The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 11.11 KSI vs Logan Paul, Instagram's Likes Controversy, Uber & Bolivia's Chaotic Future

Starting point is 00:00:00 Sup you beautiful bastards, hope you're having a fantastic Monday. Welcome back to the Philip DeFranco Show and let's just jump into it. And the first thing we're gonna talk about today is this story that, you know, it's a social media story, a business story, a mental health story, and today it's specifically around Instagram.

Starting point is 00:00:15 And if you hadn't heard, Instagram's testing a new feature where they hide the number of likes on a post. They've been piloting this in Australia, Ireland, and Canada. It's also been rumored that one of the next places to participate in this test would be the United States, or at least a small portion of the population there. And in fact, what we ended up seeing over the weekend

Starting point is 00:00:30 is that Instagram CEO Adam Masseri officially announced the long-rumored plan at a Wired tech event, and he followed it up on Twitter saying, "'Heads up, we've been testing making likes private "'on Instagram in a number of countries this year. "'We're expanding those tests to include a small portion "'of people in the United States next week. "'Looking forward to the feedback."

Starting point is 00:00:45 And as far as why this CEO says that they're testing this at the WIRE25 conference, he said, "'It's about young people. The idea is to try to depressurize Instagram, make it less of a competition, and give people more space to focus on connecting with people that they love, things that inspire them.'" With him adding,

Starting point is 00:01:01 "'We will make decisions that hurt the business in the short term if they're good for people's wellbeing and health, "'because it has to be good for the business "'over the long term.'" Now, very quickly, to clear up any confusion, because I've seen a lot of, I wouldn't even call it misreporting,

Starting point is 00:01:12 it's just people saying stuff on the internet and people going, oh, I can't believe that's real. Instagram is not getting rid of likes altogether. Users will still be able to view their likes themselves, they just won't be displayed publicly anymore. Right, and the reason that's important for a lot of creators out there is engagement is key. Right, and I think that's an important thing to know,

Starting point is 00:01:26 whether you're an established person or someone that's trying to garner an audience. Right, having the ability to see your own likes, if you're trying to build something up, it allows you to know what's hitting, what's missing. For creators with brand deals, right, working with other companies, you still have your numbers, right, the analytics don't just go away.

Starting point is 00:01:39 Also, kind of regarding this conversation of business versus mental health, for me personally, I think one of the most notable people to speak out on this was Kim Kardashian West. She just has a massive Instagram following, her posts get anywhere between one to three million likes. She has a lot of business through Instagram. And ahead of this official announcement, she said,

Starting point is 00:01:57 "'As far as mental health, I think taking the likes away "'and taking that aspect away from Instagram "'would be really beneficial for people.'" And adding, "'I know the Instagram team has been having "'a bunch of conversations with people to get everyone's take on that, and they're taking it really seriously,

Starting point is 00:02:08 and that makes me happy. Also of note, on Saturday, we saw Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey praise this move by retweeting Mosseri's tweet and adding, great step, but not everyone was happy. For example, you had rapper Cardi B arguing that it's actually the comments section that should be a bigger concern, saying in a video posted to Instagram

Starting point is 00:02:23 that she noticed toxic behavior increasing on the platform after users were given the option to like and reply to comments. Yes. Anything that's affecting Instagram right now, I really feel is the way that the comments have been done or have been changed in these past few years because I feel like people been saying the most weirdest shit,

Starting point is 00:02:45 been starting the craziest arguments, been starting to waste pain all because of comments because they want to get to the top, they want to get the most reactions. We also saw Nicki Minaj chiming in on this news, vowing to stop using Instagram altogether. She also argued that the move might be bad for independent artists who use Instagram

Starting point is 00:03:02 for power and exposure. Also suggesting among other things that Instagram might be hiding likes to manipulate what posts users see on their feed. I've also seen other people claiming that Instagram might be doing this to make it so that advertisers start working directly with Instagram more rather than just sponsoring people based off of the numbers they can see publicly. But then you get into this conversation of like what's the intent there? I will say on a personal note, I think if that is the goal that it will not be that effective. Once again, it appears that all the analytics

Starting point is 00:03:26 will still exist on the backend. So if a creator wants to work with an advertiser, it's just sharing that information. But ultimately, as far as my opinion on this topic, I have found myself leaning more and more in the favor of not showing, at least publicly, the number of likes. And I think the fact that it's actually taken me this long to be of this opinion, I think shows how much,

Starting point is 00:03:46 even if I try not to, how much of my value and my self-worth and the validation is tied to these public numbers. And that can't be healthy, but I'm also self-aware enough to know I exist in kind of this weird, different bubble. I try to stay grounded and connect to my roots, but obviously my life now is so much disconnected

Starting point is 00:04:05 from who I was when I was 18, 20. And so that's why with this story, I wanna pass that question off to you. What are your thoughts regarding this specific situation and kind of just the hiding of likes in general? Are you for it, against it? Are you somewhere in between? What do you see as the pros and the cons?

Starting point is 00:04:19 Any and all thoughts on this, I'd love to see in those comments down below. Then actually kind of connected in a loose way, we should briefly talk about KSI versus Logan Paul 2. It finally happened over the weekend. And I say that it's connected, well, one, because it's this whole crazy spectacle that just happened thanks to social media.

Starting point is 00:04:36 But also, two, in the buildup towards the actual fight, what was one of the weirdest things on DAZN, not DAZN, even though it's spelled that way, they literally did a side-by-side comparison of how many concurrent viewers their YouTube live streams had. It was kind of a weird thing to show. They even ended up asking KSI about it

Starting point is 00:04:52 as both streams were showing. But also not fully surprising because in addition to, you know, I think some people crave to see those numbers to compare. And also I feel like they were showcasing those numbers to kind of explain to actual boxing fans, like, hey, this is why this is happening. Or there were likely way, way, way more eyes

Starting point is 00:05:07 on the actual title defenses that served as the lead up to the two YouTubers fighting each other. Which if somehow you haven't seen up till this point, KSI ended up beating Logan Paul, which some people found controversial. The fight ended up going all six rounds, went to the judges scorecards, which was drastically affected by a two point penalty

Starting point is 00:05:25 that Logan Paul accrued. This during a section of the fight where Logan Paul hits KSI with an uppercut. He then hits him a second time while also seeming to hold his head. And then as KSI was dropping to the ground, right? He was a defenseless fighter. Logan Paul tried to strike again.

Starting point is 00:05:37 And as the ref pointed out after the match, there is no sort of 12 to six punch in boxing. Logan Paul after the fight saying that he would contest that decision, right? He was saying, you know, why wasn't I given a warning? Ref in the post-fight interview, I think gave a really proper explanation. I'll link to that video down below.

Starting point is 00:05:51 And I mean, really just watching the fight, Logan Paul has no one to blame but himself, but I'll also say too, there's something that also seems incredibly appropriate that these two essential first time pros boxing as the main event, that fight ended up being decided by a point penalty given due to a breakdown in boxing technical skills.

Starting point is 00:06:09 Hey, well, technically KSI won, Logan Paul lost. The real winner was probably DAZN. They've come out and while not giving specifics said that this event was a huge success for them. I mean, just looking at the number of people that were commenting live on social media while it was happening, the highlights and the post-fight interviews,

Starting point is 00:06:24 like what the numbers are for those. I imagine that it was genuinely a big win for them, which I will say, and this is no shade, if you bought a subscription specifically for this fight, this is a friendly reminder to cancel that subscription. But hey, that's ultimately the story. It will be interesting to see what happens from here, right? Is this not, I guess not a one and done, but a two and done?

Starting point is 00:06:42 Will we see new creators doing something similar, or was this kind of just lightning in a bottle? I don't know, but if there is one final note that I can hit on with this not, I guess not a one and done, but a two and done? Will we see new creators doing something similar or was this kind of just lightning in a bottle? I don't know, but if there is one final note that I can hit on with this story, I think regardless of who you were rooting for to win this fight, I personally have to give both of these guys props. One, it takes a lot of guts to put your image

Starting point is 00:06:57 and your body on the line like this. But also two, and obviously this extends to the KSI Joe Weller fight that came before this whole thing. But these two guys from the internet successfully made such a spectacle that the mainstream had to pay attention. Like it or not, like them or not,

Starting point is 00:07:11 this is a game changing moment. And we're seeing moments like this and obviously slightly different avenues happening more and more and I think it's an incredibly exciting time for the space. But that said, that's where I'm gonna end this one and of course pass the question off to you. What are your thoughts around the fight, the spectacle,

Starting point is 00:07:25 any and all things connected to this story? Then in what companies are people angry at today news? We had Uber. And that's because in a new interview, the CEO of the company was being pressed on Saudi Arabia and Jamal Khashoggi. For those unaware, according to reports, Saudi Arabia is the fifth largest investor in Uber.

Starting point is 00:07:40 Also the head of the sovereign wealth fund is on Uber's board. And while getting pressed regarding this whole situation in general and this specific person, we see this happen. He represents and works for a government which you believe had a role in the murder of a journalist who was a U.S. resident. Should that person be on the board of a U.S. company? I think that government said that they made a mistake. Well, they made a mistake and somebody's dead. Well, listen, it's a serious mistake. We've made mistakes too, right, with self-driving

Starting point is 00:08:10 and we stopped driving and we're recovering from that mistake. So I think that people make mistakes. It doesn't mean that they can never be forgiven. I think they've taken it seriously. And from my standpoint- The CIA didn't suggest that they made a mistake and that it was an oversight.

Starting point is 00:08:22 Like with self-driving, that was basically a bad sensor, correct? This was, the CIA suggested that the Crown a mistake and that it was an oversight. Like, with self-driving, that was basically a bad censor, correct? The CIA suggested that the Crown Prince had a role in ordering an assassination. It's a different thing. You guys didn't intentionally run somebody over. I didn't read that part of the CIA report. You're obviously deeper in it. And, you know, after that, the interviewer and also people having seen that clip were like,

Starting point is 00:08:42 yeah, those are two completely different things. The self-driving car wasn't set to kill a person on the road. Whereas with Jamal Khashoggi, that was the organized, purposeful, ordered, brutal death of an individual. Now reportedly following that interview, he called soon after to express regret about his word choice. And today we saw the Uber CEO tweet,

Starting point is 00:08:58 "'There's no forgiving or forgetting "'what happened to Jamal Khashoggi, "'and I was wrong to call it a mistake.'" And then saying, as I said after the interview, "'I said something in the moment I don't believe. Our investors have long known my views here and I'm sorry I wasn't clear on Axios. And my personal reaction to this is it just seems

Starting point is 00:09:12 like more empty words. Right, it appears that he's backtracking on his words, but where's any action? Right, because the main pressing point, the criticism regarding Uber before the CEO decided to just blurt out something stupid was regarding their action or rather inaction regarding Saudi Arabia. Right, so following this we saw a number of people saying that they were going to boycott Uber that began to trend

Starting point is 00:09:32 and then more people saw the video. Yeah, ultimately that's a story. It's one part CEO says stupid thing and backtracks and second part it's amazing what a few hundred million dollars will do to your your thoughts and opinions when it comes to the dismemberment of a fucking human being. But also, while there is all this anger around Uber, it should be noted that this is not an Uber-only issue as far as the blind eyes go, whether it be a company or a government.

Starting point is 00:09:58 And then let's talk about this huge news coming out of Bolivia around the presidential elections and Evo Morales. And we actually talked about Morales a couple of weeks ago when he won his fourth term as the country's president, although I should say won his fourth term. And if you want the full, full detailed version of that, I'll link to our coverage down below.

Starting point is 00:10:13 But here, to kind of give you a quick recap and an understanding, Morales, who's in the Movement for Socialism party, has been president since 2006. While the Bolivian presidency is limited to two terms in office, in 2013, Morales pushed for a third term. Following that, we saw Bolivia's highest court then saying that. In 2013, Morales pushed for a third term. Following that, we saw Bolivia's highest court

Starting point is 00:10:26 then saying that he could in fact run for a third term. Then in 2016, we saw Morales holding a national referendum asking if the country could get rid of the term limit altogether, but there he lost. However, he then went back to Bolivia's highest court and they scrapped term limits. Right, and so following this, you had some people uneasy that Morales decided to run for a fourth term

Starting point is 00:10:42 because people were worrying that he was trying to hold on to power. But also to note here, Morales has been a pretty popular president. He's been credited with bringing massive economic growth to Bolivia as well as significantly reducing poverty and inequality. But when it finally came to last month's election,

Starting point is 00:10:55 we saw something very weird. Originally results showed Morales in a neck and neck race with his opponent, Carlos Mesa. In fact, the race was so close, the country was expected to hold a runoff election, but then all of a sudden results stopped coming in. We didn't see any more until almost 24 hours later. And when reporting finally started back up, the results showed Morales beating Mesa by just enough to avoid a runoff. And so following what, you know, appears to be a very weird circumstance,

Starting point is 00:11:17 you had Mesa and a ton of citizens calling this obvious election fraud. We then saw massive protests in the streets, some peaceful, other people setting fires to government buildings and knocking over statues. At the same time, the Organization of American States announced that it would audit the vote with Morales saying that if the OAS found evidence of fraud, he would then agree to a second round of voting. And that brings us to the updates because yesterday

Starting point is 00:11:37 we saw the OAS finally release its report. And in this report, auditors said that they had found clear manipulation of votes. With auditors going on to say that the voting transmission system had not been 100% monitored, the OAS also saying that at one point, information was redirected,

Starting point is 00:11:50 therefore, auditors couldn't have certainty over the results. Auditors also saying that good practices were not applied to official vote counting, that because the system allowed someone to take control of parts of the process when they were supposed to be secure. Auditors even saying that at one point,

Starting point is 00:12:02 the system was frozen and fixed in a way that violated essential principles of security. And ultimately the OAS concluded that 78 of the total 333 evaluated vote counts from polling stations showed irregularities. With auditors noting that the last 5% of votes was especially unusual because it showed a significant increase for Morales

Starting point is 00:12:18 and a sharp decrease for Mesa. Following the release of that audit, we saw reports of celebrations in some areas, but also reports of protests continuing to ramp up. In fact, there were also actually reports that protesters had ransacked and burned the homes of some of the senior members of Morales' socialism party. Morales' home was also ransacked.

Starting point is 00:12:33 In fact, there were reports that the brother of one senior official was also kidnapped. And in fact, by yesterday afternoon, Mexico's foreign secretary said that the Mexican embassy in La Paz was sheltering 20 of Morales' senior officials, with Mexico also offering Morales political asylum. Yesterday, we also saw heads of Bolivia's armed forces and national police calling on Morales to step down.

Starting point is 00:12:51 And later that same day, we saw Morales do just that, he resigned. Though notably here, he said it was to ease the violence in the streets, saying, "'We resign because I don't want to see any more families "'attacked by instruction of Mesa and opposition leader, "'Luis Fernando Camacho. "'This is not a betrayal to social movements.

Starting point is 00:13:06 The fight continues. We are the people and thanks to this political union, we have freed Bolivia. We leave this homeland free. Mesa and Camacho have achieved their objective. Now stop burning the houses of my brothers and sisters. And also saying on Twitter, the cool mongers are destroying the rule of law.

Starting point is 00:13:20 Also saying reportedly that a police officer had publicly called for his arrest. But on that note, we also later saw the head of the national police deny that any warrants had been issued for his arrest. But on that note, we also later saw the head of the national police deny that any warrants had been issued for Morales. Also on the other side of this, you had Mesa tweet, to Bolivia, its people, the young, the women, to the heroism of peaceful resistance,

Starting point is 00:13:34 I will never forget this unique day, the end of tyranny. I'm grateful to the Bolivian people for this historic lesson. Long live Bolivia. Also reportedly telling reporters, we shall not permit the ex-president to use the excuse of a coup. "'This was not a coup.'"

Starting point is 00:13:46 Which, that word coup, there's been a lot of debate around. And after Morales resigned, we saw people chanting, yes, we could, and setting off fireworks. We need that more, we need that more, we need that more. That reportedly as police also withdrew from the city of La Paz.

Starting point is 00:14:01 Also, like earlier, we saw other instances of violence as some people looted stores, others starting what appear to be politically motivated fires. Now we've seen a number of reactions from different countries. For example, in addition to offering Morales political asylum, the Mexican president called

Starting point is 00:14:13 the situation regrettable. His foreign minister echoing Morales, calling this a coup. Like Mexico, Nicaragua came to Morales' defense with its president saying, the government of Nicaragua denounces and strongly condemns the coup d'etat that was realized today. Also Venezuelan president, Nicolas Maduro,

Starting point is 00:14:26 calling this a coup and also saying that rallies would be helped to defend quote, the life of the Bolivian native people, victims of racism. But at the same time, we've seen countries like Brazil welcoming a new note. Also people like Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the Labor Party in the United Kingdom saying, to see Morales who along with a powerful movement

Starting point is 00:14:41 has brought so much social progress forced from office by the military is appalling. I condemn this coup against the Bolivian people and stand with them for democracy, social justice, and independence." We've also seen different reactions from the United States. For example, we saw Ilhan Omar and AOC calling this a coup. Also saying that the Bolivian people deserve free,

Starting point is 00:14:58 fair, and peaceful elections. But on the other side of that, you had Secretary of State Mike Pompeo commending the OAS and supporting a new election. We also saw Trump today say in a statement, "'After nearly 14 years and his recent attempts "'to override the Bolivian Constitution "'and the will of the people,

Starting point is 00:15:10 "'Morales's departure preserves democracy "'and paves the way for the Bolivian people "'to have their voices heard,' calling this a significant moment for democracy." Right, but with all of that said, one of the main questions is, well, what now? Will we see a new vote? Who will now lead Bolivia?

Starting point is 00:15:23 Right, you had Morales who actually didn't finish his third term following his resignation. You also saw his vice president, the Senate president, the president of the Chamber of Deputies, and the first vice president of the Senate also resigned. Right, so that is the first, second, third, and fourth in the line of succession, which on the note of succession, the next in line is actually the second vice president

Starting point is 00:15:41 of the Senate, Jeanine Añez, who said that she would step up as a transitional president, but she also needs a quorum from the National Assembly. However, Morales' The Movement for Socialism Party controls both houses, and Añez has been described as strongly anti-Morales. Right, so there's that part of the mess, and as far as a new election goes,

Starting point is 00:15:56 under the Bolivian constitution, elections must be held within 90 days of a constitutional crisis. Right, and should she get the transfer of power, Añez has said that she will work to hold that election. And here, there's also been a slight question of if Morales would be a part of those reelections, but yesterday he suggested that he might not.

Starting point is 00:16:11 At the same time, Morales is reportedly hiding out, but we've still seen him posting to Twitter saying things like, "'You never abandoned me and I will never abandon you,' and also urging his supporters to resist forming a transitional government." But yeah, ultimately that is where we are with this story. It's gonna be very interesting to see what happens from here.

Starting point is 00:16:27 Have you seen other reports? There's a constant mention of the power vacuum, really rightfully so, when things are this chaotic and there's such a big question mark, you have to wonder, will there be some sort of process that actually involves the people and order is kept? Or will we see a drastic, drastic power grab? But for right now, we'll have to wait and see.

Starting point is 00:16:46 And of course, I pass the question off to you. What are your thoughts on this? And that is where I'm going to end today's show. And hey, if you liked this video, let us know. Hit that like button. Also, if you're new here, you want more of these dives into the news, be sure to hit that subscribe button,

Starting point is 00:16:58 tap that bell to turn on notifications. Also, if you're looking for more to watch, you can check out my latest podcast, or maybe you just missed the last Philip DeFranco show, you wanna catch up, you can click or tap right there to watch either of can check out my latest podcast, or maybe you just missed the last Philip DeFranco show you wanna catch up. You can click or tap right there to watch either of those. But with that said, of course, as always, my name's Philip DeFranco.

Starting point is 00:17:10 You've just been filled in. I love your faces, and I'll see you tomorrow.

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The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 11.11 KSI vs Logan Paul, Instagram's Likes Controversy, Uber & Bolivia's Chaotic Future

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