- Sup you beautiful bastards,
hope you're havin' a fantastic Thursday,
welcome back to the Philip DeFranco Show
and let's just jump into it.
And the first thing we're gonna talk
about today is another story involving kids-directed content
on YouTube, the FTC, and the situation
in general just becoming bigger.
Now yesterday, as you might remember,
we talked about YouTube settling with the FTC.
They're having to pay a record $170 million dollars,
they have these massive changes coming
to the site in the next four months.
But one of the most notable changes is that a lot
of content geared toward children is
about to be demonetized on a crazy level.
But one of the big things there with that situation is
that the allegations and the complaint was geared
toward YouTube and Google.
But, that doesn't mean it's the end of the story
and that individual channels and companies are safe.
And the reason I say that is that
the non-profit watchdog organization Truth In Advertising
is going after one of the largest and possibly one
of the most profitable channels on YouTube,
and that being Ryan ToysReview.
Yesterday the New York Times reported
that Truth In Advertising had filed an FTC complaint
"on the same day that Google, which owns YouTube,
"agreed to pay a $170 million fine as part of a settlement."
Although, looking into it,
I think the New York Times got their timing wrong
and I say that because on truthinadvertising.org,
they published an article on August 29th titled
"Ryan ToysReview Targets Preschoolers
"in Violation of FTC Law,"
where they say they filed this FTC complaint,
then linking to a document dated August 28th.
Which hey, ultimately it doesn't change the full report,
but the timing here is notable and important,
so I just want to make sure that is correct.
The main point, that FTC complaint reportedly accused
"the channel's administrators of deceiving children
"through 'sponsored videos that often have the look
"'and feel of organic content.'"
According to Truth In Advertising,
"Nearly 90 percent of the Ryan ToysReview videos
"have included at least
"one paid product recommendation aimed at preschoolers,
"a group [that they say is] too young to distinguish
"between a commercial and a review."
And that distinguish argument is one of the key things here.
As explained in a New York Times article on this,
"Josh Golin, [who's] the executive director
"of the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood"
reportedly said, "Many children do not recognize advertising
"until the are 8 or 9 years old...Some videos
"on YouTube channels like Ryan ToysReview have noted
"sponsored content in small type that appears briefly,
"he said, or through a voice-over thank-you
"to the retailer or manufacturer the provided products."
And Golin goes on to argue, "A 5-year-old isn't going
"to understand that Ryan's talking about the toys
"because Target is paying him to talk about the toys...
"There may be some disclosure,
"but disclosure isn't meaningful to a child that young."
Now, as far as the other side of this,
Ryan's father released a statement saying,
"The well-being of our viewers is always the top priority
"for us and we strictly follow all platforms' terms
"of service and all existing laws and regulations,
"including advertising disclosure requirements."
And adding, "As the streaming space continues
"to quickly grow and evolve, we support efforts
"by lawmakers, industry representatives and regulators
"such as the F.T.C. to continuously evaluate
"and update existing guidelines and lay new ground rules
"to protect both viewers and creators."
So, I mean, you know, probably a statement
from his lawyer, but you get it.
And ultimately that is where we are
with this story right now.
And I will say it's one, going to be interesting
to see what happens with Ryan ToysReview
and their kind of network of channels.
As well as, is this gonna be kind of the first
of many FTC complaints against other channels
now that this body blow has been delivered thanks
to this FTC settlement with YouTube?
And as far as my reaction to this,
and hey, I could be completely wrong.
Based off of what we've seen just from the past 36 hours,
it feels like the money printing press
that is child-focused content is in jeopardy
and likely going away.
It's hard for me to see a world where at least 95%
of these channels are not completely decimated.
In the next four months, most of the ads
on those channels will be going away.
Additionally, those channels will no longer get
certain features like notifications,
the ability to have a community page
or maybe you could link out to things that you're selling.
Also on that note, they would no longer be able
to have the merch shelf, which has been very profitable
for a number of creators.
Additionally, I personally believe
that we are going to see more of these FTC complaints
against child-focused content.
Additionally, with seeing an individual channel targeted
with an FTC complaint, that might open the floodgates
or at the very least scare advertisers and channels
from doing anything there.
I mean, we're lookin' at a brand new age here.
I mean, honestly,
and while this probably doesn't affect like 90% of you,
this is arguably going to be the biggest shift
in this entertainment medium in a long time.
And where I'll end this story, and that final point
that I was kind of arguing there at the end,
is with this clip that we came across
from the FTC news conference yesterday.
- And we also think that YouTube has strong incentives
to police it's platform,
both to avoid future enforcement actions by the FTC,
but also because it's offering this platform
to content creators and
if the FTC is bringing independent piecemeal actions
against content creators for violating COPA,
that may discourage content creators
from posting content on YouTube.
So, the analogy that I think of in perfect
is the expression about shooting fish in a barrel.
And YouTube is the barrel
and the content creators are the fish.
And so, it's a place where these,
where this content is centralized and, essentially,
it's easy for us to find.
(claps)
- But actually with this story,
the big question I wanna ask is
what are your thoughts regarding the FTC,
the FTC complaint, channels like Ryan ToysReview?
You know, yesterday I saw a number of small
and large kids-directed content creators very scared.
But, from a consumer's standpoint, what are your thoughts?
Are you worried because maybe this affects content
that you or your children or whoever,
that, you know, they consume?
Or if they're not able to make money
from the content they'll stop making it?
Or do you maybe think that this new focus,
these FTC complaints on these channels that are, you know,
heavily focused towards young children
that it's actually a good thing?
That you see it as young children being too young
to be able to discern what is an ad
and what is kind of an organic thing,
and so it's predatory in nature,
and so maybe that does need to be cracked down on?
Also, you know, there's kind of a middle standpoint.
Do you think it's good to crack down
on the very obviously directed towards like children
that are like five-years-old content,
but you're worried because maybe it's a slippery slope,
that things get a little more gray as the, you know,
when we gave the Minecraft example yesterday.
Any and all thoughts on this topic,
I'd love to see for me in those comments down below.
Then, in quickie and eh eh, somewhat kind of ironic news
given what we've just talked about,
finalists have been announced
for the second annual Streamys Brand Awards,
where we're seeing creators like David Dobrik
and the companies that he's working with,
like Chipotle and SeatGeek being nominated
for literally the same award for Best Brand Engagement.
We also saw Ryan ToysReview and Ryan's World nominated
for their campaign with Colgate.
So it's some interesting, probably
they see it as less than ideal timing.
But, from that, I wanna share some stuff I love today
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In fact, I just pre-ordered
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Then we got the Season Two trailer
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we got the official trailer for Part 2 of Disenchantment,
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And if you want to see the full versions
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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 story
that I've been eyeing this week,
it's kind of just trying to find the proper insertion point
for this garbage fire.
And what I'm talking about here
are the massive updates concerning Brexit.
And to give you an oversimplified recap
in case you missed our previous coverage,
you had the United Kingdom voting
to leave the European Union back in 2016.
And since then you've had lawmakers from the UK trying
to push through a deal, but that has not been easy.
A vote on the deal to leave the EU
has already failed three times in British Parliament.
The UK then had to ask the EU to extend the deal.
And, a prime minister later,
you had Conservative Party members electing Boris Johnson.
Who, notably has promised to take the UK out
of the EU by the current October 31st deadline.
He, and this is a key note here,
claims that he'll do this with or without a deal.
Right now he says that he wants to negotiate a better deal,
but the EU has said and continues to say
that it will not budge on the deal
that it has already offered,
and that is massively important
because a lot of the people in the UK are worried
about the consequences of a no-deal Brexit,
which could lead to shortages
on food, gas, medicine, notably insulin.
Economists also warn that this outcome
could result in a huge blow to the economy.
But, as we saw last week,
we saw Johnson reportedly taking steps
to protect his ability to execute a no-deal Brexit,
going to the Queen and asking her to suspend Parliament,
which had have already been scheduled
for a three and a half week recess.
And so that suspension then added an extra week to that,
limiting the time for lawmakers to agree on a deal
or to block Johnson from going through with the no-deal.
We've also then seen people going to the streets in protest,
we saw petitions to cancel the suspension,
we even saw some lawmakers in Johnson's own party resign.
And, unsurprisingly, you also had
opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn vowing
to block the suspension,
also saying that he'd work to block a no-deal as well,
and that is exactly what we saw on Tuesday.
Johnson began holding a vote in the House of Commons
that would allow him to be able
to deliver a Brexit deal of his choice.
But, midway through a speech by Johnson,
you actually had a fellow Conservative
by the name of Philip Lee announce his opposition
by sitting with the Liberal Democrats.
And I've said this before and I'll say it again,
politics aside, UK Parliament is probably my favorite thing
to watch because (laughs) it is a crazy, theatrical mess.
But the reason what Philip Lee did there was notable
wasn't just like, "Oh drama!"
It was a signal that Boris Johnson might actually
lose his majority and ultimately he did,
with Parliament voting 328 to 301 against Johnson.
You then had a lawmaker
openly mocking Johnson immediately after.
- The ayes to the right, 328.
The no's to the left, 301.
(cheering)
[Unknown Person] Not a good start, Boris!
- Now, on his side, Johnson has argued
that if the UK votes to stop a no-deal,
the UK will effectively be surrendering to the EU,
and he says that because he believes
that the only way the EU will offer a better deal is
if it thinks the UK will legitimately walk away
without any deal come October 31st.
And that's because a no-deal Brexit isn't expected
to just hurt the UK,
but also to damage other European economies.
All right, so essentially,
a strategy that some have referred to as
just kind of flooring it towards the edge of a cliff
with the hope that the passenger, the EU,
will swerve the car the direction that he wants.
Now notably, regarding negotiations, Johnson said yesterday
that he has made "substantial progress"
in negotiating a deal,
but he didn't reveal any details arguing
that you do not negotiate in public.
However, an EU spokesperson told reporters
that "there is nothing new" from London.
Following that vote that Johnson lost 328 to 301,
he took bold steps with his own party.
21 of those 328 votes against Johnson came
from Conservative Party members,
who Johnson had threatened to expel from the party
before the vote if they went against him,
which is actually a thing
that the Prime Minister can do in the UK.
Notably that list included Nicholas Soames,
who is the grandson of Winston Churchill.
It also included Kenneth Clarke,
who is currently the longest serving MP in the
House of Commons and is known as the Father of the House.
And Johnson followed through with his promise
and expelled those conservatives later that evening.
Now, a big note,
that does not actually mean that the politicians were fired,
they're just now considered independents
and they reportedly will not be able
to run for reelection as Conservatives.
So there was that, and then heading into Wednesday,
lawmakers took control of Parliament's agenda,
taking it away from Johnson
because he no longer had a majority.
They then put a bill on the table to block the UK
from going through with a no-deal Brexit,
pushing it through several rounds of votes that same day,
and ultimately passing it to the House of Lords,
who are expected to finishing debating it
as soon as tomorrow.
Now if that passes, it'll then be pushed back
to the House of Commons for any amendments,
and if the Commons approves it,
the bill will then go to the Queen,
who will almost certainly sign it into law.
That then could force Johnson to go back
to the EU to ask for an extension,
notably to delay the Brexit deadline until January,
which Johnson has previously said that he will not do.
Now, following all of this,
Johnson called for new general election.
But, the thing there is that Parliament needs
to approve that with a 2/3 majority.
And leading up to that, tensions were hot, I mean,
earlier in the day you had Johnson attacking Corbyn.
- But Mr. Speaker, I know he's worried
about free trade deals with America,
but there's only one chlorinated chicken
that I can see in this house, and he's on that bench.
(laughing)
Will he confirm again?
- [Philip] We also saw Corbyn taking shots at Johnson.
- And it's basically a policy that's cloaked
in mystery, like the Emperor's New Clothes.
There really is absolutely nothing there.
- [Philip] He then had Ken Clarke,
remember the Father of the House, going after Johnson
and calling him desperate to hold election.
- I merely say that I found these exchanges
quite predictable, they've been well-rehearsed
before we took place.
I do think the prime minister, with the greatest respect,
has a tremendous skill in keeping his straight face
whilst he's being so disingenuous.
- But, ultimately Johnson didn't get enough votes
for it to pass.
Now, had his plan worked,
those elections would have been expected
to be held on October 15th,
which would have opened the elections
for all 650 seats in the House of Commons,
which is something that's not scheduled
to be held for another three years.
Now that said, a thing I want to hit on here is this part
of the story isn't actually over.
And that's because reportedly Johnson will try
to hold a vote on elections on Monday and, for his part,
Corbyn has said that he will vote elections, but only
after a blocked or a no-deal Brexit is signed into a law.
And once again, you might think story's over, nope!
This morning we ended up seeing another blow
to Boris Johnson when his brother,
who is also a Conservative MP,
announced his resignation on Twitter.
And in that post, Jo Johnson said,
"In recent weeks I've been torn between family loyalty
"and the national interest - it's an unresolvable tension
"and time for others to take on my roles as MP & Minister.
"#overandout"
Now some political commentators have speculated
that this resignation might stem
from Johnson expelling those 21 Conservatives.
You had MP David Gauke, one of the people Johnson expelled,
saying, "Lots of MPs have had to wrestle
"with conflicting loyalties in recent weeks.
"None more so than Jo.
"This is a big loss to Parliament,
"the Government and the Conservative Party."
But today we actually may have gotten some clarity
regarding this issue, because at a press conference today,
Prime Minister Boris Johnson admitted
that Jo Johnson disagrees with him about how
to handle Brexit, but also adding that his brother supports
his domestic policy and wants to see Brexit solved.
Also there is an outside forces angle to this story.
Amid all this, we've seen US President Donald Trump
and Vice President Mike Pence sharing their support.
Trump himself has been a very big supporter of Brexit,
saying that the US would sign a "very big trade deal"
bigger than we've ever had with the UK
once it leaves the EU.
And Tuesday in Ireland, Pence doubled down,
saying that the United States wanted to open up
a free trade agreement with the UK.
And today you had Pence meeting with Johnson
in London and adding that such a deal could drastically
increase trade between the two countries.
- The President often says
that the United States has the biggest economy in the world,
and we truly believe that a free trade agreement
between the United States and the UK could increase trade
between our countries by three of four times.
- But, ultimately that is where we are
as of recording this video.
It's going to be so interesting
to see what actually happens,
what the House of Lords does,
how Johnson reacts to all of that.
And of course, like with every story,
I pass the question off to you,
but this is also specifically focused on
people in the UK, people in the EU.
What do you think about what's happening now?
And also, what would you like to see happen?
And that's where I'm going to end today's show.
And hey, if you liked today's video,
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you can click or tap right there to watch that right now.
But, with that said, of course, as always,
my name is Philip DeFranco, you've just been filled in,
I love yo' faces, and I'll see you tomorrow, maybe?
I gotta figure out if I can pull it off, but also
make sure you have notifications on so you actually know.