- 'Sup, you beautiful bastards,
hope you've had a fantastic Thursday,
welcome back to the Philip DeFranco Show,
buckle up, hit that like button,
and let's just jump into it.
And the first thing that we're gonna talk about today
in news that I don't think anyone saw coming,
the juggernaut, the behemoth that is Quibi
is shutting down just over six months after they launched.
Now, if you're unfamiliar with Quibi
or I'm the reason you know about it, yeah,
that's part of the reason why it's ending.
A lot of people didn't know about it
and a lot of people weren't using it.
For those unfamiliar, and it also kind of touches on
why this is a such a big failure,
Quibi is/was a short form video streaming service
that raised around $1.75 billion in funding
from big players and investors like Disney,
NBCUniversal, Warner Media, and more.
The videos and episodes on Quibi
are all around 10 minutes or less.
They also, and I don't know if they leaned into this
because they had special technology
where the framing would change when you turn your phone,
but they also made Quibi
exclusive to mobile devices at launch.
It wasn't actually until just this last Tuesday
that they launched apps for Android TV,
Apple TV, and Fire TV.
Also, while there was no free plan or free version of Quibi,
they did have a 90 day free trial.
While we did see Quibi go after some digital talent,
like Liza Koshy, they primarily spent their money
on huge, huge traditional stars.
People like Chrissy Teigen, Idris Elba, LeBron James,
Kevin Hart, Jennifer Lopez.
And personally, and I've talked about this
on previous videos, I think a big part of their failure,
yes, was their marketing campaign,
but also, either their ignorance or just
their unwillingness to incorporate more digital talent.
And there are a number of key players and content creators
that fully understand the ecosystem and, more importantly,
can actually move people to a different platform.
One of the most obvious, most notable,
are people like MrBeast.
The guy got over a million people
to download an app to their phone
and it's just a game where you keep your finger on it.
Over a million people played and how many people
watched individual streams and were keeping up
on social media, it became an event.
I really think Quibi could have been
kind of the anti-Netflix, because, you know,
Netflix doesn't offer a lot of stuff
to online digital creators.
And actually, on that note,
Quibi didn't even go the Netflix route,
which I will say is hard.
I mean, when Netflix, I think,
truly became the Netflix we know today,
it was thanks to "House of Cards."
I think they spent, like, around $100 million
on that first season, and all of a sudden it was like,
"Oh, wow, something this premium can exist here?"
And Quibi really didn't get anything close to that.
I mean, they had "Most Dangerous Game,"
but that, no offense to Christoph Waltz and Liam Hemsworth,
wasn't the best.
But, with this Quibi news,
yesterday, we saw an open letter from founder and CEO,
Jeffrey Katzenburg and Meg Whitman,
writing that "despite employee dedication
and support from investors, Quibi is not succeeding,
likely for one of two reasons.
Because the idea itself wasn't strong enough
to justify a standalone streaming service
or because of our timing.
Unfortunately, we will never know,
but we suspect it's been a combination of the two.
The circumstances of launching during a pandemic
is something we could've never imagined,
but other businesses have faced
these unprecedented challenges
and have found their way through it.
We were not able to do so."
Which may make that the most depressing open letter
to investors and employees I've ever read.
They provided an excuse, the pandemic,
and then, in that same sentence,
argued the counterpoint, that other people
have been able to get through it,
so I guess we suck? (laughs)
Also, I think both of the reasons provided
don't make any sense.
You launched a new entertainment delivery system,
ecosystem, when people aren't able to go out as much.
Meaning that people, more than ever,
need entertainment from their phone,
their whatever device at their house.
And two, you were offering all of that
essentially for free for three months.
This feels like an unwillingness to acknowledge
the failure that existed at the top level.
How many months after launch did people
still have no idea what Quibi was?
Why would you lean into something
that was obviously not working,
remain rigid in an evolving landscape
instead of pivoting, trying something new,
being more accessible faster?
Now as far as what's next, according to reports,
Quibi will be returning $350 million
of the $1.75 billion raised, with the company
also said to be looking to sell its content
and technology assets.
Also, this isn't gonna be the last you hear about Quibi
in the news, in part because they were accused
of stealing technology and other trade secrets
from a company named Eko,
with Eko also promising to continue
their legal efforts against Quibi,
but ultimately, that is where we are.
Quibi gets to be yet another example on the internet
that you can have all the money in the world
and it doesn't matter if you
don't implement a plan properly.
But yeah, with that said,
maybe, I guess, to end on a positive note,
thank you to Quibi for actually giving us
some more "Reno 911," which will hopefully
be bought up by another service in the near future,
as well as too weird stuff, like a whole series
about Anna Kendrik becoming a friend with a sex doll.
But yeah, I guess that's the end of this piece
where I mock incredibly wealthy powerful gatekeepers
who, (laughs)
if they already weren't starting conversations with me,
never will now.
But also, who needs that when I got
this batch of beautiful bastards?
Then, in "if this is true,
a portion of the internet's about to revolt" news,
today, we began seeing people claim
that YouTube has shadowbanned
the biggest individual YouTuber in the world, PewDiePie.
Felix, if you don't know, on any video that he releases
several times a week, could get between
five to 10 million views,
but today, what we're seeing just a little over
two hours after his last upload,
just over 61,000 views, 8,600 likes,
Felix also putting out a community post, writing,
"Yo, for some reason, my videos aren't showing up
in sub box since yesterday, so posting here."
Also, when I go to YouTube and I type out his name,
his channel icon does not appear like if you do that
for pretty much almost any other creator.
Instead, what you get are a number of videos,
yes, some from PewDiePie's channel,
but also other people's channels.
But if you type another person's name into the search bar,
I wrote in "Philip DeFranco,"
right at the top, you see my channel,
my videos are underneath,
there's even a playlist to the right.
And with all of this, I've reached out
to contacts at YouTube, with one responding,
saying, "We do not shadowban people,
but we are looking into reports regarding his channel."
But yeah, I mean for now, that is where this story ends.
This is gonna be something that we keep an eye on.
At worst, it is some sort of crackdown
that should be very concerning for a lot of people,
or, on the lightest end, and I'm inclined to think
that this is the answer, 'cause I don't think
they would go after Felix like this,
especially because in addition to
him being a massive creator,
he has a massive YouTube livestreaming deal with YouTube.
So I think it's far more likely that
something with his channel and maybe the videos
are bugged right now.
It sucks, it happens, I'm surprised it's happening
with one of the biggest creators in the world
and that it wasn't fixed like that, (snaps fingers)
but for now, we have to wait and see.
Also, and I'm gonna kind of start this story off
with my opinion, we saw a creative director at Google Stadia
jumping up in the news today.
This, because Alex Hutchinson, seemingly,
was commenting on what's happening over on Twitch right now.
People are getting a ton of their content removed
because there was music in it,
and Alex wrote, "Streamers worried about
getting their content pulled
because they used music they didn't pay for
should be more worried by the fact
that they're streaming games they didn't pay for as well.
It's all gone as soon as publishers decide to enforce it.
The real truth is the streamers should be paying
the developers and publishers of the games they stream.
They should be buying a license like any real business
and paying for the content they use."
To which most of the internet responded,
and I will join in with them, "Shut the fuck up, bro."
While they very likely will not respond publicly,
I do wonder what the people at YouTube Gaming
think about this horrendous take.
Streaming has changed the market,
streaming has changed the ecosystem.
I mean, just among the plethora of reasons
this is a bad idea, you want to kill the indie market?
Boom, congratulations.
Even fucking Nintendo, I don't know why I'm so
randomly passionate about this right now. (laughs)
Even Nintendo dropped their "Hey, look at us,
we're douchebags," creator program.
So I think a big part of this
kind of comes down to two things.
One, why you would decide to kind of
talk down to streamers and think that's a great idea.
Okay, like that's ever worked out
for fucking anybody before.
And two, you're saying "should"
when really, the would should be "could."
Because yes, Nintendo, or anyone creating these games,
could go after creators, but it is a genuinely understood
and, I thought, seemingly before this,
a solidified understanding that the relationship
between the people making and releasing these games
and the creators that are streaming it
and creating videos on demand, that it's symbiotic.
YouTube has one of the most powerful DMCA tools
in the world, but in general,
you don't see developers using those tools for a reason.
And it kind of boggles my mind
that someone in such a key position
doesn't fully grasp this.
But also, hey, that's the story, my personal opinion on it,
and of course, now I pass the question off to you.
What are your thoughts here?
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And the first bit of awesome today is,
if you have not watched or listened to my brand new podcast,
definitely go check it out after today's show
at YouTube.com/acw or linkshole.com.
Then, we got our first look at Tom Holland as Nathan Drake.
Please don't suck, I am very excited about this.
Then, Danny Gonzalez gave us "I Made A Viral TikTok Song,"
"How to Drink" gave us "Back to the Future" drinks,
we got Matthew McConaughey on "Hot Ones,"
we got a trailer for "Run,"
and then, David Dobrik finally came back to YouTube
with "Borat."
And if you want to see the full versions
of everything I just shared, the secret link of the day,
really anything at all, links, as always,
are in the description down below.
And then, let's talk about this
absolutely massive election news.
Because yesterday, we saw top security officials
providing the first concrete evidence
that foreign adversaries are trying to interfere
in this election cycle.
And this huge announcement was made by
the Director of National Intelligence, John Ratcliffe,
in a last minute press conference.
- We have confirmed that some voter registration information
has been obtained by Iran and separately by Russia.
This data can be used by foreign actors
to attempt to communicate false information
to registered voters that they hope will cause
confusion, sow chaos, and undermine your confidence
in American democracy.
- With this news notably coming just one day
after it was reported that registered Democrats
in four different states, including three hotly contested
swing states, were sent threatening emails
as part of an effort to do exactly what Ratcliffe described.
And according to reports, those emails came from an address
that appeared to be affiliated with the far-right group,
the Proud boys, with the subject line being,
"Vote for Trump or else,"
with the body of that email saying,
"We are in possession of all your information,
email, address, telephone, everything."
The sender then going on to claim that they know
the recipient of the email is a Democrat
because they gained access into the entire
voting infrastructure and added,
"You will vote for Trump on election day
or we will come after you.
Change your party affiliation to Republican
to let us know you received our message and will comply.
We will know which candidate you voted for.
I would take this seriously if I were you."
With multiple outlets reporting that the emails they saw
also included the home address
of the recipients that they were sent to.
And while it is unclear how many were sent out,
it does appear that most of them were sent to people
in Florida and Alaska, with officials in both states
also announcing that they have launched investigations
and that the FBI was looking into the matter as well.
Now as far as how this email came from
a domain associated with the Proud Boys,
you had the group's chairman immediately denying
that they had any involvement,
saying, "We don't send emails.
This is someone spoofing our emails and website.
We have spoken with the FBI and are working with them.
I hope whoever did this is arrested for voter intimidation
and for maliciously impersonating our group."
With him also telling reporters that the group
has been in the process of migrating
from officialproudboys.com to another site
and that that one has not been used for weeks.
And this, because that domain was recently dropped
by a hosting company that uses Google Cloud services
after concerns were raised about the group.
And very notably here, according to The Washington Post,
when the hosting service dropped the domain,
it appeared to be just left unsecured,
and thus allowed anyone on the internet
to take control of it and use it to send out
the menacing messages.
But beyond that, numerous outlets that reviewed the emails
also said they came from foreign internet servers,
and while experts do know that the IP addresses
do not mean that the senders were actually
based in those countries because they could've
routed those emails from almost anywhere,
some cyber security experts pointed to
the possibility of foreign interference,
which brought us to yesterday's announcement
where Ratcliffe seemed to confirm those suspicions,
claiming that Iran was behind
a series of fraudulent emails.
While he didn't describe the emails
beyond saying that they had been in the news
over the last 24 hours, other officials confirmed
to the media that they included the threatening messages.
Now, notably, despite the claims in those emails,
both Ratcliffe and FBI Director Christopher Wray,
who also spoke at the press conference,
did not indicate that either foreign country
had actually hacked into our election infrastructure
or voter registration systems,
nor did they say that any election results
or voter registration information had been changed.
In fact, intelligence officials who spoke to reporters
said that the data they claimed both Iran and Russia
had obtained was largely public.
The names, party affiliations, some basic contact info
of registered voters are things that are publicly available.
So what they mean here, in other words,
is rather than physically hacking into
key infrastructure to try and sway the election,
these officials are alleging that Russia and Iran
are instead attempting to do so
by intimidating voters, sowing chaos,
and creating uncertainty.
And actually, regarding that,
Ratcliffe made some very specific claims
during the press conference.
- To that end, we have already seen
Iran sending spoofed emails
designed to intimidate voters,
incite social unrest, and damage President Trump.
Additionally, Iran is distributing other content,
to include a video that implies that individuals
could cast fraudulent ballots, even from overseas.
Although we have not seen the same actions from Russia,
we are aware that they have obtained some voter information
just as they did in 2016.
- Now, as we talked about earlier this week,
many Democrats and former intelligence officials
have accused Ratcliffe, who is supposed to be apolitical
in his role of DNI, of being a Trump loyalist
who uses his position to promote Trump's political agenda,
and those allegations become very concerning
when it comes to foreign interference
in the election for two reasons.
The first is the fact that he has actively spread
information that the Intelligence Community
has deemed to be false regarding Russian interference
in the 2016 election.
That is on top of promoting debunked conspiracies
about the following investigation.
And the second is that he has explicitly been accused
of selectively declassifying intel
pertaining to election interference
to help the Trump campaign.
In fact, just earlier this month,
many former top officials condemned him
for doing just that when he released intel
about Hilary Clinton's 2016 campaign,
intel that was not only unverified,
but that intelligence experts also said
could be Russian disinformation.
And so that's why with this announcement,
we saw a lot of people saying
the announcement was another example of that,
it just didn't make sense,
with many specifically pointing to his claims
that Iran sent the emails to damage President Trump.
And understand, it is true that for a few months now,
intelligence officials have said
that Iran opposes Trump's reelection,
but Ratcliffe provided no evidence for the claim
that Iran was trying to explicitly hurt Trump here,
with many others saying that the evidence that we have now,
it seems to indicate that they were just trying to
cause general chaos.
While some did argue Ratcliffe's point
that it was an attempt to make the Proud Boys
and Trump look bad, it was also still clearly an attempt
to dissuade Democrat voters from either voting blue
or going to the polls entirely.
With people like a manager for a Democratic state house
candidate in Florida saying,
"When you have people who have a voter roll
and then send off emails, they will make a big splash.
They will scare people.
That is without a doubt the intent."
That's something to consider,
especially when we're talking about a battleground state,
something that is highly contested, like Florida.
And to that point, regarding intent,
you have others also pointing to the video
that Ratcliffe said Iran sent voters
with disinformation about fraudulent ballots,
with a post which actually reviewed the video in question
saying that it showed Trump making disparaging comments
about mail-in voting, followed by a logo
with the name of the Proud boys.
This, before documenting what is supposed to appear
as a hack of voting data in an effort
to produce a fraudulent ballot.
And again, while some have argued that this was
meant to make Trump look bad,
others have pushed back on that
by saying that it only does so
by using things that Donald Trump has literally said
to sow doubt about mail-in ballots
and undermine confidence in these systems.
And that general idea about undermining confidence
is also another reason used to dispute Ratcliffe's claim
that this was meant to hurt Trump.
This is a man who has spent months
trying to undermine the election results
so that he can question them if he loses.
That's why so many people agree that these alleged attempts
are clearly just Iran or other players
trying to play off the distrust and discord
that he has already created.
And that is something that we saw
numerous officials backing up,
including the likes of Chuck Schumer,
who said that based on a classified briefing
that he received, "I had the strong impression
that it was much rather to undermine confidence
in elections and not aimed at any particular figure.
And I'm surprised that DNI Ratcliffe
said that at his press conference if he did."
And that is also something that we saw
the official Twitter account
for the House Homeland Security Committee hitting on.
Directly contradicting Ratcliffe's claims
and calling his credibility into question,
tweeting, "These election interference operations
are clearly not meant to harm President Trump.
Ratcliffe has too often politicized
the Intelligence Community to carry water
for the President."
And adding that while the threat of foreign interference
was real, "You can't emphasize one threat over another
to suit the President's ego."
Actually, regarding that last point,
many people also accused Ratcliffe
of playing down Russia's role
in election interference.
Ratcliffe mostly focusing on Iran
and claiming that while Russia had the same information,
they were not using it the same way,
but multiple US officials who spoke anonymously
to The Post stressed that Russia still remained
the major threat to the 2020 election.
That's also why you have people arguing
that Ratcliffe should not be trusted here
because he's not only downplayed Russian interference
in the past, but he's also spread outright misinformation
about it, and actually, notably there,
we did see Schumer as well as Marco Rubio
releasing a joint statement urging officials
to release more information about the threat,
but officials so far have refused,
saying that they can't share too much information
with the public, so that's pretty much
all we know about it right now.
And as far as their part,
both Iran and Russia have disputed the claims
that they are interfering in the US election,
an Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson
saying the country strongly rejects
American officials' repetitive, baseless, and false claims.
The spokesperson for the Kremlin
making a similar statement, saying,
"The accusations are poured out every day,
they are all absolutely groundless,
they are not based on anything,
rather it is a tribute to the internal political processes
associated with the upcoming election."
With all that said, I think maybe where it makes sense
to end this story is actually with something
from FBI Director, Christopher Wray.
Especially considering the nonstop fire hose
of misleading claims and outright lies
from President Trump and his administration
about the validity of the vote and mail-in ballots.
- We've been working for years as a community
to build resilience in our election infrastructure
and today, that infrastructure remains resilient.
You should be confident that your vote counts.
Early unverified claims to the contrary
should be viewed with a healthy dose of skepticism.
- And that may also be part of the reason
we're starting to see reports that
Trump and his people around him
are thinking of possibly firing the FBI Director
after the election.
But yeah, with this story, of course,
I then pass the question off to you.
What are your thoughts on the story in general?
What are your thoughts on Ratcliffe's
kind of narrative and framing?
Do you see him as a Trump loyalist
who's kind of trying to craft wins for the President or no?
And that is where I'm going to end today's show.
As always, thank you for being a part
of my daily dives into the news.
Also, if you're new here, you want to join the family,
definitely hit that subscribe button,
maybe even tap that bell,
or maybe just text me at 813-213-4423.
I'll text you when the shows come out,
some behind the scenes, some secret stuff.
But with that said, of course, as always,
my name's Philip DeFranco, you've just been filled in,
I love yo' faces, and I'll see you next time.