I’m hopeful that an experienced CEO taking over will help a lot with dealing with those issues. Linus has been burned out for a really long time, and it shows. His reaction is the one of a stressed person just blowing up and going defensive. He’s probably well aware that there’s problems and he’s unable to deal with it. We’ve known about that particular problem for 3 years.
It’s grown well past the tech bros stage but still operates like a tech bros startup. The new CEO will hopefully run it like the media company it became, whether Linus likes it or not.
Great reporting as usual from Steve from Gamer’s Nexus for exposing all of this.
LTT is Linus Tech Tips, originally a YT channel where Linus and others discussed technology products, particularly pc gaming hardware. They got kinda big, and became a whole tech media company.
Madison was a former employee of the company who alleges that LTT leadership created a hostile work environment for her. Her accusations paint the company as filled with unempathetic tech bros who demand way too much productivity out of staff. Most seriously, there were accusations of sexual harassment by different team members, though not Linus himself that I'm aware of. She has a social media thread where she describes these accusations in detail and depth. If true they are very damning.
In this "apology" video they kinda at least confirm to the crunch times already, which in turn gives the other accusations quite a bit more credibility too.
I honestly got some vibes that they didn’t know what they’re doing after watching numerous videos where the whole thing they’re trying to demonstrate doesn’t work (like the USB connection video).
And as an electrical engineer, I’m not terribly impressed when they show off $20k in test equipment but the main spokesperson for the company clearly has no idea how any of it works.
Honestly, props to Linus for staying with it. I would have said fuck it a long time ago and shut everything down. Dud’s got Millions of dollars, and dealing with dicks on the internet is just not worth it IMO. Did he fuck up, sure. Did he compound it? Absolutely, but it was a simple mistake, nothing more. The things I’ve seen people say about it, is just disgusting though. Like one dude on YouTube is talking bout how he should have his kids taken away for this.
Still in my clipboard copied from another story I just learned about where a mother and son took their own lives due to harassment from his fans:
The father wrote,
"I am alone now. I have nothing left. I hate you, Linus Sebastian. You built your empire destroying the lives of others. I do not know why people idolize you. You are a monster."
Despite offering condolences for his passing, Linus Tech has made no move towards discouraging their fans from engaging in harassment.
Do morons on the internet say disgusting things? Is water wet? But this “I’m just a poor Youtuber doing my best” routine while also running a company worth 100 million dollars doesn’t fly.
This time he says “well yes our monoblock review was obviously wrong”, but when it was first pointed out to him he did everything he could to deny any wrongdoing. If it was so obvious then why try to weasel out of it? A few days ago he was still saying “No one could rationally disagree with the choices we made” And that’s forgetting their countless other reviews based on faulty, rushed data.
And even now that he’s admitting it was “obviously wrong” he STILL doesn’t really take accountability he STILL tries to make it sound like a single, honest mistake anyone could have made. But his own team told him at the time and his response was “well yes we messed it up but do you really expect us to spend another 500 dollars to redo a review?” (That’s literally what he said, you can find it on Youtube)
It just feels like corporate damage control at best and gaslighting the audience at worst.
generally speaking i tend to believe people when they talk about abuse in the workplace especially when it’s a woman talking about the abuse she has suffered in a boys club workplace
you do you though. everyone’s free to believe who and what they want
So yeah, people lie, but it's probably nowhere near what you're thinking. Consider the shit storm that making accusations against a company like LTT unleash. For most people, it won't be worth it. Some unknown amount of social media clout is not worth an unending stream of bile and death threats as well as the unknown effect on future employment prospects.
I understand the desire to reserve judgment, but I think whistleblowers like this should be treated with an open mind.
AFAIK, we have nothing from Madison but her word. It seems little, if anything, was written down. The best we can hope for is a denial or affirmative from anyone else at LMG about her testimony. Even then, it’s all “he said, she said”, unless there is actual corroboration or evidence.
That said, I think what we can corroborate from her is probably the managerial issues and workflow problems. That’s what I’m most confident in.
For all the rest of her testimony, the sexual harasshment and toxicity she endured, I think it’s more likely than not that she is sincere. Women in my life have endured similar treatment elsewhere, under the radar, and they often do not report it, sadly, and I don’t blame them. Anyone can lie about anything, so we have to be careful, and just accept that we may never know factually what the real story is on some of the issues.
If more employees were to speak out or some other evidence came to light, we’d have far more confidence one way or another. Maybe there will be a lawsuit between Madison and LMG and more evidence can come from that. We’ll see
Edit: looks like an independent investigation going to start. Perhaps that will corroborate more of Madison’s testimony
I can’t believe people are still defending this guy.
Linus is a money-hungry maniac that pushed his workers to produce so much content that they started making mistakes in every video then when caught tried to deny it/hide it/say it wasn’t that big of a deal. He stole another companies prototype and sold it at auction, then denied ever being asked for it to be returned. Only when he was called out by Gamers Nexus did he offer that company compensation. His staff told him that the work schedule was untenable and needed to be dialled back because mistakes were being made, and he ignored them. Then he pushed merch in his apology video.
This guy is unhinged. How are you still on his side? The receipts are all there, everything in this post is backed up with Linus’ own videos and text messages.
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