Should we stop supporting them with our eyes for taking sponsorships from shady companies?
Edit: I took my first step and unsubscribed from the channel and I will continue to withhold my viewership to those that don’t take better care of the viewers.
Likely doesn’t matter, but I’m on a roll of not giving my money to companies that are immoral so why not do the same with my eyes.
- AhismaMiasma ( @AhismaMiasma@lemm.ee ) 80•4 months ago
A channel absolutely should be held accountable for the sponsors they accept. Advertisements from YouTube are mostly outside channel owners control, but sponsors are not.
I don’t support channels with unethical sponsors. It can be tough sometimes.
- Blaine ( @blaine@lemmy.ml ) 46•4 months ago
Veritasium is YouTube propaganda. It’s well documented - Derek takes sponsor money and gets people killed in the process. I blocked Derek on all platforms the day Tom put this documentary video out.
- Danterious ( @Danterious@lemmy.dbzer0.com ) 1•4 months ago
Funnily enough the person that made this video had a little controversy on the vape-o-nomics video when he was talking about how subscription services were bad but then immediately pivoted towards an ad read for a subscription service.
Eventually it was removed (without a comment talking about, it happened silently) but still this stuff reaches everyone eventually.
- SnokenKeekaGuard ( @SnokenKeekaGuard@lemmy.dbzer0.com ) 30•4 months ago
Veratasium had some similar issue a few years ago too, didn’t he?
I recall Tom Nichols making a video on them and also perhaps an incorrect video about electricity so probably.
- RedWizard [he/him] ( @AmazingWizard@lemmy.ml ) 29•4 months ago
Am I just old, even by internet standards? Because we’ve been here before. Better Help was blasted on the internet several years ago for their shady business practices. Several major YouTubers published “make good” videos about it, because of how bad the service was. Better Help was giving YouTubers and podcasters a shitload of money to promote their product, and in their terms they explicitly stated that they did not verify the credentials of their “therapists” and that it was on you to do that.
- bjornsno ( @bjornsno@lemm.ee ) 6•4 months ago
I feel like this wasn’t even that long ago? I was quite surprised when my content suddenly started being sponsored by them again.
- RedWizard [he/him] ( @AmazingWizard@lemmy.ml ) 4•4 months ago
I had that same reaction. It actually happened around 2018 (where does the time go?)
https://www.polygon.com/2018/10/4/17932862/betterhelp-app-youtube-sponsorship-controversy-explained
We’ve definitely been here before. One of the interesting things about this article is that a lot of the videos they embedded are gone now.
- Snowcano ( @Snowcano@startrek.website ) 29•4 months ago
I’m out of the loop, what did Better Help do?
- Facebones ( @Facebones@reddthat.com ) 18•4 months ago
Don’t let anybody tell you you can’t consume or not consume whatever content you feel like. Theres an uptick in this weird attitude of “you’re an asshole/fascist/whatever trying to cancel everyone” if you decide to stop watching someone or buying a product. Its bullshit, you don’t owe anybody jack.
You’re one person. Either you bailing won’t matter, or a bunch of people bail and they learn their lesson. Either way you don’t have to put up with a damn thing you don’t want to. 🤷
- Onno (VK6FLAB) ( @vk6flab@lemmy.radio ) 14•4 months ago
Wow, those comments are a dumpster fire.
Not sure what Derek 's best response might be. I’m thinking that this video will likely be taken down and replaced by one without a sponsor.
Right. You have to scroll quite a way to see something other than him being called out.
- Kwakigra ( @Kwakigra@beehaw.org ) 13•4 months ago
Veritasium endorsed a known racketeer and as a consequence some portion of their audience is now going to be defrauded in an economy where there’s not a lot of room for that especially among those in need of therapy. Watching Veritasium videos causes the channel to have greater exposure, increasing the risk to the general population if engaged with by anyone. Therefore, engaging with this channel in any way is harmful to others.
- SuperSpruce ( @SuperSpruce@lemmy.zip ) 11•4 months ago
I’m curious, what would happen if I, as a creator, had been contacted by a sponsor and then if the sponsor was shady, decided to not only say no to the contract, but also rag on them in the video where the sponsor would have been shilled?
- Pudutr0n ( @Pudutr0n@feddit.cl ) 5•4 months ago
Tim Dillon used to do that all the time.
- Ephera ( @Ephera@lemmy.ml ) 10•4 months ago
I do that kind of thing, yes. Although I usually find it so distasteful, that I lose interest in watching other videos anyways.
But yeah, especially when it’s a channel making educational content, there’s a chance that some viewers take the sponsored section as general educational content (no matter, whether that’s because they’re gullible, young or did not pay attention when the sponsor segway happened).
There’s also various tech channels which recommend products that are objectively worse than the alternatives, or even exert malware-like behaviour. Those also immediately lose any and all respect from me.
Obviously, if it was a genuinely good product, it wouldn’t need the sponsorship deal for people to make videos about it. So, I do understand the struggle.
But everyone wanting to make a living off of media has that struggle. If I artificially inflate the view numbers of one media creator, the others receive less sponsorship money. - R... ( @ff0000@lemmy.ml ) English7•4 months ago
To some degree, certainly! If at some point it comes out that a certain sponsor is just total shit, a content creator can be made aware of that. Although, with all these things, it is not always as easy to just drop a sponsor i suppose, there is always contracts involved and all of that. So not expecting a creator to be able to drop a sponsor all of a sudden.
- 🇦🇺𝕄𝕦𝕟𝕥𝕖𝕕𝕔𝕣𝕠𝕔𝕕𝕚𝕝𝕖 ( @muntedcrocodile@lemm.ee ) English7•4 months ago
Sponsor block x new pipe and its not a problem
- TheGalacticVoid ( @TheGalacticVoid@lemm.ee ) 3•4 months ago
It very much is still a problem. It’s unrealistic to expect the majority of YT users to use a tool like SponsorBlock.
- Nora ( @crazyminner@lemmy.ml ) 2•4 months ago
Where did you get yours? I have Newpipe, but I’m having a hard time finding the version with sponsor block? Is it called Tubular now?
- count_duckula ( @count_duckula@discuss.tchncs.de ) 2•4 months ago
I switched to Pipepipe from Newpipe because I wasn’t sure Newpipe was being maintained. Pipepipe has SponsorBlock.
- 🇦🇺𝕄𝕦𝕟𝕥𝕖𝕕𝕔𝕣𝕠𝕔𝕕𝕚𝕝𝕖 ( @muntedcrocodile@lemm.ee ) English1•4 months ago
Fdroid have they renamed it ive been noticing things crashing a lot and no updates is that why?
- ClassifiedPancake ( @ClassifiedPancake@discuss.tchncs.de ) 6•4 months ago
I made sure to dislike the moment this sponsorship came up and closed the video. With analytics they should see the connection.
- lseif ( @lseif@sopuli.xyz ) 7•4 months ago
i like ur optimism. we need more ppl to do this.
- SuperSpruce ( @SuperSpruce@lemmy.zip ) 6•4 months ago
At least consider it. It will make shady sponsors less valuable and more genuine sponsors more valuable.
They absolutely deserve to be blasted in the comments for a bad sponsor. It will make people reconsider their viewing decisions. If the video itself also wasn’t great, don’t be afraid to give it a big fat dislike, especially if you have the return YouTube dislike extension.
Additionally, if there are too many ads and sponsors, make your voice heard in the comments, and the creator might be sympathetic. I certainly am when I’m on the receiving end of a comment like that on my channel.
- bionicjoey ( @bionicjoey@lemmy.ca ) 5•4 months ago
I do think we should normalize scrutinizing the sponsors for their shittiness, but not necessarily the content creator. They are just trying to pay the bills, and aren’t going to be aware of the problems with every company out there (though nearly every product that uses YouTubers for marketing is a scam in some way or other)
I don’t think just trying to pay the bills is an acceptable excuse for not doing more research before signing a contract.
I’ve got bills to pay, can I go mug my neighbour. Now I’m not sure how long Better Help have had a contract with Veritasium, but it’s been known for some time they’re shady at best.