- 'Sup, you beautiful bastards.
Some quick things before we get started.
One, if you have not seen yesterday's show,
which looks like this, ooh, so fancy graphics,
that'll be the top link down below.
It's incredibly important, it was on track to be
one of our best videos in probably the last few months,
but then YouTube crashed for two hours.
I'm not angry about that or anything,
but yeah, you can check that out.
And/or if after today's show, you want something lighter,
I just posted a brand new podcast with Doctor Mike
over at YouTube.com/acw.
But with that said, let's hit 'em with a classic
'sup you beautiful bastards,
hope you've had a fantastic Thursday,
welcome back to the Philip DeFranco Show,
buckle up, hit that like button
otherwise we'll punch you in the throat,
and let's just jump into it.
And today, we start with a story
that makes me both and love and hate the internet equally.
So if you haven't seen, over the last week,
people have been receiving their Xbox Series X consoles,
and all of a sudden, we start seeing a number of users
making complaints, and among those complaints,
you had people saying, "My Xbox Series X is smoking,
it looks like it's gonna catch on fire."
Which, obviously not the best news when you just dropped
$500 on a new console, but thanks to a number of
internet users making their own videos,
it turns out that it is fake.
It was actually just people trolling the internet
by blowing vape smoke into the bottom of the console
and then it comes out the top, which resulted in
this absolutely-amazing-that-this-is-a-real statement
from Xbox, "We can't believe we have to say this,
but please do not blow vape smoke into your Xbox Series X."
But also, now, you know the internet.
This is gonna happen even more now.
But yeah, for me, this is kind of just a fun
story in the internet because it feels like
it's the first bit of fake news that we've covered
on this show that doesn't directly attack democracy, so...
Fun!
I'm putting this in the "win" column, baby,
that's where we are right now.
And then, we should definitely talk about Twitch
and their recent handling of copyright strikes
on their platform.
This story actually begins back in June,
when we saw several popular Twitch streamers
revealing that they had received multiple copyright strikes,
with some of those strikes oddly coming from
videos over more than a year old,
and actually, one of the first people we saw
speaking about this was a streamer by the name of Fuslie.
And in a Twitter thread, she said that she had been
issued two copyright strikes.
One from playing "Cake By The Ocean,"
and another for "Seven Rings."
And notably, with that, she was told in these messages
that if she received one more strike,
her account would be terminated,
and after speaking with Twitch staff,
she said that they recommended that she delete
all of her clips, but also noting,
"On top of it being near impossible for me to
delete over 100,000 clips, the creator dashboard
isn't loading any of my old clips.
How am I supposed to protect myself here?"
Saying, "I'm willing to do anything to keep my channel,
I feel so helpless right now," and of course,
even then, she was far from the only streamer
getting these kinds of music copyright strikes.
Though I will say, as someone who used to stream on Twitch
a lot, right, I used to do it almost after
every Philip DeFranco Show,
being able to play music during a livestream,
and at worst, when you're done with the stream,
a section of the video that was created,
that being muted, that was one of the biggest perks.
But as far as what's been happening since June,
is it seems that music companies were sending Twitch
takedown notices related to the DMCA,
the Digital Millennium Copyright Act,
notices that Twitch has no choice but to respond to
unless it wants to be sued.
But also, not to completely take it off of Twitch,
streamers like Fuslie pointed out
Twitch wasn't doing a really great job
of explaining what they could do to fix the situation.
Especially because Twitch has historically been
so relaxed around music, all of a sudden,
you have this huge archive, and it can be very easy
for you to get hit with three strikes at once.
Now, as all of this was unfolding,
we saw Twitch support tweeting that it had, in fact,
received a sudden influx of DMCA takedown requests,
with it mostly being related to clips from 2017 to 2019,
also advising the removal of old clips,
saying, "We know many of you have large archives
and we're working to make this easier."
A few days later, we see Twitch say
that it would begin to use a program
that could identify clips that might contain
copyrighted music, noting that it would delete those clips
without penalty for the streamer,
also saying that it was building a tool
that would help streamers to be able to more easily
delete all clips at once, and from there,
things actually got pretty quiet
until we get to October 20th,
when we see another massive round of DMCA takedown notices.
With Twitch then writing to affected streamers
that it had identified and deleted
any clips that were flagged, adding,
"We recognize that by deleting this content,
we are not giving you the option to file
a counter-notification or seek a reaction
from the rights holder.
In consideration of this, we have processed
these notifications and are issuing you
a one-time warning to give you the chance
to learn about copyright law and the tools available
to manage the content on your channel."
All while also not including any information
about what copyrighted work had been violated,
who the claim it was, or how to possibly contact them.
And this really didn't appear to be something
that just affected small creators,
even large creators were confused.
Others who have also not gotten hit yet
saying they were just gonna take down
their old clips out of fear,
in fact, we even had massive creators like Pokimane
saying that she deleted more than six years
of clips and memories.
But also of note, with this notice, you had Twitch
issuing a deadline, saying, "Hey, if you are a streamer,
you have until October 23rd to find and delete
any possible copyrighted material."
Essentially saying this is the grace period
because after that, we will resume the normal processes
of DMCA takedowns.
And with all of that, we saw massive pushback
from streamers like Devin Nash, who said,
"It is insane that Twitch informs partners
they deleted their content and that there is more content
in violation despite having no identification system
to find out what it is.
Their solution to DMCA is for creators
to delete their life's work.
This is pure, gross negligence."
And keep in mind, you also had examples of streamers
actually getting banned, people like SquishyMuffinz.
And while I will say that ban was overturned
in a couple of hours, you still see people getting scared.
And with all of this, even with the difference
between the Twitch ecosystem and the YouTube ecosystem,
I get the anger from streamers here.
They have been operating for, depending on how long
they've been streaming, for weeks, months, years,
on kind of an understood set of systems and rules,
and then, boom, all of a sudden, a number of
peoples' livelihoods are at risk because of the platform.
Because they did not do enough anticipating for this,
which makes absolutely no sense.
They are in a similar ecosystem to YouTube,
who, of course, has had to deal with so many hurdles
regarding DMCA takedowns.
And it's not like they're some little bootleg company,
it's been six years since Twitch was purchased
for about a billion dollars by Amazon,
so understandably, creators have the right to go,
"How did this slip through the cracks
and ultimately crash down on our heads?"
Now, all of that said, it brings us to yesterday
when we saw Twitch finally issuing an apology
for how it's handled DMCA takedowns,
starting with, "Creators, we hear you.
Your frustration and confusion with recent music-related
copyright issues is completely justified.
Things can and should be better for creators
than they have been recently," with the company adding
that it should have made the October warning email
much more informative and helpful,
admitting that it provided frustratingly little information,
and saying, "You're rightly upset the only option
we provided was a mass deletion tool for clips,
and that we only gave you three days notice
to use this tool.
We could have developed more sophisticated,
user-friendly tools a while ago.
That we didn't is on us," and adding,
"We're truly sorry for these mistakes
and we'll do better."
But, also, at the same time, it appeared that Twitch
was kind of saying, "We just didn't expect this,"
noting that before May of this year,
streamers received fewer than 50 music-related
DMCA notifications each year on the platform.
But since then, they've been receiving
thousands of DMCA notifications each week
from major record labels, and they do not
expect that to slow down.
And while after seeing that, I will say,
I credit them in owning the situation,
I still have massive issue with the fact that,
apparently, no one at the company had enough foresight
to see that this could be a thing that was coming.
But also, here, I do want to pass the question off to you.
What are your thoughts with this situation?
And also, regarding my opinion on it,
do you think it's just right,
do you think it's too hard, is it...
I don't think it would be too soft.
But you know, to be fair, I will also give you that option.
What are your thoughts here?
I'd love to know.
Then, in big internet news, I regret to inform you
that you cannot hate on YouTube Rewind this year,
and not because that will be illegal
in Joe Biden's America, but rather because YouTube announced
that they are just not doing it this year,
releasing a statement saying, "We've done this since 2010,
and whether you love it or only remember 2018,"
I respect that, I respect the callout.
- It's rewind time.
- [Phil] "Rewind was always meant to be
a celebration of you.
But 2020 had been different and it doesn't feel right
to carry on as if it weren't.
So we're taking a break from Rewind this year.
We know that so much of the good that did happen in 2020
was created by all of you.
You've found ways to lift people up,
help them cope, and make them laugh.
You made a hard year genuinely better.
Thank you for making a difference."
And that elicited mixed reactions,
some creators like Hank Green saying,
"Yeah, this sounds like the right call,"
also creators like JonTron tweeting out,
"Turns out there is a God,"
while a the same time, you had other creators
like JerryRigEverything saying,
"Whoa, I disagree.
2020 has been different, but you should still have a Rewind.
Come on, there are plenty of things to be positive about."
And I will say, I'm a little bit torn,
because I do think for YouTube, they are this big
giant company rather than kind of a beloved personality,
so it is a very hard tightrope to walk.
Because you might want to make something
that shows people doing the best they could
in hard situations, be uplifting in hard times,
but you do so at the risk of appearing
potentially incredibly tone deaf to the harshness
of reality right now.
You might not want to see a bunch of mainstream creators
doing TikTok dances like, "Woo, 2020,"
when grandma just died from COVID.
But also, I was very specific with my words there
as far as a company doing this.
I do believe that because of this announcement,
we are gonna see a number of creators do their own versions.
I think creators doing this have far larger
shields and safety nets.
But that's just the story,
my personal opinion when I see it,
and now, of course, I pass the question off to you,
whether you agree or disagree,
and I'd love to know your thoughts here.
But from that, let's take a second to pay the bills
and thank the fantastic sponsor of today's show, Skillshare.
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And the last thing that we're gonna talk about today
is President Elect Biden, his plans for office,
and what the near future might look like.
A lot of this story boils down to three things,
executive orders, what the hell is the senate
gonna look like, and what is his cabinet going to look like.
And where we'll start here is with executive orders
because that is the least up in the air.
And among the executive orders that President Elect Biden
has promised on his first day in office,
you have reentering the Paris Climate Accord,
which I know we haven't talked about in a while,
but Trump actually took us out of
officially last Wednesday.
Biden is also set to sign a series of clean energy orders
with the goal being there to make the United States
carbon neutral by 2050, also pouring money into
infrastructure for new initiatives that will, quote,
"rebuild the nation and ensure that our buildings,
water, transportation, and energy infrastructure
can withstand the impacts of climate change."
Outside of climate change, Biden has promised to
rescind the travel pan Trump instituted
on seven majority Muslim countries back in 2017.
We've also seen Biden promising new government reforms,
almost all aimed as a direct response
to the Trump Administration.
That reportedly including an executive order stating that,
quote, "No White House staff or any member
of his administration may initiate, encourage, obstruct,
or otherwise improperly influence specific
Justice Department investigations
or prosecutions for any reason,"
with Biden saying that he will fire them if they do.
But, of course, the most immediate crisis
that Biden and his administration will face
is the coronavirus, and there, that actually
brings us to the conversation about the senate.
Because there, close aides to Biden
and economists who have helped devise the campaign
have said that if Democrats do win both seats in Georgia,
Biden will try to push through a large stimulus plan
for the flagging economic recovery.
Most likely along the lines of the $2.2 trillion
that House Democrats approved this fall,
with that plan specifically including
billions of dollars for state and local governments,
extended unemployment benefits,
and another round of funding for small businesses.
But again, understand, all of that depends on a senate
that, under the control of Republicans,
has failed to pass any kind of stimulus package
since the very first one in March.
While the runoff elections on January fifth in Georgia
will ultimately decide the makeup of the senate,
let's talk about just what Joe Biden
wants to accomplish through congress.
For example, Biden has said that within the first
100 days, he will be pushing congress to pass
The Equality Act, a bill that would add
federal sexual orientation and gender identity
discrimination protections by amending the language
in the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Notably, the House actually passed that act last year,
but, of course, it was blocked by the senate.
Also, among other policy, Biden has pushed
for an expansion of the Affordable Care Act,
and if his plans as they stand were to pass the senate,
that would essentially mean that every person
legally living in the country would have healthcare.
For example, a dozen states have refused to
expand Medicaid through Obamacare,
which has unfortunately left around four million people
in or near poverty uninsured,
but under Biden's plan, they would
automatically be enrolled.
Also, notably, under that plan,
most of the existing US healthcare system
would remain in place, right,
so you could still get your health insurance
from your employer.
Likewise, Medicare and Medicaid would be preserved,
but of course, remember that healthcare bill
is pretty much dead on arrival
if Republicans retain control.
It's important to know the difference
of what he says he wants to do, what he wants to accomplish,
and what he can actually do
depending on the makeup of the senate.
And then finally, in this section,
let's talk about Biden's tax plan.
There, we see that Biden's tax plan
would only raise taxes on people bringing in
more than $400,000 a year, right,
about 1.8 percent of the country.
Though, notably, several independent tax groups
have estimated that over time,
that some of the tax burdens from Biden's increase
would fall onto people who make less than $400,000.
This, possibly because of indirect effects
like lower wages or investment returns,
but they did note that these hits would be small.
So small, in fact, that the Tax Policy Center
estimated that people making $26,000 a year or less,
they might, on average, see an impact
of about $30 a year, and people earning
between $52,000 and $93,000 would maybe see about
a $260 a year impact.
With all of that said, we then move
to Joe Biden's cabinet, which actually still involves
the senate because that is the sole body task
with approving cabinet secretaries
and other high-ranking administration officials.
So with a Republican-controlled senate,
Biden might have a harder time getting more
progressive or left-leaning nominations through.
For example, you have the likes of Bernie Sanders,
who has said that he's interested in being Labor Secretary,
or Elizabeth Warren, she's reportedly talked about
wanting to be Treasury Secretary.
While the senate runoffs could obviously limit
who Biden picks here, all the same, it's been reported
that his team is still moving forward,
choosing finalists for those nominations,
and many of which reportedly will be announced
before the Georgia runoff.
And actually, kind of to that point,
we actually saw Biden announcing his first appointment
of his administration, though, notably here,
one that does not need to be approved by the senate,
with him officially selecting Ron Klain
to be his Chief of Staff.
As far as who Klain is, he's actually a lawyer
who served as Biden's Chief of Staff
during his first term as Vice President.
He was also the Chief of Staff for
Vice President Al Gore during the Clinton administration,
and he's also worked on Capital Hill
in a number of other roles.
And, very notably, Klain was also tapped by Obama
back in 2014 to be the Ebola Czar,
and his leadership there is also why we saw
many big Democrats applauding this announcement,
saying that he would be a huge asset
in fighting the Coronavirus pandemic,
but also, on the other side,
you saw a number of conservatives,
and specifically Trump supporters,
arguing that Klain has downplayed the virus in the past,
with many pointing to a clip I'm gonna play here
that was tweeted out by the Trump Campaign
that showed Klain speaking about the pandemic
at an event on February 11th.
- Serious epidemic.
Now the Coronavirus may be that, it may not be that,
the evidence suggests it's probably not that.
- But also, with that, you had people pointing out
that this clip was spliced out of a much longer
explanation, saying that the full context is not there.
When you watch the full clip, you see Klain
very clearly warning that we need to do more to prepare.
- But fundamentally, the world remains unprepared
for a serious epidemic.
Now the Coronavirus may be that, it may not be that,
the evidence suggests that it's probably not that,
but it will come sooner or later.
And the world really
lacks the detection systems it needs,
the response tools it needs,
and the leadership it need to really deal with that.
- But others also pointing to an interview
Klain gave around the same time
where he said there's not a reason yet to panic
or be fearful, but also, literally in that same clip
that people were using to say that he was
downplaying the pandemic, he also says,
"We don't know much about the virus yet
and how lethal it is."
Also emphasizing the need to be prepared
and even explicitly saying that the Trump Administration
needs to be doing more and be more aggressive
in their response.
But also, there were criticisms beyond Coronavirus,
we saw a number of conservative voices, again,
including the Trump Campaign, circulating a tweet
from Klain back in 2014.
In there, Vox tweeted out an article titled,
"68% of Americans Think Elections are Rigged,"
and Klain responded, "That's because they are,"
and so you had a lot of Trump allies saying,
"Oh, he's making our argument,
he also thinks the elections are rigged."
But when you actually take a moment
to look at the article that Klain was referring to,
he was commenting on, it isn't about election fraud,
it's about how a majority of Americans
think elections are slanted toward incumbents,
noting that the reelection rate for congressional incumbents
is 90%, saying that this is because they get a voice
in gerrymandering, thus getting to effectively
pick their voters, and also because they have
political leverage and ties to influential people,
with the article even explicitly saying
in the second sentence, "The term 'rigged'
might go a tad far.
The problem here isn't fraud.
In elections, like in so much else,
the scandal is what's legal."
But ultimately, that is where we are with this story.
And keep in mind this is a developing situation,
we're gonna see new names, new developments in general,
that in addition to the noise and chaos
that we've been discussing these past few weeks.
And while I keep my eye and ears open on that,
today, that is where I'm gonna end today's show.
As always, thank you for being a part
of my daily dives in the news.
If you're new here, hit that subscribe button,
also remember, if you missed yesterday's show,
I cannot recommend it enough,
or at least the first eight minutes.
And hey, if you're also looking for something lighter,
you should definitely check out that brand new podcast
I did with Doctor Mike.
You can click right there, or the links are in
the top description, 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.