- S'up you beautiful bastards,
hope you're having a fantastic day,
I am tired and don't really want to do this,
but I don't like saying no to a signed check.
So let's just jump in (laughing)
It's just jokes.
Welcome back to the Wednesday Philip de Franco Show,
a little tired, a little beat today,
But we're gonna get through it.
So let's just jump into it.
And to start things off light today,
before we get to the other stuff,
let's talk about Kim Kardashian.
Kim, really being in the news for the same reason
that she's been in the news for the past 10 years,
she's getting dunked on publicly
while in no way does it affect her ability to accrue
massive amounts of wealth.
Though, today's story actually
in part involves her having accrued
massive amounts of wealth.
So if you've spent any time on social media,
in the last 24 hours,
you have probably seen Kim Kardashian's
birthday post getting torn apart.
Yesterday afternoon posting,
"40 and feeling so humbled and blessed.
"There's not a single day that I take for granted,
"especially during these times when we are all reminded
"of the things that truly matter.
"For my birthday this year,
"I couldn't think of a better way to spend it
"than with some of the people who have
"helped shape me into the woman I am today.
"Before COVID, I don't think any of us
"truly appreciated what a simple luxury it was
"to be able to travel and be together
"with family and friends in a safe environment."
And going on to write, "After two weeks
"of multiple health screens
"and asking everyone to quarantine,
"I surprised my closest inner circle
"with a trip to a private island
"where we could pretend things were normal,
"just for a brief moment in time.
"We danced, rode bikes, swam near whales, kayaked,
"watched a movie on the beach and so much more.
"I realize that for most people,
"this is something that is so far out of reach right now.
"So in moments like these, I am humbly reminded
"of how privileged my life is, #This is 40."
And it turns out those posts rubbed
a lot of people the wrong way.
Many people finding it
rather tasteless to post something like this
when over 1.1 million people from around the world have died
from coronavirus.
Millions more now unemployed, struggling to make ends meet,
some say slipped, some say pushed, into poverty.
People haven't seen their loved ones in months.
Which is why to many her posts sounded like...
- [Electronic Voice] Hi Poors,
I know you're hurting right now,
and can't figure out how you're gonna feed your family,
but please enjoy these photos
of my family's expensive vacation.
I know I'm lucky to be so fabulously wealthy,
so I'll make mention of it to sound sympathetic,
I'm really not though.
- And as we saw a mixture of people angry
and others just kind of joking
about how out of touch she seems to be,
a number of people also hitting her back
with that infamous Kardashian meme.
- My diamond earring came off in the ocean and it's gone.
- Kim, there's people that are dying.
- Also, with this story, I do have to say,
I have some questions.
How exactly do you surprise a group
of people and have them go
through numerous health checks and quarantine?
Because it sounds like at least one part
of the story that you are telling is bullshit.
Yeah, ultimately with this story,
I'm not furious.
I'm not angry.
I do think that it's tone deaf.
I think Kim Kardashian, here,
is guilty of rich person-ing at the wrong time.
Because in general,
while I am personally not a big fan of the flex,
how many shows, Instagram accounts,
whatever, dedicated to kind of lavish lifestyles?
But this I think, given the timing, for a lot of people,
I think is more akin to someone going like,
"Oh, this cold bottled water, it's so great."
And everyone else is like, "I'm dying of thirst."
Because you have bottled water,
that doesn't necessarily make you a bad person,
but it's not gonna necessarily be appreciated
if you're kind of waving it around,
talking about how humbled
and blessed you are to have that bottled water.
Yeah, there was that.
And then let's talk
about Joe Rogan popping back up in the news.
Of course, Rogan is one of,
if not the biggest podcaster in the world.
This year locking down that, estimated to be,
nine figure Spotify deal.
Since that Spotify deal,
there's been a lot more attention
and a lot more criticism against Joe Rogan,
both from outside commentators,
as well as internal disputes at Spotify.
And since that deal was announced
and the old Joe Rogan archive
started moving over to Spotify,
we've also seen allegations that there was censorship.
People saying, "Oh, I bet Spotify is gonna make it
"so Joe Rogan can't have on this person,
"that person on podcasts in the future."
But over the past 24 hours,
that seems to be very much not the case.
With Joe Rogan, once again,
bringing on conspiracy theorist
and guy who said that Sandy Hook was a hoax, Alex Jones.
And so with the release of this episode,
it appeared to confirm that Spotify
in no way is cracking down on Joe Rogan.
It appears to be very much his show,
he is still in control.
Especially considering two years ago,
Spotify gave Alex Jones the boot.
With, as "The Guardian" explained,
"Spotify removing the entirety
"of one of Jones's podcasts for hate content.
With a spokesperson adding, "Due to repeated violations
"of Spotify's prohibited content policies,
"'The Alex Jones Show' has lost access
"to the Spotify platform."
And so with his recent episode, you would Alex Jones fans,
as well as, I would say, a lot of Joe Rogan fans,
happy to see that this episode could still happen.
But there was also a lot of backlash.
Resulting in Tweets like,
"Congrats on paying $100 million
"for the privilege of platforming
"a man who terrorized Sandy Hook parents.
"This isn't edgy, it's disgusting."
And, "Joe Rogan hosted far-right conspiracy theorist,
"Alex Jones on his podcast today.
"They pushed anti-vax conspiracies
"and broadcasted banned 'Info Wars' videos.
"Rogan continuing to platform these
"far-right sickos is incredibly gross and dangerous."
As far as where Spotify, as a company,
lands with all of this,
I haven't seen a public statement
as of recording this video.
"BuzzFeed News" reportedly obtained
an internal email from Spotify's chief legal officer
and head of global affairs,
reportedly wrote that anyone
with content concern should report them
to the company's Trust and Safety team, but noted,
"It's all too common that things are taken out of context."
And going on to say, "We are not going to ban
"specific individuals from being guests
"on other people's shows,
"as the episode/show complies with our content policies."
Going on to say, "Spotify has always been
"a place for creative expression.
"It's important to have diverse voices
"and points of view on our platform."
And writing, "In closing, we appreciate
"that not all of you will agree
"with every piece of content on our platform.
"However, we do expect you to help your teams
"understand our role as a platform
"and the care we take in making decisions."
Yeah, ultimately that is where we are the story.
And I do want to pass a question off to you.
What are your thoughts regarding all of this?
Are you happy to see Spotify take this stance
or do you think it's the wrong move, it's hypocritical,
they're just kind of taking care of their investment?
Any and all thoughts you have on this one,
I'd love to hear from you when those comments down below.
But from that, I wanna share some stuff I love today,
and today in awesome, brought to you by Atoms.
As you may already know,
I've partnered with Atoms to make
these great masks that I love,
but what Atoms is actually most known
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And these sneakers are not only innovative,
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You can wear them to work, on long walks, wherever.
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In fact their motto is, "Life is complicated,
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Which translates directly into their unique design
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And one of the best parts,
Atoms actually comes in quarter sizes.
So if you're like me you're somewhere
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Boom, you get that perfect, comfortable fit.
So to snag a pair, just go to Atoms.com/defranco
to get $20 off your first pair of Atoms shoes.
And do not wait,
this deal will only last until November 4th.
So check them out today, before you miss out.
The first bit of awesome today is,
if you go to Twitter, you follow me @phillyd,
and if you re-tweet today's tweet,
pushing out today's show, you may get this.
They're no longer available,
it's just a few from my friends and family package.
Yeah, just a little something.
And then Nintendo gave us
an October Nintendo Direct Mini, Partner Showcase.
"How to Drink" give us a bad-ass drink for Cobra Kai.
We got a trailer for the HBO doc, "The Cost of Winning."
Wired gave us, "We ate better 15,000 years ago."
Ty Dolla $ign gave us a "Tiny Desk Home Concert."
And if you wanna see the full versions
of everything I just shared
the secret link of the day, anything at all,
link's as always are in the description down below.
And then let's talk about Facebook,
the place where your grandma says stuff that makes you go,
"Maybe it wasn't a good idea to give people
"over the age of 65 the internet."
Also, if you're like,
"Hey, Phil that's ageist to steal
"a phrase that my grandmother
"once used in a different context,"
not all of them are bad.
This is too dark and real.
Also something she might've said.
(growls)
Jokes that I say to temporarily distract
the feeling of impending doom,
I feel about society at all times these days.
But also have you ever looked
at like your grandparents and your great-grandparents,
and you're like, "How did I come from that?"
Anyway, Facebook, the election, political ads, right.
So like we talked about back in September,
Facebook announced a number of new policies aimed
at combating misinformation ahead of the election.
With the most notable being that
the company said that they would ban
any new political ads the week before the election.
Now, to be clear,
that was not a ban on all political ads, just new ones,
campaigns could still run old ones.
And in fact, they were even allowed to change the budget
on those ads and decide when they would run.
Under the election week ban,
political advertisers were just simply required to submit
and run any new ads before midnight Pacific time on Monday.
And if at this point you're like,
"That sounds very easy to exploit, what does that even do?"
Yeah, with yesterday officially marking
seven days before election day,
the rollout of that policy did not go great.
Almost immediately, we saw Democratic
and Republican strategists saying that
the ads that they had previously run,
that met Facebook's guidelines, had been banned.
This including Eric Frenchmen,
chief marketing officer at the Republican digital firm,
Campaign Solutions, who told reporters
that several campaigns that he was working with were hit.
As well as a Biden spokesperson telling Reuters that
an undisclosed number of his campaign's ads were impacted.
With Biden's digital director, Rob Flaherty,
taking to Twitter to slam Facebook,
calling the company's ban
a "silly, performative pre-election hoop-jumping exercise."
That also being echoed by Maddie Kriger,
the integrated media director at the progressive advocacy
organization and super PAC, Priorities USA,
who said their previously approved ads had been blocked,
and "even with accidental errors,
"an error like this has a huge impact on our program
"and our ability to communicate to voters.
"It's really unacceptable at this stage of the election."
And adding that it has "such high stakes"
and that this "is a real loss."
Honestly, this does matter, right?
Facebook has been one of the cheapest
and most effective ways for candidates,
especially in local races,
to share their messages with voters.
And while at the end of the day,
these glitches might not be a big deal
for campaigns like Biden's and Trump's,
which have a ton of money and manpower,
it can really impact those smaller campaigns
that might not have enough financial
and physical support for alternative outreach
like emails, texts, and phone banking.
With those being even more important
during a pandemic, where in-person outreach,
like door knocking and campaign events, are limited.
Now Facebook, for their part, did say they were trying
to address the issues with a spokesperson tweeting,
"We're investigating the issues
"of some ads being paused incorrectly,
"and some advertisers having trouble
"making changes to their campaigns.
"We're working quickly on these fixes
"and we'll share an update once they are resolved."
But that is also not where the backlash
against Facebook and this policy ended.
With others noting and arguing that
the Trump campaign had actually been allowed to run ads
that appear to violate Facebook's rules.
This including an ad that, some people claimed,
violated Facebook's rules on misrepresenting election dates.
With that ad showing a picture of Trump
with the text, "Election Day is Today,"
with a caption telling people to vote today.
As well as another ad that some argued violated
the platform's rules against candidates declaring victory
before an election.
And for that one, I'll actually just read the description.
"A video in the ad shows the president's face superimposed
"on a sun with a voiceover pulled from various sources."
With the video saying, "It's morning in America,
"Donald J. Trump is still president of the United States."
Flowers then rise from the ground
and open to faces who scream "No,"
as the smiling president,
now also a hummingbird, flits around.
Now, notably, according to reports,
these ads are not currently being run,
but they are visible in Facebook's ad library,
as pre-approved ads that can be run.
Which means that in order to have met Facebook's rules
for ads that can be run during election week,
they had to have been run at some point before now,
which is why some outlets claim that these ads appear to be
the Trump campaign's way of getting around the ban.
Essentially, briefly running ads
that were outright incorrect
at the time that they were initially run,
then pausing those campaigns
and then run them again when they are accurate.
Now despite that, a few hours after we started seeing
media reports about them yesterday,
Facebook told reporters that they would be removing
the "Vote Today" ads.
Facebook saying in a statement,
"As we made clear in our public communications
"and directly to campaigns,
"we prohibit ads that say 'vote today'
"without additional context or clarity."
However, you also had a spokesperson telling CNBC they would
not take down the ad where Trump claimed he was
still your president.
And this because,
regardless of the outcome of the election,
Trump will still technically be president
until January 20th.
And while many condemned Facebook
for still allowing some of the Trump ads,
you have the Trump campaign,
unsurprisingly upset that Facebook removed any of their ads.
With deputy national press secretary,
Samantha Zager, accusing the company
of censoring political messages to sway
the election in favor of Biden.
And adding, "This is election interference
"at the hands of the Silicon Valley mafia,
"and it is dangerous for our democracy."
And actually to that point,
I want to close this story out on that note.
There's this debate of censorship versus lack of moderation.
That's because not only has this debate become more
and more heated as we get to election day,
but it's also something that's actually being debated,
literally, as I make this video.
Right now, there is a Senate hearing
with a CEO's of Facebook, Twitter, and Google.
And actually, even the hearing itself has become
a subject of contention.
Because where Republicans have more broadly hit the note
of social media companies are censoring people
and arguing that they are specifically
targeting conservatives when they flag
or remove what they deem to be disinformation
or misinformation.
At the same time you have Democrats accusing Republicans
of holding the hearing in order to bully
the tech giants into giving Trump
and other conservatives more favorable treatment,
with them also accusing the tech companies
of failing to do enough to prepare for this election
and what will happen after.
That last part is actually really notable
because last month Facebook said
that it will temporarily ban
all political ads after the election.
Also on that note,
Google announced they will do the same,
they just announced that yesterday.
There's an order to prevent politicians
from declaring victory or spreading false information
in paid content before all the ballots are counted.
Which is really significant
and a point that bears repeating,
given the fact that experts
and election officials have been saying for months
that it could take days, if not weeks,
to fully determine the outcome.
This despite Trump's insistence otherwise.
That is where the story ends.
And oh my god, there's only
two more Philip de Franco shows before it is election day.
(groaning)
The season, or maybe series finale,
of America is around the corner.
And that is where I'm going to end today's show.
Of course, as always, thank you
for being a part of my daily dives in the news.
Also, if you're new here,
definitely join the family, hit that subscribe button,
so you get these new videos delivered to you.
Also, if you wanna make sure you never miss a notification,
'cause sometimes, you know,
certain videos may not get pushed to subscribers.
You can give me a text at (813) 213-4423.
But with that said, of course as always,
my name's Philip de Franco,
you've just been filled in,
I love yo faces and I'll see you tomorrow.