppose?
[85]
But that's also true with
everything in this October drop,
[87]
so grab what you want while you can
[89]
because, of course, like with every drop,
[91]
it's here now, and then
I'm never gonna offer
[93]
the same thing again.
[94]
You've got seven days,
although certain sizes
[96]
for certain products may sell out,
[97]
so once again, get it while you can.
[99]
But yeah, with that said,
essentially, today's sponsor spot,
[101]
'cause I'm sponsoring myself
today, out of the way,
[103]
welcome back to the Philip DeFranco show,
[104]
hit that like button,
especially because one,
[106]
if you get this video to 100,000 likes,
[109]
five of you beautiful
bastards later this week
[111]
could win a thousand dollars, and two,
[113]
if you hit a hundred thousand
in the first 12 hours,
[115]
I will open up tomorrow's
show in the pink crop top
[118]
because honestly, it
feels like you guys are
[120]
far more motivated by
making me feel uncomfortable
[123]
than money, but yeah, welcome back
[124]
and let's just jump into it.
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And the first thing that
we're gonna talk about today,
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this is one of the most
requested stories I've seen
[129]
in a long time, and just to preface it,
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it is a story that does not matter.
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Like, unless you're one of three people,
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this is a story that does not
affect you, it doesn't matter,
[137]
but it has hooked people,
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like, tens of millions of people at least.
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And some of you may have
already guessed it now,
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but this is about couch guy, right?
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That viral TikTok.
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The original video alone
getting over 50 million views,
[149]
and it shows a TikTok user
by the name of Laurenzarras
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surprising her boyfriend,
Robbie, at college.
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And among the tens of millions of people
[154]
who watched the clip, you
have tens and hundreds
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of thousands of people commenting,
[158]
many analyzing, some frame-by-frame,
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Robbie's behavior in the clip,
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identifying what they
refer to as red flags,
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saying things like, "Oh, he's not reacting
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enthusiastically enough.
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Why is he on the couch
with all those girls?
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Hey, wait, does it look like
the girl sitting next to him
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secretly handed him his phone back?"
[171]
And when I say that people
have been breaking this down
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frame-by-frame, I mean it.
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- Look at the beginning here.
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It looks like her hand is on his back,
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like, that looks like a
thumb and maybe a finger.
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- [Kimcastro] Rewind.
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You can see the phone
in her hand right there.
[185]
You can see the case right there.
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Boom.
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Leans forward, "Give me my freakin' phone,
[192]
she's right here, oh, my God."
[194]
There it is, the phone's open
on the camera, same case.
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- [Philip] Also, we've gotten
just a slew of parodies,
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I mean, a lot of them.
[200]
And so with this going just ungodly viral,
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we saw Lauren defending their
relationship in comments,
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saying that the phone was
actually in Robbie's lap,
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even having to post her own slow-mo vid.
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- [Lauren] So you can see his hand,
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and you can see that
his phone is in his lap
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when he pulls out his phone.
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You can literally...
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I'll do it again.
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So, yeah.
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- Going on to say a number of things,
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including she knows all
the girls in the room,
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that she's happy with the relationships,
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she doesn't understand
why people are making
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so many assumptions.
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Robbie then posting his own TikTok,
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saying, "Not everything is true crime,
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don't be a parasocial creep,
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get some fresh air, take care."
[236]
Following that, there
are a lot of reactions,
[238]
with many people accusing
him of gaslighting,
[240]
to which we saw him asking
if people actually even
[242]
knew what the term meant,
[243]
writing, "Gaslighting is a term for when
[245]
someone leads you to question
your own reality/sanity,"
[248]
and asking if people could
tell which of the following
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two scenarios is gaslighting
and which one is not.
[251]
Writing, "Are you being gaslit
if someone on the internet
[253]
tells you to get some fresh air
[255]
after you scrutinize their private life,
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or are you being gaslit
if thousands of strangers
[259]
call you delusional for claiming to know
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your own relationship
better than they do?"
[261]
That, in turn, if you go
through the comments section,
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was not received very well.
[264]
But yeah, ultimately, that
is where this story ends.
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It seems like Lauren and
Robbie are just trying to
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ignore the criticism, move on.
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You know, what I'll say
with all of this, right,
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because this was so requested,
so many people asked me
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what my thoughts on
this were, also, oddly,
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it wasn't just you beautiful bastards,
[276]
there were a ton of people in my real life
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sending me this clip like
I imagined what happened
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with many of you going, "What
do you think about this?"
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And the truth of the
matter is I have no idea
[284]
because I don't know these people.
[285]
I can watch through the video
just like everyone else,
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but then I have to question,
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how much am I projecting
onto these people?
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How much am I assuming?
[292]
The times that I've been burnt in the past
[293]
by a partner or two, like,
how does that play into
[296]
how I'm receiving this information?
[297]
I could watch a video and be like,
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"Wow, he's acting really sketchy,"
[300]
but then also, I just know
a ton of awkward people!
[303]
Like, they don't do good with
surprises, they're awkward,
[305]
and really, you could write
so many different narratives
[307]
from this one clip.
[308]
You could write up this whole narrative
[309]
about how you have this guy
cheating on his girlfriend
[311]
who's so far away.
[312]
You could also write a
narrative that the girl's
[313]
actually really clingy, and
things have been awkward,
[316]
and he was like, "I need some time,"
[317]
and then all of a sudden,
boom, she shows up.
[318]
Or you can say that he
was really, really high
[320]
and he was so very confused for a moment.
[322]
And then, even saying all
that, I just feel weird
[325]
'cause these are, like, everyday people
[326]
all of a sudden cast into the limelight.
[328]
Like, a Kim Kardashian or whoever,
[329]
they're used to the scrutiny,
[331]
they benefit from the
scrutiny, but then you kind of
[333]
throw it on two random college students.
[335]
It's all kind of weird, and the
way that social media works,
[338]
especially stuff like this, it feels like
[340]
we're all in a zoo.
[341]
We go to these social media
apps to look at the animals,
[345]
though sometimes we are the animals.
[347]
It's something I'm still trying to digest
[348]
and understand fully,
but also with this story,
[350]
I'll say nine out of 10
people should not be in
[353]
a long-distance relationship
when they are in college,
[355]
that is a bad, bad time.
[356]
And I'll close this by
saying, one, all y'all messy,
[359]
and two, whether you're messy
and overly involved in this
[362]
or you're just now hearing about it now,
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I'd love to know your thoughts about
[365]
any aspect of this story.
[367]
Then, we should definitely
talk about "Squid Game,"
[368]
and don't worry, I know that myself
[370]
and every annoying TV-pushing
friend that you've had
[373]
has been like, "You gotta
watch 'Squid Game,' bro."
[375]
While my recommendations still stands,
[376]
today's story is actually about
[377]
"Squid Game" being too popular.
[379]
It's currently projected
that "Squid Game" will become
[381]
Netflix's most watched show ever,
[383]
with many absolutely loving
[384]
the South Korean thriller series.
[385]
Also, many in South Korea
using the show to open up
[387]
conversations around
inequality in the country.
[390]
But the main reason that
we're talking about this today
[391]
is that it is so popular
[393]
that a South Korean internet
provider is now suing Netflix,
[396]
following a massive surge
in internet traffic.
[398]
In fact, alleging that in the
three years from May, 2018,
[400]
to last month when "Squid
Game" was released,
[403]
Netflix traffic has jumped 24-fold.
[405]
24x, 2400%!
[407]
If you had one apple,
then all of a sudden,
[409]
you had 24 apples, do you
understand the numbers here?
[411]
With the provider here, SK Broadband,
[413]
saying, "Netflix, too many
apples," and have now asked
[416]
a court to force Netflix to pay for
[417]
the increased network usage,
as well as maintenance work
[420]
related to the surge in traffic,
[421]
saying that Netflix needs
to do this because they use
[423]
SK's lines to deliver
increasingly larger amounts of
[425]
data-heavy, high-definition
videos to viewers.
[427]
Notably, in their argument, SK
said that YouTube and Netflix
[429]
are the country's two biggest generators
[431]
of internet traffic, yet they don't pay
[432]
any network usage fees.
[434]
Meanwhile, other big generators
of traffic in the country,
[436]
like Amazon, Apple, and Facebook all do.
[438]
So with all of that saying,
they want Netflix to
[440]
hand over fees dating back to May of 2018
[442]
with it estimating that
the platform would owe
[443]
around 23 million US dollars
just for the last year alone.
[446]
And actually, looking into this,
[447]
things don't appear to be
on Netflix's side here.
[449]
The court in the country
already previously ruled
[451]
that Netflix should reasonably
pay a network usage fee.
[453]
We've all seen multiple
lawmakers criticizing
[455]
the practice of not paying usage fees.
[457]
And, of course, as you would expect,
[458]
Netflix has already appealed the ruling,
[459]
the measure's going to be
taken up again in December.
[462]
We'll have to wait and see what happens,
[463]
but it's going to be interesting because
[464]
there will be a ripple effect here.
[465]
Then let's definitely talk
about Texas and abortion
[468]
because I feel like
what's really been missing
[469]
from this coverage is
a man's point of view.
[472]
"Why has no one asked what
I thought about this,"
[474]
he said, jokingly.
[475]
But no, these things have been in the news
[477]
for different reasons.
[478]
For example, you had pieces
of news like Billie Eilish
[479]
performing at the Austin
City Limits Festival
[481]
over the weekend, and
during her set there,
[482]
calling out the new
controversial Texas abortion law
[484]
and going viral.
[485]
Of course, recently, we've
seen a lot of attention
[487]
on that law, banning
abortion after six weeks
[489]
before most people even
know they're pregnant
[491]
and making no exceptions for
cases of rape and incest,
[494]
also allowing citizens to sue anyone
[495]
they believe violated the law
or helped violate the law.
[498]
And while, legally speaking,
[498]
we're already seeing it face challenges,
[500]
we've seen more and more
people speaking out.
[502]
Billie, for example, during her set,
[503]
explaining that she initially considered
[504]
canceling her performance
in Texas because of it.
[506]
- When they made that (beep) a law,
[509]
I almost didn't want
to do this show, so...
[513]
Because I wanted to
punish this (beep) place
[516]
for allowing that to happen here.
[519]
(crowd cheering)
But then,
[522]
I remembered that it's you guys
that are the (beep) victims
[526]
and you deserve everything in the world.
[530]
(crowd cheering)
And we need to tell them
[532]
to shut the (beep) up!
[534]
- [Philip] With her then
getting the crowd to
[535]
stick their middle fingers
up in the air and shouting.
[537]
- My body, my (beep) choice!
(crowd cheering)
[542]
- While Billie Eilish obviously
has a massive spotlight,
[544]
by no means was she the only person
[546]
speaking up over the weekend.
[547]
In cities all over the US,
you had women's marches
[549]
focused on protesting the law,
[550]
thousands gathering in Washington, DC,
[552]
New York City, Chicago,
LA, Atlanta, and more,
[554]
rallies, of course, being
held in Texas, as well.
[556]
And actually, with that, you
heard from a lot of women
[558]
in the state, including Marsha Jones,
[560]
the executive director
of the Afiya Center,
[561]
a Texas-based abortion
rights organization,
[563]
saying that she attended
the DC rally to say,
[565]
"Not only is abortion healthcare,
but at my organization,
[567]
we also believe it's self-care.
[569]
You can no longer tell us
what to do with our bodies."
[571]
Also, something that
seemed to be coming up
[572]
was, like, staying there or moving away.
[575]
Like, at the March in Austin,
[576]
you had a handful of women
telling a local NPR affiliate
[578]
that they're considering
moving out of the state.
[579]
That, including a mother of four
[580]
who was born and raised in Texas,
[582]
saying two of her kids already left Texas,
[584]
other people also saying that
they would consider the move
[586]
to protect their reproductive rights.
[587]
But also, you had other
demonstrators holding their ground,
[589]
saying they live in this
state, they love this state,
[591]
they don't want to leave.
[592]
And so this debate has popped up of
[593]
if you're against this new Texas law,
[595]
do you move or do you fight and stay?
[597]
Even with that, it's
assuming you even have
[599]
the resources to get out of the state.
[600]
And so with this, while
obviously, we're talking about
[602]
Texas here, and whether
you're a Texan or not,
[604]
I think it's a little more universal,
[606]
what would you do here?
[606]
Based off of beautiful
bastard audience polling,
[609]
an incredible number of you
are against the Texas law,
[612]
so what would you do if
you lived in the state?
[614]
And then, in news, and
actually, this is a story
[616]
that will also very likely
touch on Texas in part,
[618]
the Supreme court officially
kicked off its new term
[620]
today in what could be
one of its most important
[622]
and controversial sessions
in recent history.
[624]
As we've talked about before,
the court's six-to-three
[626]
conservative majority is
set to hear a number of
[628]
incredibly hot-button cases.
[629]
Arguably, the most highly
anticipated is Mississippi's ban
[632]
on most abortions after 15 weeks,
[633]
where the state has explicitly
asked the Supreme Court
[636]
to overturn Roe v. Wade and its decision.
[638]
As a result, the court's ruling here
[639]
could have massive
implications nationwide,
[641]
especially because at
least a dozen states have
[643]
what are known as trigger laws
[644]
that would ban abortion
entirely if Roe is overturned.
[647]
Another major matter
that the court will hear
[648]
involves an NRA back challenge
to new York's limitations
[651]
on people carrying
concealed weapons in public,
[653]
that case also very significant
because the high court
[655]
has largely stayed away from
matters of gun control issues
[657]
for the better part of the last decade,
[658]
despite urging from conservative justices.
[661]
And so now with a stacked majority,
[662]
their decision could result in
the expansion of gun rights.
[664]
And beyond those two, there
are also a large number of
[666]
matters that the court is set to hear,
[667]
including cases regarding
religious rights in schools,
[670]
as well as possibly a challenge
to affirmative action,
[672]
though the justices have not said yet
[673]
if they will take that
one out, but regardless,
[675]
there are a number of
high-stakes issues here
[677]
that will be decided, and
all of it comes at a time
[679]
when the court is facing
a high level of scrutiny.
[681]
So much, in fact, that
several conservative justices
[683]
have recently spoken out
about all the public backlash
[685]
that they've been receiving.
[686]
But that is pretty much
where we are for now,
[688]
because while the court
is set to hear these cases
[689]
in the coming months, they
usually don't announce
[691]
their decisions until the end
of their term next summer,
[693]
so you have a long wait on your hand.
[695]
Just the one, apparently,
[696]
I don't know what you're
doing with the other.
[697]
Then in easily the most
shocking piece of news today,
[700]
it turns out that Facebook may not have
[702]
your best interests in mind.
[704]
Oh my God, what?
[705]
If we can't trust
Facebook, who can we trust?
[708]
(Philip groaning)
[709]
But no, this story is
getting further insight into
[712]
accusations being made against Facebook.
[714]
Most recently, we talked
about those leaked
[715]
internal Facebook slides that went to
[716]
the Wall Street Journal and Congress,
[718]
which actually led to congressional
hearings over the hold
[719]
that Facebook has over minors,
as well as how its platforms
[722]
are affecting their mental health,
[723]
which also gave us this amazing line.
[725]
- Will you commit to ending Finsta?
[728]
- Also, since the leak,
we've seen Facebook
[729]
indefinitely pausing its plans to release
[731]
an Instagram for kids.
[732]
Easily the biggest piece of news,
[733]
an update to this story
happened last night
[735]
when the anonymous whistleblower
who leaked these documents
[737]
was revealed last night on "60 Minutes,"
[739]
with her turning out to be a
former Facebook product manager
[741]
by the name of Frances Haugen.
[742]
And she used this
opportunity to speak out,
[744]
also making some rather big claims.
[746]
For example, saying a 2018 change
[748]
of the platform's algorithm
is driving hate speech,
[750]
and in turn, real world violence.
[752]
- You know, you have your phone.
[754]
You might see only a
hundred pieces of content
[756]
if you sit and scroll for,
you know, five minutes.
[759]
But Facebook has thousands
of options it could show you,
[762]
and one of the consequences
of how Facebook is
[764]
picking out that content today is it is
[767]
optimizing for content that
gets engagement or reaction,
[771]
but its own research is showing
[774]
that content that is
hateful, that is divisive,
[776]
that is polarizing, it's easier
to inspire people to anger
[781]
than it is to other emotions.
[782]
Facebook has realized that
if they change the algorithm
[786]
to be safer, people will
spend less time on the site,
[789]
they'll click on less ads,
they'll make less money.
[791]
- [Philip] With much of that
claim looking to be backed up
[793]
by the document that Frances leaked
[794]
in which Facebook estimates
that it takes action on
[796]
as little as three to
five percent of hate,
[798]
as well as six tenths of a percent
[799]
of violence and incitement,
despite being what they said was
[802]
the best in the world
at cracking down on it.
[804]
- The version of Facebook
that exists today
[807]
is tearing our societies apart
[808]
and causing ethnic
violence around the world.
[810]
- With Haugen saying not
only does that include
[812]
the Myanmar Military using Facebook
[814]
to insight the 2018 genocide,
but also claiming that
[816]
Facebook is responsible
for the January 6th riots
[818]
here in the US, and adding-
[819]
- The thing I saw on
Facebook over and over again
[821]
was there were conflicts of interest
[824]
between what was good for the public
[827]
and what was good for Facebook,
[829]
and Facebook, over and over again,
[830]
chose to optimize for its own interests,
[832]
like making more money.
[833]
I've seen a bunch of social networks
[835]
and it was substantially worse at Facebook
[836]
than anything I'd seen before.
[838]
- And Haugen is not done yet.
[839]
She is set to testify
before a Senate committee
[841]
on consumer protection and
product safety tomorrow.
[843]
There, she said she hopes
to convince Congress
[845]
to impose federal regulations
on how social media companies
[847]
monitor hate speech,
though it really might not
[849]
take much convincing.
[850]
You've already seen lawmakers
calling the documents
[852]
that she leaked "bombshell,"
there also seems to be
[854]
a pretty solid bipartisan agreement
[855]
that something must be done.
[856]
But also, at the same time,
on the other side of this,
[857]
you have Facebook continuing
to play down the claims
[860]
against it with a spokesperson
for the company saying,
[862]
"Every day, our teams have to
balance protecting the right
[864]
of billions of people to
express themselves openly
[866]
with the need to keep our platform
[867]
a safe and positive place.
[869]
We've made important
improvements to tackle
[870]
the spread of misinformation
and harmful content,"
[872]
and adding, "To suggest
we encourage bad content,
[874]
know about it, and do
nothing is just not true."
[877]
Company executive Nick Clegg adding
[878]
the claim that the evidence
does not support the idea
[880]
that Facebook, or social
media more generally,
[882]
is the primary cause of polarization.
[884]
But ultimately, that is
where this story ends,
[886]
though it is a developing situation,
[887]
we're gonna keep our eyes
on the hearing tomorrow,
[889]
see if new claims pop up,
[890]
how lawmakers and Facebook
respond, if they do.
[893]
And, of course, with all that,
[894]
I want to pass question off to you.
[895]
What are your thoughts regarding Facebook,
[897]
or really any social media platform?
[898]
When you hear talk about
regulating big tech, right,
[900]
regulating Facebook and
all of a sudden, you know,
[903]
that delves into hate speech,
incitements, stuff like that.
[905]
What are you thinking when you hear that?
[907]
I'd really love to know your thoughts
[908]
on what's happening here, and also,
[909]
is there a perfect solution
[910]
or something that's at least better?
[912]
But also, and you know
this if you've been on
[913]
social media at all today,
[914]
the Facebook news does not stop there.
[916]
Facebook, as well as two
of its other platforms,
[918]
Instagram and WhatsApp,
all going down today.
[920]
Though, as of right now, it
doesn't appear that crash
[921]
appears to be related to any
kind of malicious activity,
[924]
instead, reports indicating
this is a DNS issue.
[926]
And while the specifics
there can be complicated,
[927]
basically what it does is lock
everyone out of the website.
[930]
They're not completely uncommon,
[931]
but this is a massive outage for Facebook
[933]
since it's been going on for hours.
[935]
It's still not fixed, so
obviously, we're gonna have to
[936]
keep our eyes on it.
[937]
Still, always very interesting
to see the reaction
[939]
when everyone rushes over to Twitter
[940]
to talk about when Facebook's down,
[942]
'cause it really feels like
everyone that uses Facebook
[945]
hates Facebook, but then
still continues to use it.
[947]
But also, there's gotta be some people
[949]
that actually like it, right?
[951]
Or are we all just like, "Yes, it's evil,
[953]
but it's also a tool.
[954]
It's my evil tool, but nothing's perfect?"
[956]
And then, we should definitely talk about
[957]
the International Consortium
of Investigative Journalists,
[960]
AKA the ICIJ, releasing
what's being called
[962]
the Pandora Papers.
[963]
They're the latest in a
series of document dumps that,
[965]
if you kind of try to simplify it,
[966]
it shows that rich people
are incredibly rich,
[968]
also consisting of world leaders as well.
[970]
11.9 million files from companies
that are used by the rich
[973]
to create offshore accounts and tax havens
[975]
like the Cayman Islands,
Dubai, Monaco, and Switzerland,
[978]
we're talking about places
with extremely low tax rates
[980]
and laws that help hide who owns what,
[981]
with these places being
used by companies and people
[983]
that specialize in
making complex corporate
[985]
and trust structures that further obscure
[986]
the origin of the money to help
clients hide their fortunes
[989]
from their home countries'
tax authorities.
[991]
And according to the ICIJ,
on top of the billionaires
[993]
that you'd expect hiding
their money, about 35 current
[995]
and former world leaders use tax havens.
[997]
It was also revealed that
almost 300 public officials
[999]
from 90 countries also take
part in hiding their assets.
[1002]
And yeah, I mean, if we're
honest with ourselves, right,
[1004]
the idea that rich people hire companies
[1005]
to hide their assets,
they're treated differently
[1008]
because they have more
money than you, yeah.
[1010]
So a lot of what's in these
papers, like, they're huge,
[1012]
these leaks really don't
do anything for most people
[1015]
other than confirm what they already knew.
[1016]
Obviously, with nearly 12 million files
[1018]
in the Pandora Papers,
there are a ton of things
[1020]
that need to be covered,
but also hard to cover
[1022]
in one small bit, so what
we're gonna focus on today
[1024]
is what is drawing out the most headlines.
[1026]
Things like in the UK,
the Labor party's demands
[1028]
that the conservatives return
nearly $1 million in donations
[1030]
that it took from
businessman Mohammad Amersi,
[1032]
with the issue of being that
Amersi was found to have
[1034]
helped facilitate what turned out to be
[1035]
a massive $220 million
bribe to the daughter of
[1038]
Uzbekistan's president.
[1039]
And with that, we saw the
conservatives deny any wrongdoing,
[1041]
saying that they vet all large donations,
[1043]
but it is a story that
appears to highlight how
[1045]
what may seem like
legitimate public donations
[1047]
can come from illegitimate funds,
[1048]
and that figuring that out
is extremely difficult.
[1050]
The papers also showing
that Russian president
[1052]
Vladimir Putin's longtime
mistress used offshore accounts
[1054]
to purchase an apartment in Monaco,
[1056]
and the fact that she
has nearly $100 million
[1058]
sitting in accounts.
[1059]
And overall there, many
of Putin's entourage
[1061]
is believed to have largely benefited from
[1062]
their connections to him, but also,
[1064]
despite the evidence
from the Pandora Papers,
[1065]
Russian authorities say
that there's no evidence
[1067]
of wrongdoing amid Putin's posse.
[1068]
Also, a number of people
have found it odd that
[1070]
Putin himself is not mentioned
at all in the papers,
[1072]
despite what many believe
is open and blatant
[1074]
financial corruption on his part.
[1075]
We've also got places
like India and Pakistan
[1077]
saying that they'll look
into some of the claims
[1078]
made by the papers.
[1079]
As far as what these papers
have to say about the US,
[1081]
it actually found that
some states are central to
[1083]
the world system of tax havens.
[1084]
The biggest target here
being South Dakota,
[1086]
which is sitting on $367
billion in obscured assets,
[1089]
which is an absolutely massive number,
[1091]
meaning that it rivals some
of the world's most famous
[1093]
tax havens, like
Singapore and Switzerland.
[1095]
Regarding this, we saw
the Biden administration
[1097]
being criticized for vowing in the past
[1098]
to make America's and the
world's financial systems
[1100]
more transparent, only
for it to now be revealed
[1102]
that the US is one of
the largest tax havens.
[1104]
And once again, with the Pandora Papers,
[1105]
you should understand, there is a lot more
[1107]
that is very likely going to come.
[1108]
I mean, these are fairly
new and we're talking about
[1110]
nearly three terabytes of information,
[1112]
but that is where this story,
[1113]
and actually today's show, ends.
[1115]
And of course, whether it be this story
[1116]
or really anything else
that stood out to you today,
[1118]
I'd love to know your thoughts
in those comments down below.
[1120]
Also, remember, snag what
you want while you can
[1123]
over at beautifulbastard.com,
that drop just went live,
[1126]
it's going away soon.
[1127]
But of course, as always,
my name's Philip DeFranco,
[1130]
you've just been filled
in, I love yo' faces,
[1132]
and I'll see you tomorrow.
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