Moist Critical Reacts to Linus Tech Tips Response to Honey SCAM

[@Manayz]

Some dude in my discord talked abt the honey thing stealing links but i had no idea wtf he was talking about and this was years ago idek where he is now but i bet hes laughing his ass off

[@dirtiestharry6551]

The only thing surprising about this honey thing is how many people apparently didn't know? I thought this was a common knowledge at this point.

[@Wizznilliam]

​@@dirtiestharry655199% of the population literally know nothing about IT and backend server related stuff. Most don't even know what a server is. Let alone how affiliate links work. That's the whole point of the original video mentioning Linus and not the other large platforms. It is 100% in his wheelhouse and definitely something that consumers of his videos would care about and understand.

[@Ernest_g7]

Maybe that was Megalag himself lol

[@flsendzz]

@@dirtiestharry6551ok smart guy, maybe you should have told us and been a good person. Think about how much poverty YOU have inflicted on the world from missed affiliate links 😂

[@finalfantasymad]

Just search honey scam before:2023 in the above youtube search bar. It had been covered before.

[@IchibanKasuga1]

Would have been great if some big creator would have given a Tech tip about it

[@arreca09]

I would be, but they are not obligated to do so.

[@drago_excalibur]

​@arreca09 obligated? No. However it makes them look absolutely incompetent and not a channel that's friendly to the youtube community as they try to portray themselves as

[@arreca09]

@@drago_excalibur maybe It makes them look bad to you, because you already have a hate boner for them. But no normal person is going to thing they are at fault of anything.

[@SuperBaicon29]

My problem with this is what was he supposed to say? "Hey guys, please stop downloading honey because although you'll save money, I won't make my commission off of you." since the affiliate ripping was just affecting him, not consumers. Then consumers would've made the argument that Linus just wants the money to himself and doesn't want people to get discounts, no one knew the effects on the consumer at the time

[@drago_excalibur]

@stevorellana like mega lag himself said, it's legit fraud so you'd have to be stupid to think that Linus was being greedy simply by saying that he was getting his money stolen by the very company that sponsors him. Even without that, simply saying it's a bad sponsor and they do shady stuff would have been enough to atleast raise flags

[@whisperoni]

Linus: "I don't really get the emphasis on us to be honest with you" also Linus: owns a tech media company

[@Connor-c5t]

Wow I read that as he said it in the video

[@jrod78414]

And he did only a hundred videos with honey. That's why probably why. Dude is totally lost about his influence

[@Tamtalas]

@@jrod78414 No they didint, but whatever, paint your art as you like

[@allenrichardson9084]

Also when company's tend on F in over people these big KZbin channels tend on telling the people why they drop a sponsor to let people know why and a vid will let the most amount of normal people know not some form or tweet that the mega fan's will only see.

[@bdbrwr]

@@allenrichardson9084 They did in the place they thought their community looks most?

[@lazloholyfield9902]

In the past hackers did this, it was called cookie stuffing or cookie poisoning. They were prosecuted under fraud and wire fraud for this. So what is going to happen to Honey.

[@meshman4236]

Answered your own question bud

[@Le_Mon9]

The Legal eagle already filed a class action suit against Honey.

[@effyiew7318]

@@Le_Mon9 Yeah, but that guy is a clown and widely recognized as the worst and most uneducated lawyer on the planet. At best he can only screw this up.

[@natey9190]

nothing because big companies don't fail. also the lawsuit won't do anything because CA's are about stealing as much money from a company and not actually doing a punishment

[@aaroncousins4750]

​@@natey9190getting compensation for a crime committed against you is not stealing

[@questioned54]

He thinks it's public knowledge from a tweet with 9 likes smh

[@StreakyBaconMan]

The thing that makes that statement so ridiculous to me is THEY TOOK THE SPONSORSHIP. If it was REALLY public knowledge at the time, then it makes it even worse that they ever accepted the sponsorship. It means there was public knowledge this was a scam, and they missed it and promoted it anyway.

[@Blacktieintherain]

@@StreakyBaconMan Your timeline is off.

[@SynthSy]

Barnacules is a well known and respected tech creator in the space, so his word carried weight when it came to this stuff.

[@RBE_]

@@SynthSy While I agree that Barnacules is well known and his word carries weight, his tweet with 9 likes is not evidence of anything being common knowledge as Linus attempts to portray it

[@matiaspereyra9392]

​@@SynthSybro Jesus could appear on earth right this second and reveal how time travel works, his words would carry all the weight but if only a deer and Linus heard him say that or even saw him then who cares, he can't come out 4 years later and say "oh sorry guys my b I thought we been knowing the whole time, I thought nobody cared about time travel enough to carry it out, that's why I didn't say anything" I mean he can but he's either lying or stupid

[@hereistroy]

When a consumer clicks an affiliate link from a creator, there is a disclosure from the creatoe that they are getting a cut of that sale. My understanding is that it is a requirement from the FTC. I know that I have made purchases using affiliate links solely because it would benefit that creator. I have also used Honey. Consumers aren't the idiots that big business claims - big businesss cultivates confusion and covers themselves with inscrutable EULAs, TOS documents, and privacy policies offered up to the user at an inopportune time, knowing the consumer will never return to actually read those documents. So this absolutely was something that immediately impacted the consumer. Should these guys have said something? Legal or not, as a consumer I feel lied to. I personally would expect my favorite content creator to alert me when they learn that money I Intended to go to the creator was in fact rerouted to someone I had no intention of supporting. I don't know Linus Tech, but for influencers, trust is currency, and these guys are recklessly spending theirs.

[@ocean_demon]

You're so right about trust being currency for influencers. Nobody's clicking affiliate links or using services promoted by youtubers unless they want to directly support them. Literally the least they can do is inform their fanbase about it through a tweet or sm. If not for that reason, maybe spreading this info just among youtubers, because they're technically their peers is also a strong enough reason to do so. LTT isn't a small youtube channel and it has existed for a long time now, and they have whole team behind them, so they have less risks of being affected by potential lawsuits compared to smaller channels. The fact that people are still defending LTT as though it isn't his obligation to do so -- when was it so difficult to be a decent human being and alert others of a scam that they're not aware of??? (And no, an obscure forum post isn't enough)

[@Wizznilliam]

Plus they literally do tech related video content. The actions of this app extention definitely falls into tech knowledge. It directly affects the types of consumers who actually watch their videos the most. They do all kinds of IT related videos that don't affect 99% of regular consumers. No one is going to question Mr. Beast or h3h3 about why they wouldn't talk about this because they are not tech experts and don't do IT/tech related content.

[@cwxgames468]

@@Wizznilliam that's a big ass double standard if you ask me. If you want to hold LTT to a standard about why the drop a sponsorship then you should do it for every other channel that dropped a sponsor

[@Wizznilliam]

@@cwxgames468 Because it's not just about dropping a sponsor. Everyone drops sponsors all the time and no one cares about why. This is specifically a tech related issue that 99% of people don't know about. He claims to run a tech channel that explains and educates about tech content and obviously this is a big tech story all over the planet right now. Why would anyone expect a gossip or hijinks channel to cover a tech story? I don't even expect them to understood it let alone do a video about it. It's not as complicated or confusing as you are making it.

[@cwxgames468]

@@Wizznilliam 👌 sure.... You are soooooooooooooooooo right they are the only ones who ever had honey as a sponsor and are the only ones to blame .... Got it I'm so sorry I didn't have a hate boner and ready to blame Linus for everything. 🙌

[@SemiIocon]

"It doesn't affect the consumer" uh, yeah it does, they thought they were helping out their favourite creators and got ripped off instead. That is a betrayal of trust, which people care about, not a company like LTT though of course.

[@kastiffia9431]

And Megalag goes over how it screws over the consumer as well. It willfully ignores codes that aren't pre-agreed upon between the store and honey.

[@shawdou3327]

@@kastiffia9431 Which Linus didn't know at the time.

[@kastiffia9431]

@@shawdou3327 If he watched the video like he claimed he did, then he would have known.

[@shawdou3327]

@@kastiffia9431 There was no video back then when he dropped the honey. So not sure what you are talking about.

[@kastiffia9431]

@@shawdou3327 But he is using those points again to try and justify his action both then and now despite being proven wrong. He is being disingenuous and inaccurate all as a cover to save his ass and pretend like it's not a big deal and he's the victim. Straight from the narcissists playbook.

[@austinxwade]

Linus take any accountability for anything at all challenge (impossible)

[@chamilatgamage5587]

Unless it involves money

[@jaredbesanceney1]

I’m no Linus glazer. I understand their point of view. Gets a public tip they probably think who’s to say nobody else got the tip. Mega lad might not have meant for it to be an attack, but LTT faces backlash due to it. They stated their reasons for why they didn’t make a public video or louder. Although any back lash Linus doesn’t take the best but I think this is a justifiable response.

[@CoachSagi]

you are so regarded bro, legit redittors being mad at linus here is so cringe

[@redmagus7334]

​@@jaredbesanceney1 Linus has been doing very scummy things as of recent. This only adds to the list.

[@VirtuousMarine]

Of all the bs he has pulled over the years not ONCE did he apologize or make things right. So what redditors are you talking about? You might not care about ethics but don't bs people who do. His monthly views halved after 2023 drama and never recovered...​@@CoachSagi

[@Glenners]

linus doesn't take criticism well lol. They also replaced honey with another coupon extension that does the exact same thing. Also every shred of BS "proof people knew about this" that they present was researched retroactively NOW to cover their asses. They really couldn't find anything better than that single youtube video that was calling out honey for a totally different issue?? They also have a history of disclosing why they've dropped partners in the past, so to not do the same with Honey feels like a betrayal. Also their defense that "well it didn't harm the end user, all we knew about was THIS OTHER TERRIBLE THING" like wtf linus.

[@matiaspereyra9392]

He really doesn't, but I think it took a few years before he started comboing the fumblings, I think

[@wesleygardner616]

yea he never has

[@Tetsugen_]

These are the same guys who got their KZbin channel hacked because they downloaded an infected PDF file in an email, and evidently their network security and antivirus wasn't good enough to prevent that -- despite being a channel that spends exorbitant amounts of money on tech products. So it doesn't surprise me they can claim sponsorship money on 100+ videos and then not blow the whistle on their sponsor when they find out they're committing fraud. They're not the brightest bunch and even their fanbase points that out from time to time. Obviously Charlie is gonna tone it down but fact is there's a conflict of interest when you get sponsored that much and don't speak out.

[@WanTan8888]

Yeah he dropped honey because they were like hey honey can you stop taking OUR affiliate links and honey said no, Linus didn't care about it being done to everyone else

[@monkaSisLife]

in general i agree with you except with the other extension. What linus explained (that the extension was not like this at the time of sponsorship) is totally believable. It's easy to update an extension unlike checking every week if the extension suddenly had an update that did this.

[@statixfear]

I think Linus's indifference to the whole situation speaks more to him and his company not really caring about Honey's impact on other creators as opposed to just the average consumer. Like he himself mentioned, IF they'd have known of the other shady business practices around the cherry picking of coupons, then they'd have cared more. It really does suck because as much as I'd be on Linus's side for most of the "controversy" flung his way, this one's really to hard to stomach and defend. Like Charlie mentioned, the least they could have done is issue a public statement about it instead of put out some big production expose video like Gamers Nexus normally does... just the bare minimum would have been enough to absolve them of any wrongdoing... yet, here we are.

[@acb238]

It’s not like he discovered the same bro, he was told about it, why aren’t people criticizing me beast with this energy. Arguably he did it worse

[@statixfear]

@acb238 You do know the context of this clip, right? LMG knew of the referral poaching since 2022 yet they publicly said nothing about it. Linus is getting backlash because of that and not because they were one of the hundreds of creators who took sponsorships from them.

[@zzoinks]

Not saying anything is letting the crime happen.

[@truedps8]

Frankly, I don't blame him. It's just LTT's job to inform other creators. It's each individual creator's job to do their own research and determine what sponsorships they should take. People acting like they should be the beacon that informs everyone of anything potentially malicious is nonsense, especially when it does not involve their viewers. They do not have any responsibility to other creators.

[@arshenchromewave]

​​@@truedps8 except for the fact that spreading and promoting honey hurts other content creators, as more people install honey and other content creator's affiliate links constantly get replaced by it, taking their revenue. And that linus has promoted them in like hundreds of vids, like, I think at that point they have at least some moral obligation to call it out and spread the word when they first find out about it.

[@user-ly7nd2sm8d]

Linus' ego is such a detriment to his company. Dude needs therapy or a PR rep to handle this stuff because his thin skin and childish responses to the tiniest bit of criticism (legitimate or not) makes things so much worse every single time.

[@ViewOf]

I actually like Linus, but the dude has very thin skin.

[@MrVeryfrost]

Linus doesn't own anything to other content creators. He is not paid solicitor obliged to inform his clients.

[@user-ly7nd2sm8d]

@@MrVeryfrost The thing is, everything you just wrote could be 100% correct and it would still have no bearing on what I actually said. You are arguing against a point I didn't make.

[@blzrL]

​@@MrVeryfrosti dont think anyone could care less, we are not talking about obligations to his wallet

[@cwxgames468]

When others are misrepresenting the situation and or singling one person out of the group over something then yeah it comes off like an attack. Cause I see it a lot where now people look for any little thing to jump on Linus about. He has no obligation to tell us why he dropped his sponsorship or why he didn't accept a sponsorship. But he posted about it to HIS audience on their forum and if I recall they have a list of sponsors they don't work with.

[@nick90000]

It's not just "creators", they are only a part of the affiliate community, Honey ripped off maybe millions of affilliates worldwide

[@iswm]

"affiliate community" lmao. you're all a bunch of leeches.

[@VoxVictus]

Honestly it hurt viewers too but to a far lesser extent. If I do some form of work for you and we agree that you'll give my pay to my husband or to some other person for that work and you as the middle man come along and decide "naw, I'm actually going to give this money to the person i want!" then you have just factually taken from me. If I attempted to give that profit from my actions, in this case going to a website to use that I wouldn't have otherwise looked at in that moment to make that website money in the form of going to a store and shopping there instead of where I normally would, to a creator and instead Honey took that money generated from my efforts that I only took with the understanding the person of my choice would receive the compensation then I have been scammed. Of course you could argue I was only scammed out of a few moments of my time but a few moments over millions and millions of people clicking dozens of affiliate links is still a substantial amount of fraudulently misdirected funds. I don't view ads and I have my own extensions that warn me and give me the option to block when cookies are set, if I decided to both click a link and allow content to be stored on my computer for a specific monetary reward to go to the person I want and then that money is instead pocketed by a middle man then my meager efforts are very much not being compensated in the form it was agreed they would be. Not saying this is illegal or anything, our laws are messed up and tend to default to the idea that interacting with ads is sort of a thing that just happens to us as viewers and isn't an action we take with the expectation of compensation but again, just because something isn't for sure illegal doesn't mean it isn't still capable of misleading you into spending your time to earn money for Honey when your own intention was for that money you generated to go to someone of your own choice.

[@squeebers]

3:58 Saying Affiliate code ripping doesn't affect the user is not true. I don't think Linus is thinking about this, but... When I use an affiliate link to make a purchase I am doing so to support a yuoutuber I enjoy watching. If I had downloaded Honey and used it, I essentially would be tricked into supporting Honey instead of the creator I wanted the money to go to. I never used Honey. Mainly thanks to my own discernment and Markiplier bringing voice to why it didn't feel right. So, I didn't not experience the guilt? Shame? Mixture of the two? that comes with being tricked like that. However, thousands if not hundreds of thousands DID. That matters to me. I'm certain that most creators wouldn't think about that at all if they had discovered this scam. So, I don't blame Linus at all.

[@Blacktieintherain]

Would have been even worst for LTT at that time. "Hey, this extension that's saving you money is taking money from multimillion dollar companies. Don't use this extension that saves you money because it's hurting our pockets". Yes, smaller creators are also affected, but people would only see the big company telling them to not save money because it hurts the company's bottom line.

[@frankrstorm06]

@@BlacktieintherainI was literally coming to say that at that time they only knew about how affected creators and most likely about optics because they have been really vocals with other cases that affected consumers(emphasis in the last part) they are placing this responsibility on Linus because we know they knew early. People are painting them as shady how???? Because we are not involved in all the background deals and updates at the time. The response was not the best yes but this is wan show where Linus gives his unfiltered thoughts and opinions, if I was in his show my reaction would’ve been the same: WTF you want me to do ?😂

[@matiaspereyra9392]

​@@Blacktieintherainthat's because you're framing it incorrectly, don't do a main channel thing, do a post somewhere, it doesn't have to be KZbin, just makes sure word spreads around, and don't tell the people to not use honey, tell people "if you want to support a small creator like "x or y" (small creators that Don't even have to be tech related) when you buy a thing with an affiliate link do not click on honey Stuff or else (coupon found or not) it will send your money to Paypal instead of the creator, this announcement is not us crying bc we won't get your money, it's because we made several promotions and we feel like WE're taking money off of x, y and the rest of the people who, unlike us rely, on their commission deal, if we didn't speak about this our consciousness wouldn't be at ease because we know how it's like and with honey around we probably wouldn't have made it, look, use honey if you go through our links if you want but if you're ever purchasing with the intention of supporting a small creator remember that using honey won't give them money... Of course, from now on we won't be advertising honey any more Pretend you feel guilty because you're one of the big ones and people look at you as the filter of good businesses, that's you "taking some accountability" then focus the attention to the tons of people who legit need their commission money, keep hammering there and the people who want to support you will deactivate honey on your affiliate regardless regardless of what you said. Of course people will still say you're doing it for your gain. you can have a mostly positive opinion from the community and some calling you greedy. conversely you could choose to keep quiet aaaand... one half wants blood and the other hand is saying that you're kinda grouchy and selfish and that you kinda don't give a shit yeah but it's not that horrible in the great scheme of things (sorry if it sounds incoherent. I'm actually falling asleep and it's hard to check if my sentences mean what I'm trying to say 😂)

[@maximusfoo4616]

@@matiaspereyra9392your point would be valid, except they did EXACTLY that in their forums. Hopefully it helps

[@Adam-je2cp]

@@frankrstorm06 dont forget linus also auctioned off a prototype so yes lmg is shady

[@minhpham27]

The thing with LTT is, unlike GN, consumer advocacy/protection is second to their own business and business relationships, and float plane subs. All come down to people expecting LTT to speak up for the little guys and they didn’t here.

[@mrdestroyer5297]

The ' Little guys' being massive youtubers whos commission would of been stolen?

[@minhpham27]

@ some are big, most are small. Regardless of big or small, they work for those commissions.

[@worldxcalltum8481]

@@mrdestroyer5297 honey is a very prolific sponsor in the space. It's a lot of small creators first sponsors cause it was pretty easy to get.

[@DrBrown88]

Yep, I guess only hard tech is his only vice! I guess software is too much for him.

[@markus1351]

yeah but this what LTT knew was never about the end-user

[@ZyvhurStudios]

LTTs inability to take any kind of responsibility in the face of scrutiny is why I stepped back from their content

[@fenixloder]

Linus has always been like that, he is a very proud person, I still like him tho, I always see LTT videos, kind of a fan LOL

[@NemanyaIam]

It's not his responsibility for some company doing shady business. He was also affected. His only responsibility should be his company and his employees. Also what about Mr. Beast or mrwhosetheboss. They had more views and sponsored video with Honey. And also those 2 channels as many others terminated the contracts with them. Expecting companies to disclose their deals with sponsors is insane. Take for example you. Do you disclose any of your contracts with others publicly?

[@Arrynek01]

@@NemanyaIam Exactly that. Linus runs a company. And, in his own words, Companies are not your friends. It exists to make money. That's it. It might choose to do so in an ethical way, which I like to believe LTT is doing. BUT they will also not take an action that might damage them. Like publicly accusing Honey of theft. That's a way too high possibility of slander lawsuit.

[@Matticitt]

@@NemanyaIam no one wanted them to disclose their deals with anyone. Once they learned what honey was doing they should've made it public. They're a tech channel. And what about MrWhosetheBoss? He didn't know. LTT KNEW!

[@NemanyaIam]

@Matticitt Yeah but making videos like that wouldn't go well. Different times.

[@MichaelJCaboose013]

"Yeah, i saw an explosive device in the trashcan and walked away without saying anything, but im sure other people saw it too, and if youre not in the blast radius then it doesnt affect you anyway."

[@tiobetio9501]

What a simplistic dumb take.

[@z0bi_]

"to our knowledge it didn't have any immediate consumer facing consequences"

[@PonyCraft]

​@@tiobetio9501 How's it bad?

[@EzFightGG]

Wait.. thats it? He didnt watch more? He talks about how way more creators knew. Clarifies they didn't know the consumer side. Points out the atmosphere change from then to now (back then, people were critical of creators monetizing content vs now ppl encouraging and supporting creators "getting the bag"). Ect. I kept skipping forward for Charlie to keep playing the vod and then the video ended xD

[@michaljahelka7759]

One thing I am missing in LTTs video is this: LTT used to have (dont know if it still a thing) a policy of not disclosing exact reasoning for dropping sponsors unless specifically said by LTT/Linus (for example annoucement of Framework/HexOS investment). Another example is TunnleBear - they got bought by some other VPN company and did shady stuff (something about user data protection/selling or something like that). They spoke publicaly about this after couple of years. On the other hand, I think that dropping anker as a sponsor was public bcs of their user data protection scandal.

[@Banditxam5]

They still have it... They still update their forums with this

[@LudwigHorsecock]

Oh… what a shady policy. Why does anyone support these clowns if they know they have a policy like that?

[@thechineserussian]

Nope, Linus announced they were dropping Tunnelbear in a livestream when the acquisition by McAfee happened. They have a history of publicly disclosing that they're dropping sponsors.

[@mostlywanderer]

I don't think linus understands that it's not just creators who promoted honey who got affected but each and every affiliate link on the internet is affected (videos, blog posts, anywhere there are affiliate links) because of honey if you have the plug-in installed.

[@Not_Soundwave]

This also includes purchases that _don't_ have affiliate links. If you use Honey to buy from, say, Amazon, Honey will just throw in their own cookie and Amazon would have to pay them a commission. So even if there _was_ no affiliate link, there _will_ be if Honey's involved.

[@startide]

he understand just fine though. Linus is a smart guy so he knows exactly what honey did.

[@1vader]

His point was that it only affects creators. It doesn't really matter to regular people that the affiliate links they use get changed, hence something like a video about it wouldn't directly be relevant to most people, besides I guess if they care about their favorite creators getting money. There might even be a world where such a video would have been perceived negatively as them just complaining about making less money.

[@hiiamelecktro4985]

I just don’t see it going over well if Linus made a video asking people to stop using Honey because their coupons are taking money away from Linus. Like, people would 100% then complain that the rich youtuber doesn’t want us to get good discounts because they can’t get their cut.

[@startide]

@hiiamelecktro4985 that's not% honey was doing though. It was giving worse coupon or no coupon at all

[@NemanyaIam]

But Mr. Beast was much bigger at the time and he also ended a sponsorship. What are you talking about? Also did you ever thought that contract is probably confidential?

[@TotalProductions123]

Well this is the guy who didn't want to spend 500 extra dollars to correct their videos. Why waste the money warning the other creators about. It's like penn state situation.

[@flashpointnova]

They knew it was a scam and they have lots of friends who pushed honey and they didn’t say a word to any of them! Never mind telling the consumers how about the people that you work with who are your friends and are getting shafted shilling for honey? Linus and the rest of his corporation loves to act like they are for the consumer and are honest regarding their advocacy on behalf of their own self interest, but at no point in time when it has come right down to it has that proven to be true. I love how they don’t accept any criticism and act as if this isn’t that big of a deal until their audience gets at them and then the apologies comes out. Just like with “trust me, bro” or the cooling block controversy. They will never take responsibility for a single thing until their audience makes it clear that if they don’t, there will be consequences, just like every corporation. Absolute virtue signaling.

[@Jasperr9999]

The affiliate code ripping, while scummy, isn't by definition a scam. A scam is something that doesn't do what it promises to, and the only promise Honey makes to the user is to save them money, which isn't a promise affected by the affiliate code issue. The scam part is Honey making backdoor deals with websites to remove the best codes from their service, which does go against their promise to "search the internet for the best promo codes" And to some degree, I can understand his perspective. All they knew at the time was the extension did the affiliate code swapping, which ultimately makes no difference to consumers. So making a big announcement about it definitely could come across as "this extension that saves you money is losing me money, so don't use it," which considering how many people love to have a hate-boner for Linus I don't believe to be an unreasonable estimation. I agree that Linus does make many mistakes and isn't the best at handling critique, but it's also true that a lot of the "controversy" he gets into is usually quite pedantic and unreasonable.

[@automatedautonomy]

@@Jasperr9999 It is a scam to stuff cookies, it's illegal wire fraud. Also, affiliate money contractually goes to who did the referral, so they violated these contacts and also tricked (scammed) consumers who used the affiliate code to pay a creator by surreptitiously replacing the attribution code with their own to steal money from the creator.

[@flashpointnova]

@Jasperr9999 Allegedly.creating/allowing an unsafe work place through the ignoring of sexual harassment from his e suite and actually in public threatening whistleblowers... "pedantic and unreasonable" what LMG mercenaries stuff is this? Linus can run spin for himself. If that's your job, then get the bag I guess.

[@ExarchGaming]

@@flashpointnova lmao, the "sexual harassment" thing was someone jump scared her. complete overblown melodrama.

[@flashpointnova]

@ExarchGaming ...and that justifies his actions. Cool, thanks. Yvone demands you keep eye contact with her as you glaze her husband. Don't you DARE look at him.

[@Shadowfeaux]

I do agree with LTTs point in this weeks WAN where he mentions that if they did make a stink about it, not knowing it was scamming customers by not actually giving the best deals it woulda come across pretty badly telling people to not use this discount app because it’s stealing the affiliate revenue. So it woulda sounded like “hey, dont use this thing that’ll help you get a deal because I won’t get my cut.” Which people woulda ripped them apart for. The other content creators prob woulda appreciated the info, but end users mostly wouldn’t have cared.

[@akkidyy]

This should be the top comment but it isn't because it's not emotionally charged or a joke. This whole narrative of him being a jerk who wants to screw over other KZbinrs and the audience will only be believed in echo chambers like this comment section.

[@monkaSisLife]

Sorry, this is not the one. Also directed at akkidyy. Your / Linus's Point are based on something you don't know would've happend which is therefore just not valid. It also wouldn't have mattered because the Good this would've caused outweighs the Bad astronomically.

[@cwxgames468]

@@monkaSisLife People jump any fucking reason to have a go at Linus.

[@crabwalktechnic]

If Linus saw your girlfriend cheating on you, he wouldn't tell you. "They were out in public. Other people knew. Why are you getting mad at me for not telling you?"

[@cupuacu4life13]

you just exposed your lack of morals there, rap snitch

[@shaynejuggles]

10:43 Linus literally mentioned that other channels that had learned about Honey's actions stopped working with them AND told OMG about the scam. OMG was not the only channel that stopped working with them

[@theanimegodgaming8207]

Linus says that it doesn't affect end consumer but it did the creators so what,linus could have still made a video telling his audience that hey guys we got scammed by honey and many other content creators are too. which the audience maybe fans of or following and told them to stop using honey as its ripping off creators. The audience loved so much and that their support via affiliate sales is not reaching the creators. imo it would have been the end of it i say this bcuz as mentioned in megalags video linus had the 3rd most views on his honey sponsored videos so educating such a large number of people could have definitely helped creators

[@Gray.Noises]

Linus spends all of his time defending himself instead of trying to understand why so many of his viewers are upset about this. All he had to do was acknowledge that many of his viewers wish he had said more at the time and that he'll take this into consideration going forward. He didn't even have to apologize or promise to make any specific changes! Like, how easy would it have been to do that? Does he not see that he extends the controversy by denying he should have done anything differently?

[@DrBrown88]

He would have to go out of his way and ask others. That's too much work. It's really not tech, after all. It's just clicks! No one else is being scammed!

[@Wizznilliam]

This also affects his direct consumers. He does IT/server related content all the time. This very much fits that. His audience cares about this a LOT more than Beast's audience.

[@Glenners]

Yeah, don't you think the viewers who purchase things to support creators should know they're not getting any of that money because Honey is stealing it??

[@akrilla5929]

Maybe its a business strategy, where he knew allowing honey to scam would mean small affiliate marketers/businesses would not be able to flourish and grow to compete with him, etc. Honey does steal 100% affiliate payments so businesses don't profit.

[@jozonas]

This reaction is simply a demonstration that they got compesated for the loss in their affiliated money with a clause restricting them from talking shit about Honey, and didn't care about anyone else. They show their true colors right here. Sad though.

[@ArvinCastro]

my thoughts as well, they got hush money for sure.

[@ABDP]

Stretchhhh. They spoke publicly that they dropped honey and gave the specific reason.

[@javierflores09]

This is such a stretch, the most plausible explanation is that they just didn't quite realize the impact honey had on youtube creators as a whole when they dropped them, and after them not being a sponsor anymore they just forgot it was a thing. It would've been better if they had said something so that creators would've been made aware, however considering they're a big company, dropping them wouldn't have been a decision they put conscious thought onto, at least not enough to warrant the kind of reaction people were expecting. I get that it is frustrating that they had the opportunity to do better, but LMG is run by people, and people make mistakes so all this frivolous speculation is just wild to me, there's no reason to think they're doing something shady about simply not recognizing the impact Honey had on youtube.

[@Music-hl1hi]

I think it's simply not a good look to be talking down your sponsors. It might make your company look bad in the eyes of potential partners. Linus prioritized the image of his business in the eyes of other businesses over transparency with his fans and fellow influencers.

[@PsyDei]

Linus showed his true colors years ago man.

[@apexdude105]

Creators should do their own due diligence, why blame your negligence on another channel not doing a video? Similar scandals happened with betterhelp or establish titles, except those hurt the end user not the content creator. Manage your own sponsors responsibly instead of waiting for Linus to save the day.

[@Mxmlln.]

So incredibly scummy of Linus Media not to alert the wider community when they first knew about this issue with Honey. Great job, what wonderful team players Linus Group are lmao. Gotta keep that competition down right fella's!! When you learn a company is stealing your money and all the other channels money and you don't tell everyone and only save yourself, so incredibly selfish there is no way to defend it.

[@stevebell3537]

Exactly this. By not making other creators aware dropped their competitions affiliate deals due to poor conversions. Imagine how many stores decided not to continue with creators!

[@joouniii]

Well they didn't save them self. They where still losing money from fans that where using honey.

[@andregoncalves5100]

​@@joouniiiPlus they stopped taking the sponsorship money, hardly the greedy thing to do, and as he said he didn't think anyone would care because he is one of the most affected people by this

[@CoachSagi]

bro are you even human? how can you have this insane take from all of this

[@questionable_live]

@@joouniii they probably just didn't realize the extent of what honey was doing they found one shady thing they ended the partnership immediately and moved on. Because yes they were still losing money from this without their knowledge.

[@bethanysolimine5428]

A tweet that had 8 likes? Oh sure, everyone must know about it then? Not very tech savvy there, Linus.

[@AMalas]

The defensive response is because of the sheer magnitude of attack launched at LTT for this, prior to this WAN show. People have devided Linus = bad, and now no matter what the fuck he does, he sucks and everything he does is wrong. Its just confirmation bias: he is bad, this seems bad, yeah he os definitely bad.

[@FakeDeath_]

Yes and no. He has made videos on companies like TeamViewer for trying to get him to switch from his lifetime license to a subscription based one. Yet for Honey ripping him and ither creators off from their money and consumers who want to support their favorite creators also got ripped off since their money never went to supporting their favorite creators. Then he admits to getting a payout from Honey.

[@AMalas]

@FakeDeath_ the TeamViewer situation is not in any way analogous to the Honey situation before megalag's video. One of these stiffed consumers, the other stiffed business partners. It is not close to the same thing. Linus did get a payout... The sponsorship money was that payout. There was no hush money, dont spin it that way

[@hiiamelecktro4985]

I just don’t see it going over well if Linus made a video asking people to stop using Honey because their coupons are taking money away from Linus. Like, people would 100% then complain that the rich youtuber doesn’t want us to get good discounts because they can’t get their cut.

[@RaKnows]

He could have said what was actually happening, that they were stealing EVERYONE'S money without them knowing. There is a way to tell it for the good of the entire content creator community without making it a self-centered video. The fact that he can't see beyond making it about himself is half the issue.

[@hiiamelecktro4985]

@ I don’t see how a video complaining about affiliate code hijacking will get interpreted as anything besides “greedy KZbinr complains about not earning enough”. No matter how hard you put the emphasis on smaller creators. Consumers don’t care as long as they get their discount. The reason the recent honey video blew up is mostly because honey isn’t just bad for creators. It’s also bad for consumers. Which Linus didn’t know at the time. Like, I do get not airing out all dirty laundry with a brand as long as they’re not affecting consumers as far as you know.

[@Neuzahnstein]

Ad blocker use is piracy or? ​@@hiiamelecktro4985

[@jorgepenaloza6834]

I think Linus didn't want to say it was a scam after having it promote it for dozens of videos like a drunken pirate. It was like the people who did FTX sponsorships. 😅

[@pixels_2124]

And a lot of the people who took those FTX sponsorships were investigated for knowingly promoting a fraudulent business.

[@treblandford4117]

The fact that red flags didn’t go off when PayPal bought a COUPON company for FOUR BILLION DOLLARS should have raised several red flags tbh lmao

[@sarelvanderwalt5219]

The issue for not going public at the time was that many of their viewers continued to install Honey on their devices. So even though they didn’t support Honey, it’s very likely that Honey continued to steal from them by overriding/ripping affiliate links on nearly all subsequent videos.

[@snapturtle3253]

- I'll put my tin foil hat I think Linus wants to keep his name clear for other companies after he dropped honey. so he continue to get those sweet sponsor money no company wants to pay a snitch

[@frykauf]

I think this comment section proves that people are heavily criticizing them for this. I'm not taking their side or anything, just pointing out Charlie is wrong about that part.

[@CriIp]

bruh, megalag spend years digging into honey to make a big video exposing it. Linus saw one form-post about affiliate links, and stopped working with them. I don't think it wasn't Linus's story to expose. He may have just thought nothing big from it.

[@juryfilanti]

In this video I don’t really get Charlie, I don’t understand beside a post on their forum about the dropping because of a business practice what they have to do. They were very clear about the fact that their knowledge was only about the affiliate link, no issue with the customers or anything else besides a business issue for them, because of their size probably they had dozens of scammy sponsors and they dropped them , they don’t have to make a video because of a business issue, that doesn’t affect customers, every time. On top of that Linus is right, the way the guy talked about him was kind of pushing on the fact that Linus was the only one that known, he said in multiple occasions “I was disappointed” “they should inform” “I was aspecting more from him”…

[@Waldo-Manfred]

linus is a cold calculating business man, he really does not care about others

[@2Curriuss]

why should he?

[@ocean_demon]

@@2Curriuss Bc it's basic human decency to do so. But let's put that aside since you don't seem to comprehend that and look at it at a business perspective - he makes a large income from his channel, supported by his fanbase. Honey also affects consumers, not just the influencers, so he's selling a lie to his audience. Now they won't trust him as much and will be less likely to support him through affiliate links and whatnot, which affects his livelihood

[@REXae86]

@@ocean_demonyou’re projecting.

[@REXae86]

Why should he care? He has nothing to do with them.

[@panathatube]

​@@REXae86He got scammed as well that could have been a good incentive. Strictly business wise. His reputation. Corporate reputation is a currency. Good corporate image matters in today's world. It's counter productive (meaning bad for business) to lose your prestige on the market.

[@madel005]

As intelligent as Linus is, it is hilarious how this could make him so confused 😅

[@shadidqazi9315]

intelligent????

[@zebrion5793]

He's not confused - he likely signed a non-desparagement clause.

[@madel005]

@@zebrion5793 I know, that's what I mean, he's not very convincing

[@madel005]

@@shadidqazi9315 I think if he took an IQ-test he would have a decent score, yes

[@Kinaibhlan]

it's called feign ignorance

[@DravensCringeGaming]

Linus: "Yeah we knew it was a scam 🙂👍" "👍"

[@Kyderra]

Perhaps I'm the weird one, but I dont think Linus should be held accountable for the bad shit Honey did. People should not shift their focus or anger to the wrong people.

[@glennwatson]

Thought Linus was acting reasonable for a video from his channel about his position, although little bit weird with the defensiveness of it.

[@RichardTheRoe]

He sat on what went on to be one of the largest tech news of 2024 for years without doing anything. Despite running the largest tech channel on the web. And running a tech news channel. And he ran their ads for a long time. "Resonable". LTT is indeed a cult.

[@ssanc6]

I remember hearing about the affiliate ripping, but I don't know from where

[@jmunt]

I think Linus is being more defensive because of people online, rather than the video itself. There were comments right away about "wow Linus is scummy for not saying something, they must've been paid hush money, etc". These comments are more "attacks" than "critiques". They probably saw these kinds of comments before actually watching the video, which primed them to watch that video with a bias thinking the video was harsher to them than it actually was. The video was mild in the critique, but when you go into ANY critique thinking "what I'm about to watch is the reason people are accusing me of all kinds of bad stuff I didn't do", any human would go into it with a defensive mindset that makes a *critique* feel like an *attack*. That's just human nature.

[@BenjaminJcqt]

Yeah I think this is spot on

[@ExarchGaming]

you're on the money, you can see that very behavior right here in this comment section.

[@alexandersedig3143]

Exactly, just reading through these comments you can see how Linus knowing about it is immediately perceived as Linis being in on it. I can see why he's on the defensive.

[@perlovgren919]

@@alexandersedig3143Idk anything about this situation but to me it seems people are mad because he didnt spread the word, not that he was in on it.

[@cwxgames468]

@@jmunt there are people who jump at the chance to attack Linus over anything... He could say "the sky is blue." And they would pounce.

[@hcshires]

I think both sides need to chill out here. It's really easy to put a face to all the terrible things that occured from Honey and say "if only someone could have prevented this" thus in a way "blaming" LTT for something Honey did. So rather than creating unnecessary issues with LTTs actions or lack thereof, just go back to focusing on the monsterous actions of Honey. If we get distracted, the evil company wins.

[@stevenpereira3219]

I wish more people thought like this.

[@GerasSB]

They're not getting blamed for the scam happening, but they certainly get blame for allowing it to continue while having the knowledge AND the means to put an end to it. They had the audience size, they knew something was wrong, they had the perfect fit for their content, they publicly explain why they drop sponsors, they were heavy Honey promoters... and they say nothing?

[@MatsNorway]

Love how internet says "Just sue paypal no biggie" as if Linus wants more drama when they focused on content and simply took the L.

[@loneranger7831]

This makes it seem as if people are blaming LTT for what honey did, but everyone ive seen hasent, all there saying he should have told people why he dropped honey.

[@wildfiresp9606]

@@loneranger7831this just straight up isn’t true from reading these comments. People are definitely blaming him for not stopping em

[@jordi95]

You missed the parth in which he explains why he didn't post a video about it, wich is fair , sonce at that moment would have looked as if he was asking the audience to not use and app that saves them money so he can get his affiliated money, that wouldn't be a good view at all

[@retired-s5h]

Other youtubers were still actively promoting honey, it doesn't matter linus drop them. Linus will also lose money because other youtubers were promoting it, he could've ended all this by making some noise.

[@stevefigueroa6333]

Linus did nothing wrong he deals with hundreds of sponsors and to his knowledge at the time it only affected streamers he just thought it wasn't a good deal so he backed out

[@AliceNine]

"Why didn't Linus inform anyone about Honey???" As you can all see at 7:21 , he did. He informed the public about this years ago. People just wanna' crucify him for fun aylmao.

[@ZingDaBin]

"He informed the public". It was buried as a reply in a thread on his own obscure forum. Common now. Same with the "everyone already knew" and then he shows a tweet with 9 likes as evidence of "everyone knowing". You're being absolutely ridiculous peddling the LTT party line nonsense.

[@LacayoDe]

Linus had the moral responsibility to INFORM his followers and fellow creators how Honey was replacing the affiliate links when the got to know about this. But instead decided to stay quiet to avoid backfire for all the thousands or millions they got paid by them over the years.

[@plazima]

No, it’s not his responsibility to help other creators not get scammed

[@LacayoDe]

@ what are you talking about .. he recived funds from these scammers for years..

[@SynthSy]

His circle of creator friends already knew about honey's scam at the time.

[@luukas2660]

He did inform his followers though... They posted about it very openly on the LTT forums in 2022.

[@TAXie-ck7ed]

Linux is trying to gaslight at this point. That he accepted sponsorship from another company with similar practices indicates he's fine doing business with scammers.

[@sagheerkhan1826]

You promoted honey and this video is a way to divert that attention from you to Linus, who at least mentioned something on a public forum.

[@NotANerdYet]

I could get behind the line of thinking that "since no other significant outlet has had grievances toward them we didn't think to point it out since it was our personal issue with the company and the other influencer might be fine with it" But out right thinking it was mainstream and not just a topic sprinkled in heavy tech centered areas of the internet. Though ANYONE who didn't think honey could or would scam end users especially after PayPal purchase is just stupid. Company's need money to run same with honey and PayPal. Yet again it wouldn't be to hard to outline there practices you were aware of that you yourself held to personal review and acted on it.

[@CellPhish]

We sign contracts when taking sponsorships. If the sponsor sees your action as hurting their business no matter how bad their practices are can go after you. The best thing to do in these situations is to just walk away to protect your own business. Unfortunately that’s what pretty much any legal team would tell you to do.

[@automatedautonomy]

So better to just let scammers defraud everyone, right?

[@drbirtles]

Therefore money is more important than doing the right thing?

[@BooleanDev]

@@drbirtlesyeah exactly. that money is what puts food on the table for their employees

[@mind-of-neo]

The fact that they specifically made a point to defend intentionally withholding information with the justification of "you're commoners and you didn't need to know" is extremely gross and elitist. All they had to do was not dig their heels in and to apologize and say "yeah, it was wrong not to say anything" But they couldn't manage. They just had to dig their heels in.

[@lolhi1122]

lol why is everyone acting like if LTT went up against paypal with the information they had years ago it would have been a slam dunk??? Like most people don't seem to realize putting yourself in the targets of a multi billion dollar company lawsuit can end badly even if you are in the right, and when you have a staff of 40-50+ people why should he be the one to lead the charge and risk everyone's job, even if they won it would be years and millions in court costs before a payout would be seen. Then ask yourself if you make this whole thing public and what if he was wrong and the information he got from people was wrong / not the whole picture, sure it was pretty obvious that wasn't the case. Would you roll on dozens of peoples jobs at your company on a 8/10 9/10 chance, I wouldn't.

[@DragonEdge10]

@@lolhi1122 This is the exact problem I'm having with a lot of the criticism flying their way right now. Yeah, it'd have been better for Linus to have made some sort of PSA tweet maybe, but like you said, there could have been consequences and not all of this information was known at the time. And as Linus himself has pointed out, it was public knowledge that they got elsewhere to begin with, and thus as much as it would've been better for them to put their hat in the ring with hindsight, it wasn't their story to break. What could certainly have been handled better was his reaction to this common sentiment that LTT has some sort of moral responsibility to give such information a platform moving forward, sure, but I think it's silly to act as if they committed some grave moral sin and are refusing to take responsibility for it when they explained clearly why they did not hold that sentiment.

[@quatjohn4375]

At 13:06 according to Megalag LTT missed or ignored the post in mid 2020 about what they were doing and sometime after that cut ties with them. In early 2022 LTT posted on their forums that Honey was hijacking affiliate links. I don’t know the exact timeline of exact date LTT cut ties but I’d imagine it was about 6 months before the posted on the forums

[@NeverNotFaded]

its pretty simple, when a company makes claims about other companies they open themselves up to liability.

[@Mmuitd]

wow… imagine if linus tech tips made tech tips about another the products of another company, that would be crazy

[@monkaSisLife]

this is wrong & also just a lazy excuse to not call anyone out.

[@buudhabear]

Linus, I’m out of mana. What am I supposed to do?

[@imHugoLeandroDesign]

I mean Linus was the only one who came "publicly" saying they dropping them because of company malpractices. But I ask how many youtubers knew about this, they just silently dropped honey without saying a word. In my opinion there was more people knew but didn't even said anything on the Internet.

[@NdxtremePro]

A forum post on their forum would seem to imply it was directed at them.

[@kakaeriko]

what is payment for silence called?

[@rolangsrecords]

Conspiracy theory: LTT finds out about the fraud, confronts Honest, got hush money, remained silent. Linus look and sound very reluctant through the whole video!

[@TheLostOne156]

The thing is they promoted honey to a lot of people and when they found out about the sketchy business model, they didn't let their audience know.

[@NdxtremePro]

So, isn't making the forum post exactly what you are asking for, though? It wasn't timely enough for you, but it was also 2 years before any of this came to light? I think that is a double standard.

[@JiggSsaw]

Yeah, it is not like they tried to hide it. From the forum post I get that they think Honey getting the affiliate money for providing coupons is fair. They only didn't like that they get the affiliate money even if they don't provide any coupons. If Linus were to argue this point in WAN show rather than going defensive, again, it wouldn't be an issue. As he said here, they didn't know the other scummy things Honey did.

[@thedigitalrealm7155]

A forum post is hardly sounding the alarm bells dude.

[@DarcMagikian]

can you link the original video this was from?

[@ClippedShipped]

kzbin.info7LGuglDdliw?si=C5jxBD8F03EnxVWx

[@Nope-gu3ph]

The reason he didn't do it because LTT used to be in a lot of controversy over them talking about their business stuff. So they didn't want to be in hot water for talking about something that back then was considered to help consumers because it hurt them and their business. As for them talking about them in Megalag's video, yeah it's not major but when you do single out a company that big and constantly in hot water for this shit because someone is coming for you all the time (especially when that someone is who you thought a friend, like Steve) it makes sense to look at this as an attack.

[@SeohnAranys]

I understand where he’s coming from. They heard about it from other people and just assumed more people know about it so they felt no need to make a video. If somebody knew about it years ago, why didn’t those other people make videos too?

[@StreakyBaconMan]

It's still a terrible response. All they had to do was say "At the time we didn't view it as this big thing - it was a dispute between us and one of our sponsors and we felt it was resolved by ending the sponsorship. In hindsight we wish we'd drawn more attention to what Honey was up to back then because it's clear that far less people were aware of how Honey worked than we initially assumed. Sorry to our audience if they feel let down in any way and we'll try and do better to communicate about issues like this in the future". The response they actually gave gives me the vibes of an influencer caught promoting a crypto scam trying to defend themselves. Not trying to say that they are actually as bad as someone who promotes a crypto scam, but it's not great when their defence reminds me of those people.

[@SeohnAranys]

@@StreakyBaconMan Again, pointing blame and expecting more than anyone else at the time did too. They shouldn't have to say all that because people should realize this and be more fair about their outrage. Drama-seeking is why they are getting hate right now. Projecting and assuming they knew more is the reason. If I were in their shoes and knew only that one thing they say they knew about. I likely would have done the same thing especially since it is "supposedly" mentioned in Honey's terms that they do this. Never assume conspiracy first. Yeah, it happens. But if you always jump to that conclusion of a conspiracy first you leave no room for honest mistakes which makes you no better than the haters who look for reasons to hate. Because mistakes do happen. And as far as I am aware Linus has been good about calling stuff out in the past. Do some things slip by? Yeah, but overall they have never been misleading in all my years of watching them. So benefit of the doubt first due to a good previous record. I'm not saying don't be cautious, I just saying don't be callous. Not saying you are. I'm just pointing this out because others who read this are like this. And as you have said, if people don't point it out they won't know, right?

[@StreakyBaconMan]

@@SeohnAranys The problem is that because he's been good at calling out other stuff in the past, more is expected of him than of someone like say Mr. Beast. People view him as trustworthy, and they feel let down in this situation that he promoted this company and then failed to correct the record in any meaningful way, because they expected him to given his reputation. While I understand that many people are blowing this out of all proportion and making it seem much worse than it is and that sucks and is unfair, it doesn't mean that I can't have legitimate criticisms for the way this was handled or the response to it - and I don't think it's very fair to attempt to discount my criticisms based on what the most extreme people who are just out for drama are saying. I'm not one of those people. And I also just disagree that he shouldn't have to make a proper response/apology about the whole situation. Like if I accidentally bumped into you in the street you shouldn't just automatically assume I am a bad guy and I did it on purpose as an assault on your person - but that doesn't mean I shouldn't say "sorry about that, I should have been paying more attention to where I was walking" and it certainly wouldn't be cool if you turned to me and said "Umm, excuse me? you just walked into me." and then I got all defensive and started saying "people walk into each other all the time, why are you mad with me for? go get mad at someone who walks into more people than me".

[@SeohnAranys]

@@StreakyBaconMan Criticism is ok, unfair criticism is not. As a tech guy, we all would've liked it if he said a little more. But since he isn't the only tech guy why should he be the only one getting the brunt of this? If anything why aren't more people calling it out the was who promoted it the most. The contract had wording in it that pointed this out too. Someone even without tech knowledge could've seen it yet they didn't. The only reason he is getting so much anger toward him is because he is a tech guy. But people make mistakes. If anything the biggest advertisers of it should be the one who has all the anger directed toward them because someone like Mr Beast should had someone in his legal team that spotted it. Yet they didn't. Look at how many people didn't promote the guy who made the original video? Why didn't more people spread that to other creators so they knew? Everyone is responsible for not making that guy's video go viral who originally pointed it out in that case. The other issues he had no clue about so how can he call those out? While I get what you were going for with your analogy it does not work in this case. Bumping someone is a bit different than having no idea more people weren't aware of a problem other people created. All he did was fail to speak louder than other people who were already pointing it out. Being rational and compassionate means understanding sometimes people make mistakes. You are the one who said "vibes of an influencer caught promoting a crypto scam trying to defend themselves" That is you projecting. This is why I brought up how people bring conspiracy to everything when they shouldn't. The vibes I got were of someone who looked defeated because they assumed more people knew and regretted not saying more and wit the attitude of, come on guys, we are just one of many creators who let this slip by without realizing how bad it was. As someone who has been caught in between people looking to blame whoever they can. It sucks when you had nothing to do with it short of not yelling about it louder than other people who are already talking about it when you notice too. Because lets be honest here, thats what this is. People are upset that he didn't yell louder than the ones who were already speaking about it. Why didn't the one guys video get more views? Social media couldve been used to spread that guys video to let others know. Again, put yourself in his shoews being the target of the major of blame all because you didn't shout the loudest about it. Because thats what he is. He usually does a good job letting people know about stuff and one slipped past him. It happens sometimes to all of us. The point is criticism is fine. Wishing he had said more because he is a tech creator is fine. But having higher expectations than everyone else who also let it slip by too and placing that frustration primarily on him which is what people are doing is not criticism. It's misguided anger looking for someone to take it out on. Thats the problem with people. They want someone to blame for the problems businesses cause. Because its easier to use people as a distraction rather than direct that frustration at the shady company and the legal system that allows it. I watched the original video too. And he did sort of direct more blame at Linus than even Mr Beast if memory serves me correctly by the words and phrasing of what he said. But if you want a conspiracy, Mr Beast legal team should've spotted it and may have, but Mr Beast is known for avoiding controversy as much as possible. Maybe he didn't say anything because he knew the reaction it would get. Hell he was one of the biggest promoters. It wouldn't surprise me if he had some deal with them about it and took part in the "deal" Honey was giving to companies to prevent his merch from being part of the coupons. I'm not saying this is the case. I am just saying, it's really easy to make a conspiracy and point blame. It's a lot harder to be a reasonable person when surrounded by unreasonable people because they often assume too much. What Linus did wasn't shady. It was a simple mistake. It sucks, but he doesn't deserve it all pointed at him. All he deserves is a, come on bro, you missed that. Try to point that stuff out next time if it looks off.

[@StreakyBaconMan]

@@SeohnAranys You keep seeming to want to argue with a position I do not hold - I don't think he's this terrible guy, I don't think there was any secret agenda behind not speaking up about it more at the time, I think he just honestly thought it was a business dispute with a sponsor that viewers didn't need to or want to hear about. And my example comparing his response to that of someone who promoted a crypto scam was just supposed to illustrate that I felt he was being defensive and not addressing the concerns that people actually had, trying to shift blame elsewhere - I did try to make it clear that was as far as the comparison goes and promoting a crypto scam is orders of magnitude worse than promoting a bad product and then not being more vocal about why you stopped promoting it. I do have a bad habit of picking an extreme comparison in one direction or the other - it just feels like an effective way to demonstrate the absurdity of an argument when it often isn't and I need to get better at that. It's not like I want to cancel the guy and hold this against him forever - I just kind of expected a better response to the situation. I expected him to say he understands why people feel like he dropped the ball and that he'll try and do better going forward, and it was disappointing to basically hear what I felt were pretty pathetic excuses. Like it obviously was not widely known at the time - if it was then I am sure the huge team at LTT would have known about it BEFORE they accepted the sponsorship rather than only figuring it out after. But he seems to be trying to convince me that they were both ignorant of the business practices, and that knowledge of those business practices was already widespread. That doesn't make sense to me, so I just don't accept that was the case. It's also a bad excuse to say "bigger people than me promoted it" - you don't get away blameless because you didn't play the biggest role. And while I get that it might feel unfair that people excepted more of him than they do of someone much larger like Mr. Beast (and to some extent it is) the reason people don't have such a strong reaction to Mr. Beast promoting it is because nobody is surprised - nobody expected Mr. Beast to be the type of guy to call out a bad product or avoid a dodgy sponsor in the first place, and they certainly wouldn't expect him to make a video about it. But people did expect better of Linus, because he has a reputation for being better - and it doesn't seem outside the scope of his content to make a video about a bad tech product that he's promoted in the past. I'm not saying he had any more responsibility to uncover this sooner or expose it than anybody else did - they ALL should have done better. The only reason I am invested in the role Linus played in this is because I actually watch his content, and I think he is capable of doing better than he did based on what I've seen in his content in the past. Just want to make it clear that it's not like I am going to stop watching him over this, but it doesn't stop me from being disappointed with how he's handled everything so far.

[@MvsG18]

Dude i dont know how people can side with linus this time. Overly scummy behavior why wouldnt you call it out

[@jmkqfnvyl87]

A little ". . . just like this segue--away from our former sponsor" would have gone a long way 😅

[@Tarwada_]

Why didn’t lmg expose them at least

[@Mark-ls8ov]

Moist also advertises the Opera browser. Don't do anything this guy does.

[@computersales]

Linus not owning it says a lot about what he thinks about his viewers IMO. Admitting why you dropped a sponsor will always be the better route if the sponsor is nefarious. They were more than happy to do it with Eufy.

[@CidVeldoril]

I would like to know the sponsorship agreement Honey had with KZbinrs and especially if it included that a KZbinr is not allowed to do videos disparaging the product even after the sponsorship ended.

[@Bradok00]

Linus looks and sounds like a male Ellen DeGeneres

[@vonrich2614]

Thing is megalag said he was a LTT fan so OFC he talks about him alot. Even if small creators knew, Mega Lag only knew of LTT

[@hotdroppinglegends]

Linus could stop Honey 3 years ago, but he didn't because he/they think only about themselves.

[@pope4510]

Linus was literally the one getting scammed so that doesn't make any sense

[@jacobsaju171]

@@pope4510 linus must have been paid to not speak about it

[@ZiggySA]

@@jacobsaju171 My thoughts too. That's the only logical reason why they wouldn't break this story.

[@BombaSnow]

​@@jacobsaju171 if you even watched the video he explained how he did mention it. He just didnt make a video because he didnt feel like the users got scammed but only himself.

[@jacobsaju171]

@@BombaSnow He should have warned other influencers promoting honey who were also getting scammed by them and he should have also told his subscribers to stop using honey because if his subscribers had that extension enabled he still wouldn’t be getting the affiliate commission…Even if he stopped promoting honey in his videos enough damage has already been done so i see no logical reason for him to not alert other users and influencers

[@nibaba420]

the emphasis is because youre the second or third largest sponsoree of honey, and being a tech media giant, a hyperbole that only you knew makes PERFECT sense

[@rakly347]

So you didn't watch all the way to the part where they talk about most creaters knowing about it, sharing it with eachother, and some even contacted Linus to tell him? - And not, as you say 'Honey putting less emphasis on youtube creators for a while'? Which is why to them it seemed like it being common knowledge among creators.

[@eatit8262]

That was in this video. YOU didn't watch THIS video before making a very hypocritical accusation. Linus is not a dude that needs or deserves defending at this level. He's an arrogant A-Hole, and he always will be.

[@JEMODZ]

feels like linus was just reading off a script someone else wrote for him on his laptop lol

[@startide]

ChatGPT has more decency than linus when it comes to those things. Admitting fault seems impossible for him.

[@voltz8945]

Charlie is saying he's making a mountain out of a mole hill, but to them because of the brief segment in the viral video, many people have misinterpreted and are being mad at Linus and his team. This is their damage control since that brief part of the video has reputational impact

[@EagerEggplant]

They probably thought that it was not good look for them to go after a sponsor and they get nothing out of it

[@mind-of-neo]

They're acting guilty because they are guilty. They intentionally withheld valuable information because we weren't "need-to-know"

[@rockman1942]

LLS treated his viewer as product

[@CoachSagi]

guilty of what? are you even human

[@mind-of-neo]

@@CoachSagi oh yeah i must be a bot because i had a thought you disagree with

[@CoachSagi]

@@mind-of-neo are you not gonna reply?

[@LudwigHorsecock]

@CoachSagi Says the PR bot

[@marlonb.4017]

Okay, but come on, a reporter, tried to get information from you because it seemed like you were on something shady as they are investigating, and you stonewalled them, so yes of course he’s going to sling some mud your way, it’s how that works. NOW YOU WILL HAVE TO ANSWER THE QUESTIONS. Reporters aren’t exactly the definition of stand up gentlemen. They’re like private defense attorneys, kinda shitty some times by necessity of their profession. I am just saying to emphasize that you’re better helping a reporter than not doing so, else you’ll definitely get some shade for it when they report lol

[@toggtlas7099]

Linus is actually one of the most fragile large "creators" on the platform. He can't accept any criticism or fault without making it an ego thing. Every time he is criticized he comes with the most childish replies imaginable because he can't stand being wrong. He views himself way way way too highly because he as a successful company. Feels he is above it all.

[@FakeDeath_]

Linus admitted to getting a payout from honey so his ass was covered.

[@SuperiorBeen]

He didn't do anything wrong? WTF? He got money from scammers to sell their adware/scamware to his followers and then he finds out and doesn't say anything to it's followers. This guy has no morality whatsoever.

[@nw42]

People have a right to know the truth about what’s on their machines and what it’s doing. If you encourage your users to install software on their machines and later discover that it’s doing shady stuff, you have a responsibility to inform your users: they trusted you, and you allowed Honey to exploit that trust. Even if you didn’t believe it was relevant to your users, that wasn’t your decision-every user deserved to make the choice for themselves, and you deliberately withheld the information they needed. The ethics here are so simple and so obvious that LTT’s silence actually makes me suspicious about their motives. Yes, Honey is the real villain here, but this has also damaged my trust in LTT.

[@alexandersedig3143]

Its not Linus's responsibility to warn other creators which sponsor's they should or shouldn't take. You can say it woulda been nice if he did warn people, and I agree. But I think its pretty petty of people who are outraged over this. At the end of the day the creator themselves should be doing more research into who their using as a sponsor, and if they failed in that its kind of their own fault. Am I crazy?

[@pixels_2124]

LTT seems deathly afraid of taking responsibility for their own pitfalls. Not until the backlash gets too much for them to push aside.

[@_masterbait]

Honey eating popcorn while dumb people attacking linus hahah

[@deRykcihC]

Linus if he says a shit abt this: get blamed for not sounding Linus if he didnt say a thing: what are you hiding why are we blaming the victim here?

[@malcolm_in_the_middle]

Because he found out about it, didn't sound the alarm, and then started a sponsorship with another company (karma) that does the exact same thing - presumably not to them though.

[@BooleanDev]

@@malcolm_in_the_middle they tested 3 years ago and it didnt steal affiliate codes. it couldve changed since then but they dont even work with them anymore

[@Kbryce]

people aren't obligated to help someone who is dying in the middle of the sidewalk when they walk past, but is sure says something about someones character when their entire reputation was initially built off of helping people with the injustices they felt were unjustifiable and then you go and do the same unjustifiable crap. Not evil I guess but not really a good guy either. also considering how many people probably joined honey because of LTT i think it's crazy to say they don't have some sort of obligation to let people know "hey we backed something that was a scam and now we dropped them we advise you to remove it, we r sorry if we are of the biggest tech channels and you trusted us, thank you have a nice day"

[@MsEverAfterings]

I would have accepted his reasoning more if it is because he is concerned about any legality issues if he were to come out against Honey. Instead, this is such a worse take.

[@JJtoob]

Some people said he may have been under NDA, and if he didn't mention it here, I don't think that's the case because that'd be the first thing I would have said. Seriously he must not have a PR department.

[@leen-treeske]

Linus is just scared to get called out again because of all the backlash the last time

[@zink9698]

Linus even said it self that it is a scam but never spoke up about it. Another L för linus

[@martymcfly88mph35]

They were scared of getting sued

[@snapturtle3253]

-I'ma put on a tin foil hat here I think Linus wants to keep his name clean for other companies so he can still get sponsors after he dropped honey. no company wants to pay a snitch

[@questionable_live]

I don't think this makes Linus and crew bad people it just makes them look inconsiderate to the general public. But they probably also don't want to bash sponsors because then no one would want to sponsor them.

[@marlonb.4017]

I mean considering most who understand the business model consider it to be outright unscrupulous fraud, it’s reasonable to think they did too, and yet choose to stay VERY quiet about this, and yes everyone who sees what they dis do, does agree that for a channel this large, they basically didn’t do anything to make this fact widely known to the public or even privately known in the space amongst creators, etc. I think they should be held accountable for their blatant inaction on this extremely serious matter.

[@WanTan8888]

Yeah he dropped honey because they were like hey honey can you stop taking OUR affiliate links and honey said no, Linus didn't care about it being done to everyone else. They teamed up with another coupon company that does the same thing