The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 10.20 People Are Freaking Out About Pokimane, Among Us, James Charles, Burnt Ballot Boxes, More

Episode Date: October 20, 2020

Download Drop: http://www.EarnWithDeFranco.com, link a debit or credit card & use code ‘PHILDEFRANCO’! For the next 7 DAYS, Drop is giving our subs an add’l 10,000 points ($10)!  WATCH my podcast with Jon Cozart: https://youtu.be/ibHoyBkB-pY Follow me off of Youtube: https://linktr.ee/PhilipDeFranco -- Voting Resources:  http://Vote.org https://www.axios.com/how-to-vote-by-state-2020-307c3d17-ee57-4a1b-8bad-182ca1cdb752.html https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/how-to-vote-2020/ https://nationalvoterregistrationday.org/  -- 00:00 - AOC Now A Twitch Partner 02:03 - Presidential Debate Changes 04:22 - James Charles Under Fire 07:10 - TIA 08:54 - Google vs Department of Justice 12:55 - Voting News From Across The Country -- WATCH Full “A Convo With” Podcasts: https://www.youtube.com/ACW  LISTEN On The Podcast Platform Of Your Choice: http://LinksHole.com WATCH the ACW Clips channel!: https://youtube.com/ACWClips ✩ SUPPORT THE SHOW ✩ ✭ BUY our GEAR, Support the Show!: http://ShopDeFranco.com ✭ Lemme Touch Your Hair: http://BeautifulBastard.com ✭ Paid Subscription: http://DeFrancoElite.com  ✩ TODAY IN AWESOME ✩ ✭ ACW Clips Steve Zaragoza Teaser: https://youtu.be/eLrhgJkwdXg ✭ Paul Mescal Goes Undercover on YouTube: https://youtu.be/Wywjnr8vQ8U ✭ Binging with Babish 8 Million Subscriber Special: https://youtu.be/KV-SUOpW408 ✭ Men Ages 5-75: Most Embarrassing Memory: https://youtu.be/K7C77zkORUM ✭ Special Look | The Mandalorian: https://youtu.be/ICuqzhViWAI ✭ Behzinga Takes On The London Marathon: https://youtu.be/ClEHz1aVFrE ✭ GIANT Pumpkin Carving Contest: https://youtu.be/4CqwkiaXEOQ ✭ Why Doesn't All Thunder Sound The Same?: https://youtu.be/D3_w2sUPItY ✭ Secret link: https://youtu.be/ekvVRcsyF9I ✩ TODAY’S STORIES ✩  AOC Will Stream “Among Us” With Pokimane & Others to Encourage Voting: https://roguerocket.com/2020/10/20/aoc-among-us/ Debate Commission To Mute Candidates' Mics At Start Of Each Segment: https://www.npr.org/2020/10/19/925605044/candidates-will-have-some-uninterrupted-time-in-final-presidential-debate James Charles Slammed For Not Doing TikTok Chain Supporting Muslims in China: https://dankanator.com/81237/james-charles-cancelled-ignoring-muslim-lives-matter/ DoJ Files Antitrust Suit Against Google: https://roguerocket.com/2020/10/20/doj-google-antitrust-suit/ U.S. Supreme Court Denies GOP Effort to Limit Mail-In Voting in Pennsylvania: https://roguerocket.com/2020/10/20/penn-scotus-ballots/ How to Track Your Ballot: https://www.cnet.com/how-to/voting-by-mail-heres-how-to-track-your-election-ballot-like-a-fedex-package-in-every-state/ ✩ STORIES NOT IN TODAY’S SHOW ✩ Exxon Clarifies That Quid Pro Quo Call With Trump “Never Happened”: https://roguerocket.com/2020/10/20/exxon-clarifies-that-quid-pro-quo-call-with-trump-never-happened/ ——————————     Edited by: James Girardier, Maxx Enright Produced by: Amanda Morones Art Director: Brian Borst  Writing/Research: Philip DeFranco, Lili Stenn, Maddie Crichton, Cory Ray, Neena Pesqueda, Brian Espinoza Production Team: Zack Taylor, Luke Manning  ———————————— #DeFranco #JamesCharles #AmongUs Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sup you beautiful bastards. Hope you had a fantastic Tuesday. Welcome back to the Philip DeFranco Show. Buckle up, hit that like button, and let's just jump into it. And first up, let's talk about this story, this bit of news that kind of hits on two separate things, though together.

One, politics right now, it feels somewhat inescapable pretty much everywhere you look, politics. And depending on who you are, you either think that's a good thing or a bad thing. And two, as we continue to see entertainment evolve on the internet, we're also seeing the merging of mediums and the merging of worlds. Right in the past, we've seen unexpected entertainer

collabs, right? Ninja, Drake, playing Fortnite. That was huge when that first happened. And now, late 2020, we're seeing another unexpected version of that thanks to Among Us. If you're unfamiliar, it's this multiplayer murder mystery game that actually came out in 2018, though in recent months it has just blown up.

And this in part because it's just a fun game to play with friends and also some of the biggest streamers and gaming YouTubers in the world have been playing together. And then what we saw yesterday was representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez jumping into the mix, tweeting, anyone want to play Among Us with me on Twitch to get out the vote?

I've never played, but it looks like a lot of fun. Who would you want to watch in a game together? And very quickly we saw one of the biggest streamers in the world, Pokimane, who has over six million Twitch followers tweeting back. It'd be an honor. AOC replying, let's do it. I'll set up an account and get some streaming equipment

today. And in addition to Pokimane, we all saw a massive wave of other creators raising their hand. Hasan Piker, James Charles, Gus Johnson, Jacksepticeye, Laserbeam, Dr. Lupo, and a ton of others. And it definitely seems like there is a lot of hype for this. AOC already has a verified Twitch channel

and it already has now nearly 200,000 followers. We'll definitely be keeping an eye out to see who participates, what kind of viewership this brings in, what is the chat like? I'm very intrigued to see what this looks like. I will also say, it's been very interesting to see how the Democrats have been using video games

to kind of get the youth vote, youth engagement. Earlier this month, for example, we saw Biden launching a virtual headquarters in Animal Crossing, which I will say initially sounded ridiculous to me. Not Pokemon Go to the polls ridiculous, but still odd. But seemingly with this effort, they know who they are targeting.

I've seen a number of viral TikToks featuring the island, which also intelligently includes ads for the I Will Vote website, as well as an election day checklist. Yeah, main point. This is gonna be an interesting thing to see. Also on the note of, wow, that's going to be interesting to see.

Let's talk about this news around the commission of presidential debates. They, after the embarrassing nightmare fest that was the first debate have now put a new measure in place ahead of Thursday's debate. Right, the first one was widely viewed as chaotic, riddled with interruptions. In fact, according to a Washington Post analysis,

Trump interrupted Biden 71 times while Biden interrupted Trump 22. So what we saw in this announcement was the commission say that to ensure each candidate is given two minutes of uninterrupted time at the beginning of each 15 minute debate segment, the other candidate's microphone will be cut with them adding, for the balance of each segment,

which by design is intended to be dedicated to open discussion, both candidates microphones will be open. And saying that during the open discussion periods, they hope that candidates will respect each other's time to advance civil discourse for the benefit of the viewing public. Also, if you're unsure of why I laughed there,

have you just not been paying attention? Anyway, it's also important to note that the moderator, NBC's Kristen Welker, will not be in control of the mic cutting. That task will be left to the commission's production crew, though the commission also says this is not necessarily a rule change. Instead, describing it as a measure adopted

to promote adherence to already agreed upon debate rules. And it appears that the commission knew that there was gonna be mixed reactions here because it closed its statement by acknowledging that quote, "'Neither campaign may be totally satisfied. One may think they go too far and one may think they do not go far enough. We are comfortable that these actions

strike the right balance and that they are in the interest of the American people for whom these debates are held.'" Now following this, Trump and his campaign were not happy with the decision, with him also expressing outrage about the chosen moderator and her selected topics because they don't focus much on foreign policy. But we did see the president's campaign manager

ultimately say, President Trump is committed to debating Joe Biden regardless of last minute rule changes from the biased commission in their latest attempt to provide advantage to their favored candidate. With Trump telling reporters outside of Air Force One yesterday, I'll participate, I just think it's very unfair.

Meanwhile, Biden's team on Monday pointed out that both campaigns and the commission had previously agreed the debate moderator would choose the topics. With a spokesperson adding, the Trump campaign is lying about that now because Donald Trump is afraid to face more questions about his disastrous COVID response.

As usual, the president is more concerned with the rules of a debate than he is getting a nation in crisis the help it needs. But with that said, I do wanna pass the question off to you. Do you think this Thursday, with kind of the enforcement of these rules, are being able to mute mics at the beginning, though not during the entire thing,

are we gonna see something that resembles, I don't know, a normal debate? Or do you think it'll be once again, and to use the technical term here, another clusterfuck? Then, actually we just mentioned him a moment ago. We had James Charles in the news for a reason you might not expect, China. Something a little bit different when it comes

to backlash stories against him. Usually it's related to things like the COVID party in the past. Did his merch company steal from Teddy Fresh? Creator on creator stuff. And the reason people are going after James today is in relation to a TikTok duet chain. There's this chain on the app that's trying

to raise awareness about the estimated one million Uyghur Muslims who have been detained and imprisoned in internment camps in Xinjiang, which is an autonomous region in Northwest China. Right, we've talked about that horrific situation out of China on this show multiple times. And as far as what the TikTok chain was, it usually featured creators silent on screen

while text about what is happening to Uyghurs appears. Long story short, James is tagged to carry on this duet chain, but apparently he never does. This prompts a ton of people tagging him, expressing their anger and disappointment. People swarming him saying they lost their respect for James, others leaving Muslim Lives Matter comments. All of that outrage eventually prompted James to respond, writing, of course, Muslim Lives Matter. How ridiculous to assume that I would ever think otherwise. With him going on to say that he doesn't read comments much because of the negativity, so he didn't know about the chain. But also saying it's crazy to assume influencers

are educated about everything going on in the world at all times. And going on to say duetting a 15 second video staring at the screen does literally nothing for Muslim lives, that's performance activism. Which people love to do on social media. Signing petitions and donating does, which I just did after researching more.

With him then going on to say he won't do a duet on the subject now because it gives people who were trying to cancel him validation. Right, it makes it look like he only did so because he was called out. And as far as my opinion on this topic, while I have disagreed with things that James Charles has done in the past, while I do not agree

with everything he says, I do agree with him here to a certain degree. Once you try to bully someone into activism, it's just gonna feel empty. Two, I do believe there is a very fine line between performance activism, also trying to kind of make yourself look like a good person and genuinely raising awareness on a topic, possibly causing change.

We'll say here that does get a little bit muddy because you have to kind of assume intent. And three, I think it does bring up a very valid question. And obviously it comes from the cynic part of my brain. You know, how many of these other massive creators who are a part of this duet chain that most likely pushed them even further in the TikTok algorithm, getting them more followers,

actually donated or did something more than the video? How many of them just kind of blindly copy and pasted this text into their TikToks versus people then researching more, signing petitions, donating? And I don't say that to attack those other creators, but it's something that as a viewer, a consumer, we need to keep in mind.

That said, I will say I do struggle with it because while I do think that there are a number of people that are, it is performative bullshit. At the same time, it does hopefully raise awareness and hopefully then people do take the next step to further understand what's happening. Because as we've talked about on this show numerous times previously,

it is truly horrific what is happening. Yeah, with that said, I would love to know your thoughts, one, on the general concept of what this chain is supposed to accomplish, and then two, the James Charles aspect to it. And then let's talk about some not so great news for Google, thanks to the Department of Justice. So this morning we learned that the DOJ

will be filing an antitrust lawsuit against Google, which, I mean, this has been a long time coming. Right, the investigation into the company lasted over a year with the DOJ's criticism of Google starting back in summer of last year when they announced a broad review into big tech companies, with the DOJ's criticism of Google starting back in summer of last year when they announced a broad review into big tech companies. The department saying they'd be probing several aspects

of multiple tech giants, including Google. And as far as the specifics of this case, you have the Wall Street Journal saying that the suit will accuse Google of a couple of major things. Starting with allegations that Google is maintaining its status as a gatekeeper to the internet through unlawful exclusionary and interlocking agreements

and contracts that block competition. Also accusing Google of using billions of dollars made from ads on its platforms to pay major mobile phone creators to make Google its default search engine. Essentially saying that because Google pays so much to be the default search engine on things like Safari for Apple and other places,

there's just no room for competition to really break through there. The journal also reporting that the suit will hit Google for arrangements where the Google search application is preloaded and cannot be deleted on mobile Android devices. Further claiming that Google is unlawfully preventing competition from being preloaded on phones under revenue sharing agreements.

And with this announcement, you had DOJ officials giving a press briefing this morning with Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey A. Rosen saying, "'If the government does not enforce the antitrust laws "'to enable competition, we could lose "'the next wave of innovation. "'If that happens, Americans may never get to see the next Google.

As for the details of the suit, attorneys general from 11 states will be joining it and possibly more in the future. And understand, the reason I'm talking about this is this is set to be one of the biggest antitrust cases against a tech company in decades, which means this could take years to play out, be resolved. It could also have major implications

for other tech companies. Also, if you're wondering how dominant Google is when it comes to internet spaces, Vox made a handy dandy chart showing how Google dominates that market share with its products. You see Google in red, its biggest competitor in each market is blue, everyone else is gray, and when it comes to search, you can see that Google

just takes up almost the entire thing at 92%. With them also maintaining a strong lead for smartphone operating systems and browsers at 85 and 66% respectively. And on top of that, when it comes to digital ads, while it doesn't hold an overwhelming majority like it did in other areas, it still leads the way with 28% of the market.

Also, another big note here is that the Justice Department is not the only part of the government that has recently taken aim at Google. Earlier this month, the House Subcommittee released a report on Google, as well as Facebook, Amazon, and Apple, and said that the four tech giants hold and abuse monopoly power.

And while some of that report did mention separate issues at Google, it did mention that the company uses anti-competitive contracts and self-preferencing tactics. With the House saying the actions of Google and other tech companies show a quote, "'pressing need for legislative action and reform.'" Now, all that said, Google for their part

have denied holding an unlawful monopoly. And this is a position they have repeatedly maintained. But in light of today's lawsuit, the company did also put out a lengthy statement defending itself and criticizing the DOJ for making this move, saying, "'Today's lawsuit by the Department of Justice "'is deeply flawed.

"'People use Google because they choose to, "'not because they're forced to, "'or because they can't find alternative. "'This lawsuit would do nothing to help consumers. "'To the contrary, it would artificially prop up lower quality search alternatives, raise phone prices, and make it harder for people to get the search services they want to use.

Also, as far as more specifics, Google says that the DOJ is relying on what they call dubious antitrust arguments. Also comparing the agreements that they have with companies like Apple to a cereal brand paying a grocery store to stock its boxes at eye level in the store. And actually, when it comes to Apple specifically,

Google claims that it is the default in Safari because Apple believes Google to be the best and that their agreement is not exclusive, right? Bing and Yahoo are also featured in Safari. With Google further arguing that current technology allows people to download apps and change their settings very easily and adding, the lawsuit claims that Americans aren't sophisticated

enough to do this. But we know that's not true. Now as far as what to expect or what could happen with this lawsuit, there, the Wall Street Journal says that if Google loses, there could be court-ordered changes to its operations, potentially to create openings for new rivals. But if Google wins this, this could create a huge hurdle for the government's growing criticisms

of big tech companies, right? Possibly complicating other investigations or prompting Congress to take the issue into their hands. But ultimately, that is where we are with this. Like I said, don't hold your breath. This could take years. But for now, I'd love to know your thoughts here. What do you think is going to happen?

What do you want to happen? And then let's talk about big election and voting news. As we're getting closer and closer to November 3rd, we're seeing a number of these stories popping up across the country. The first being that yesterday, the Supreme Court denied a request from Pennsylvania's Republican Party

related to mail-in voting. Notably, their request would have shortened the deadline for absentee ballots to be received by several days. And the reason we saw this request was because last month, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court sided with Democrats, granting them an extension to the deadline in which mail-in ballots could be received, moving it from 8 p.m. on election day, right, November 3rd,

to 5 p.m. on the following Friday, November 6th. And they are citing several reasons, including potential mail delays and the fact that state law allows mail-in ballots to be cast on election day. But to be clear there, if you are in Pennsylvania, your ballot still needs to be postmarked by election day. It just doesn't have to be received by election officials

until that Friday. You know, with that decision, you had Pennsylvania's GOP accusing the state Supreme court of exceeding its powers and unconstitutionally changing election law. It then, like I said, goes to the Supreme court where yesterday we saw Chief Justice, John Roberts, joining liberal judges, Sotomayor, Kagan and Breyer and denying the, goes to the Supreme Court, where yesterday we saw Chief Justice John Roberts joining liberal judges Sotomayor, Kagan, and Breyer in denying the request,

meaning the Supreme Court was deadlocked four to four. And when the court is deadlocked, the decision from the lower court remains in place. So with this decision, you had Democrats cheering the news, especially since Pennsylvania is a key swing state, and this extension could decide the fate of thousands of ballots. Though this decision, and specifically the four to four vote

brings up the fact that very soon, the Supreme Court will be looking different, right? If, and I use if very loosely here, Judge Amy Coney Barrett is confirmed to the Supreme Court, we could see her on the bench as early as the week before the election. Meaning that if more election related cases come

before the Supreme Court, she could very likely become the deciding vote in situations like that. Then in other election news, this past Friday an appeals court in Michigan ruled pretty much exactly the opposite of what we saw in Pennsylvania, ruling that ballots must be received by 8 p.m. on election day or they will not be counted. And that decision overturning a lower court decision,

which had ruled that ballots postmarked by November 2nd could be counted if they were received within 14 days of election day. Also, in Texas, while it is not related to mail-in voting deadlines, yesterday we saw there an appeals court rule that state election officials can reject mail-in ballots over mismatched signatures.

And notably they're doing so without giving voters a chance to appeal. So essentially if election officials decide that a signature on a ballot cannot be verified, they are allowed to reject that ballot without notifying voters until after the election. Like in Michigan, that appeals court overturned a lower court ruling that would have required

the Texas Secretary of State to either advise election officials not to reject mail-in ballots because of signatures, or require them to set up a notification system that gave voters a chance to challenge a rejection. But what we saw in Texas was an appeals court judge saying that requiring either process would compromise mail-in ballot integrity and adding Texas' strong interest

in safeguarding the integrity of its elections from voter fraud far outweighs any burden the state's voting procedures place on the right to vote. And with that, we saw groups like the League of Women Voters of Texas calling the decision deeply disappointing because it allows the state to shirk its responsibility to ensure that each vote is counted during

an incredibly important election while a deadly global pandemic rages on. And so of course it brings up this question of how many votes are gonna be thrown away? I mean, we could be looking at record breaking numbers, especially because so many people are already voting. According to the US Elections Project, Texas is leading the country in votes

with over 4.7 million already being cast. But that's also not something that's just limited to Texas. Voter turnout across the country is up right now. In fact, Florida opened its in-person early voting period yesterday to record breaking numbers with reportedly more than 350,000 people casting ballots. But it's also not just in-person voting. Over 2.5 million people in the state

have already cast mail-in ballot. That is more than double the 1.2 million that have been cast in the state by this time in 2016. However, while voter turnout is up, and that is a great thing, we're also seeing some concerning things. Things like, for example, in Memphis, Tennessee, a poll worker reportedly turned away early voters

for wearing shirts that said Black Lives Matter and I can't breathe. Now, notably, Tennessee law does forbid voters from wearing clothes or accessories with the names of candidates or political parties. However, it does not forbid people from wearing statements such as Black Lives Matter. While a Shelby County election commission spokesperson said

that the poll worker had thought that those shirts were officially tied to the Democratic party. She also said that this specific poll worker has since been fired noting that was pretty bad. They were not supposed to be turned away. Also in a different situation altogether in California, we're seeing reports that a ballot drop box in Los Angeles County caught on fire on Sunday,

reportedly damaging between 60 to 100 ballots. Right now it is being investigated as potential arson. This is because according to firefighters, someone purposefully tossed a burning newspaper into the drop box, which on that note, if you are voting by mail, once you do vote, it is incredibly important to track your ballot. I just make sure that it ends up with election officials.

And for that, I'll provide resources down below. Yeah, there is that important to track your ballot. I just make sure that it ends up with election officials and for that I'll provide resources down below. Yeah, there is that story to everyone that normally votes and but also especially to people voting for the first time, good on you. And also to everyone, oh my God, we're almost here. The three of you still on this video, I have no idea what it's gonna look like after November 3rd to November 10th.

I feel like a lot of us in our day-to-day interactions like try to put a smile on our face and act like we're not in a speeding school bus headed potentially towards a wall. And I guess on that happy note, that's where I'm going to end today's show. As always, thank you for being a part of my daily dives in the news. Also, if you're new here, definitely join the family,

hit that subscribe button. Hey, maybe even text me at 813-213-4423. But with that said, of course, as always, my name's Philip DeFranco. You've just been filled in. I love yo faces and I'll see you tomorrow.