The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 12.5 The DISTURBING Onision Problem, YouTube Rewind 2019 Reaction, PewDiePie, & French Protests

Episode Date: December 5, 2019

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Sup, you beautiful bastards. Hope you've had a fantastic Thursday. Welcome back to the Philip DeFranco Show and buckle up, hit that like button and let's just jump into it. The first thing we're going to talk about today is what time it is. It's rewind time. That is correct. Famed YouTuber slash TikToker Will Smith, but not that rewind time. That being the 2018 YouTube rewind, which to this day is the most disliked video on YouTube. Going through that video today, you'll see it has 17 million dislikes. And if you don't remember, after that video was released, you know, it wasn't just the dislikes on the platform. Like people were just very outspoken about just how horrible and disconnected it felt. And so there was this big question of what the

hell is the company going to do from here, right? Do they just stop? Could they save this concept by tweaking it? And today we found out, I can't say maybe. Maybe? Maybe? Maybe? And with this rewind, they opened it acknowledging how poorly the last one was received. K-pop!

That is so awkward to watch. And then while including music I cannot include in this video, they put text on the screen saying, in 2018 we made something you didn't like. "'So in 2019, let's see what you did like, "'because you're better at this than we are.'" And then they proceed to show a number of top 10 and top five lists.

Most liked creator videos. Top two included PewDiePie's wedding video and MrBeast make this video the most liked video on YouTube. I guess Mission Accomplished. Then most liked music videos. BTS taking the number two spot. Then Shawn Mendes, Camila Cabello taking number one spot. The most popular video games, What About Beauty?

Also biggest new channels of 2019, some standouts from the international community, and you get the point. And the video got more likes than dislikes at first, but as of recording the video, those dislikes are coming through fast and hard. Currently 213,000 likes, 321,000 dislikes. Right, so essentially what it looks like YouTube

was going for was you said that we made something that you didn't think represented YouTube. So we literally looked at the numbers, made sure for each individual creator, they couldn't be on a specific list more than one time, has to include as many creators as possible, and then boom, here's some flashy analytics. Essentially their thinking being,

you can't say it's not YouTube if literally it's just numbers from YouTube. Now among those that disliked it they appear to just think that it looked like a glorified top 10 watch mojo video and honestly I think even because of the format those that did like it weren't like the most enthused because you know it is hard to get excited about a listicle. You had creators like Casey Neistat tweeting, I liked Rewind 2019, not as sensationally produced as years past, but I appreciate, and includes a number of things,

including seeing PewDiePie in it, as well as Rebecca Parham who tweeted, yeah, okay, not terrible, not particularly interesting, but an improvement from last year. But then I think even more notably, she follows that up with a thing that I think partly explains why YouTube played it so safe. Writing, yeah, yeah, clip show, top 10 list, blah,

but also no creators feeling like their time was wasted. You had a number of creators saying, I gave you guys my entire day and I'm kind of in the background for one second. As well as those covered in slime, left out in the cold, feeling disrespected, being a part of something they know is going to be hated. I mean, especially after last year.

And noting this year, you got your puke. And I will also say, I wonder how much YouTube saved in production money this year. Because the one time they actually included me in youtube rewind i mean these are these are wild productions it's a part of their thinking was probably also we could probably save a ton of money not creating this thing that we think we're probably going to get shit on for yeah i think for a number of reasons i get why they played it safe this year but now ultimately with rewind 2019 done it kind of makes me wonder what happens from here i mean mean, first thing first, what are the likes to dislikes on this video going to be in 24 hours? What about a week? Will they then decide, okay, this is the new thing we're

going to do each year? Or will people be so vocal that they then decide to do another swing? Personally, I think it would be cool if they kept this kind of listicle format, if they did essentially what Spotify did this year. Granted, seeing all those Spotify screenshots on my timeline, a little annoying, but it would also potentially solve the issue that a lot of people have where they feel like the rewinds feel somewhat still disconnected, right? If they do an all of YouTube thing as well as this kind of single serving thing, does that, you know, scratch an itch that other people have? I don't know. The two things I'm left thinking, one, I'm really glad it's not my job to figure out what the hell to do with rewind. And two, I'm very interested to know what your thoughts on this are. Do you feel like this year was worse or was it better? And if

it was better, was it just not an exciting better? Also, since we're probably inviting criticism with this story, if you had the power, what would you do? Let all of us know in those comments down below. And then we should talk about what's happening in France. Because right now, hundreds of thousands of people are shutting down schools and businesses in a massive protest. And specifically what we're seeing with this latest demonstration is that it's happening because of a planned pension reform in France. Currently, France has 42 different pension systems

across the private and public sectors. And so what that means is that people retire at different times and will see different benefits. Currently, the official age of retirement in France is 62, which over the last decade has already been raised from 60. But now what we're seeing from French President Emmanuel Macron is that he wants to introduce a universal points-based pension system.

And he's gone on the record saying such a system is more fair and that it will help the country compete globally in the 21st century. All right, so let's look at this plan to see where you have a lot of people upset. So first up, the plan would scrap some of the most advantageous pensions. So currently, for example, you have air crews

and rail workers getting to retire earlier, but people like lawyers and doctors pay a lower tax. However, under the new system, everyone would be treated more or less the same. Secondly, if a person retires before the age of 64, they would end up seeing a lower pension. So for example, with this system, if a person retires at the age of 63, they will end up seeing about 5% less. And so this has been a big point of concern for workers because they might have to now work longer for lower pensions. And here's the thing, French people are actually generally in support of pension reform.

In a recent poll, 75% of the people actually said that they believed pension reforms were necessary, but only one third of the people actually said that they thought the government could pull the reforms off. Right, and so with all of that, let's talk about what's actually happening in France right now. And just last night we started seeing headlines

like France prepares for massive transport strike Thursday. Just this morning we saw France hit by severe disruptions amid mass strength. And in fact as of recording this video we're seeing reports now that more than 280,000 people have joined protests across the country. Though very notably that figure doesn't even include counts for major cities like Paris and Lyon. And those protests are expected to continue tomorrow and are likely going to extend into the weekend. Right and with this what we've seen you have trains shutting down, flights being canceled, even schools and tourist sites like the Eiffel Tower closing. In fact, according to the education ministry, half of primary school teachers are on strike today. Also, 42% of secondary school teachers. According to reports, 90% of high speed

and intercity trains have been canceled. In Paris, only 5 of 16 of the city's metro lines are even running. You had Air France canceling 30% of domestic flights and 10% of short-haul international flights, that coming amid mass walkouts by air traffic controllers. Also, if that wasn't enough regarding transport, one group is reportedly drawing over the QR codes on e-scooters like Bird, right, so people won't be able to use those.

Also on top of that, we're seeing the beginnings of fuel shortages, this because workers are reportedly blocking seven of the country's eight oil refineries. And at the same time, there are also fears over hospital staffing shortages, this because many medical workers are reportedly blocking seven of the country's oil refineries. And at the same time there are also fears over hospital staffing shortages. This because many medical workers are also walking out. And for their part, several trade union leaders have promised to continue this strike until Macron abandons his planned pension overhaul.

Now with these protests so far, we've seen that 71 people have been arrested in Paris. We've seen reports of clashes between protesters and police. We've seen tear gas being fired in Paris and other cities after protesters reportedly began throwing projectiles at police also fires in several Cities Paris alone. We've seen 6,000 police deployed because this protest is so huge We've even seen the police chief in Paris telling businesses and restaurants along the major march routes to just close now as far as how the Government will react right? What will Macron do? We're seeing reports of Macron is quote calm and determined in the' in the face of the strike." There's one senior official saying Macron is watchful

that public order be respected, watchful as to the difficulties for French people, and watchful also that the right to strike is respected. And ultimately, that's where we are with the story right now. And it's gonna be interesting to see what happens, what do the holdouts look like, will there be kind of any backtracking?

Because you know, France is currently heading towards a $19 billion deficit with its pension system. And so this reform is seen as a way to address that. But pension reforms in France have also historically failed. But yeah, for now, we have to wait to see what happens next. And of course, till then, I would love to know your thoughts on this story. And then finally, let's talk about what's easily been one of the most requested stories as of late, and that is what is going on with a person by the name of Onision. Now, for those that don't know, Onision is a YouTuber who has been on the platform for a very long time. His real name is James Jackson,

though most actually know him as Greg, which is what we will call him from here on out. And for years and years, you've had people accusing him of many things. Things like inappropriate behavior, grooming, and being a child predator. Now a few things I wanna note before fully diving into this.

There are so many accusations spanning over a long period of time that it really would be impossible for us in this video to dive into all of them. So what I'm gonna try and do is catch you up on some of the most major accusations at hand here so we can get to some of the most recent controversies surrounding him. Also, I do want to note that as of right now, no arrests have been made. There are no charges. Everything that we're going to be talking about comes from public allegations and so far he has denied them.

Also regarding his side of things, we actually reached out to him to talk about these accusations ourselves, but he or his team replied, right, any involvement regarding interview or questions is $10,000. Now, obviously, I found that to be a ridiculous request. That is not something we would do, but we try. Now, a lot of what we're going to be talking about is really what we've seen blown up this past year. But, I mean, a thing to understand is that Greg has been on the platform for a very long time, in fact, since 2006. And in that time, there were things like he married and then divorced a woman by the name of Skye. With a lot of the information that was made public

in his videos, he had many people saying that she was likely subject to certain degrees of manipulation. One of his other big controversies a while ago was back in 2012, he was actually banned from VidCon. This seemingly because he was talking about his ex-girlfriend who had made remarks that she felt pressured into having sex with him.

And in a video which was later deleted, he repeatedly referred to the number of people she had slept with, called her derogatory things, and seemed to insinuate that because of this, she could not be sexually assaulted. To be only 26 and to have slept with over 20 people is ridiculous. And of course, she goes to insinuate that

when we did make love, that I was forcing her into it, that I was pressuring her into it, and she didn't really want to. That's funny coming from someone who's slept with over 20 people. Right, so that was one of the into it and she didn't really want to. That's funny coming from someone who slept with over 20 people. Right, so that was one of the situations that led to a lot of backlash. That backlash resulting in VidCon saying that his presence could create a hostile, unsafe environment. But now let's dive into some of the more larger scale things about the allegations against him. Like the allegations that he has a habit of dating younger girls,

sometimes minors and grooming them. Or the other claims that he treats the women that he's in relationships with poorly and abuses and manipulates them. Right the other claims that he treats the women that he's in relationships with poorly and abuses and manipulates them. Even starting with his partner, Kai, people found things to be suspicious. Kai, who at the time was called Lainey, has since transitioned from female to male. And people have questions about their relationship

because Kai was allegedly 17 when they met and they drove to another state to legally engage in sexual acts. And now many of the young women who are speaking out say that Kai was often the first person they met and interacted with and was in many ways used to lure them in. So it kind of paints this image of going from being groomed to being or at least aiding a groomer. Several women have spoken out about this. We don't have the time to break down every single accusation. We're going to focus on three and link to information for the rest. So we'll start with Sarah. She's a girl who

says she began talking to Kai and Greg online when she was just a 13 year old fam. And though Sarah was mainly interested in talking to Kai and was involved with him first, by the time that she was 14 and 15, she claims he started texting and sending flirty messages. And this including even a photo of Sarah Toplas. Then when she was 16, Sarah, who said that she was going through some personal

and family troubles actually ended up moving in with Greg and Kai and living with them on and off for a couple of years. Sarah's saying that when she moved in, the relationship was not sexual at all, though there were romantic insinuations, physical contact, cuddling. But then she says that after she turned 18,

their relationship became sexual. And Sarah, who is now 19, did a livestream at the end of August of this year talking about her relationship with Greg and Kai. And when she left them earlier this year, there were rumors, right, other things surfacing, but the video started a huge discussion. It was over an hour long,

kind of went through a ton of allegations. Then a week after, she actually talked to Blair White, who is another YouTuber who frequently posts about Greg and the allegations against him. And Sarah hit some of the big allegations there in a more summed up way. At one point, she says that in hindsight, it feels like Greg and Kai intentionally took her in

with the intent to have sex with her. It hurts to say this, but I do feel, I feel like they knew what they were doing. Yeah. I would, I would, I think anyone watching this, sorry, I think anyone watching this definitely probably feels the same, that there's no reason to move a teenager in with you or to send the kind of messages they sent and then conveniently, coincidentally, be entered with you after you turn 18. In later interviews, she also explicitly says that she feels like she was groomed and manipulated. Also adding that while she was underage, Greg forced her to act like there was nothing flirty about their relationship, including in one video where she claims that he forced her to say that there was nothing going on.

He really pressured me into making it and I really didn't want to. I have bloopers from it of me literally having a mental breakdown, sobbing, because I was just so overwhelmed. Also, what would hurt me a lot is having to watch him say, oh, we don't even hug Sarah, we don't even do this or that and it's like i'm i'm sitting there like 16 watching this and i'm just like but yes you do and she also later discussed an nda that she was allegedly forced to sign by greg and kai told me um off camera that you signed an nda the morning after you were intimate with them for the first time? Yeah. He and Kai decided that everyone in their life needed to sign an NDA and that I was no exception to that.

The NDA was a thousand percent for me to not do what I'm doing right now. Shortly after Sarah's story, another girl by the name of Shiloh posted a Twitter thread about her relationship with Greg, which a lot of people already knew some details about as she appeared in many of his videos at the time. She was a singer in Canada when she first contacted him

and ended up actually dating him in 2011. Now a lot of what happened with them was very public at the time, but in the thread, she says that it started when she was a fan of his with them talking for hours together on Skype while he was still married to his first wife, Skye. Also she says that she was 17 when Greg told her about his divorce and that he loved her.

She says that he flew out to Pennsylvania to visit Shiloh, who came down from Canada after checking that having sex with a 17-year-old there would be legal. And saying that when meeting her at the hotel, the first thing that he said was, I can't wait to get you pregnant. She also says the police were notified of his presence and arrived at the hotel, with Greg being asked to leave because there were cameras in the room and they had to conduct a child pornography search. Shiloh also going on to say he began a process of alienating her from her mother, saying that he rented an apartment near her to wait until she turned 18, also convincing her to tattoo his name on her body, all while she was still a minor.

Along with the alleged tattoo, there were other allegations that seemed to touch on control and some would call it manipulation, claiming that in the middle of sex, he shaved her head to degrade her, also saying that he gave her a list of rules. This including no accounts without him having the password. No makeup, no contact with friends and family unless you want problems.

She also says that he filmed her having a breakdown. She then says the police took her to a mental health facility because when he didn't let her call her mom, she threatened suicide when he was on the phone with police. After this she says they broke up, but he lured her back in and let her pick an engagement ring. She then says that he got her pregnant, but then the fetus died, didn't pass, and she was at risk of going septic, saying that Greg refused to pay for her healthcare, and so she flew back to Canada,

and he posted a breakup video casting her as a liar. So that is in part her story. She's also since talked even more about it, but again, those were some of the big details. And then finally, let's talk about Billie, who's actually involved with the reason why Greg has been making headlines recently. She had a relationship with him between 2015 and 2016 and was 18 at the time.

And after she sort of stopped being part of his life, she did share some of Greg's alleged toxic behavior. For example, where he found out that she smoked marijuana and he wanted to punish her for it. And back in 2017, she tweeted the screenshots of those messages that she says that he sent her. Where it appears he suggests punishments, which include getting a tattoo above her butt saying, I'm a liar, being chained to the basement wall with a sign apologizing for lying, and making a video about lying. Also telling her that she only needs to see her family twice a year, saying Kai does the same. But she's also come forward with more since all of this unfolded. In one case, in fact, appearing on Chris Hansen's show on YouTube, Have a Seat with Chris Hansen. Which, I mean, if you didn't know, yes, I mean, the Chris Hansen hosted Dateline to catch a predator.

He now has a presence on YouTube. And in fact, he's been covering this controversy very extensively on his channel, including interviewing a number of the women involved. He says that he has also tried to speak to Greg, but says that Greg would only agree to speak for $350,000. So I guess my team should be thankful

we were offered a discount. But back on topic, in Hansen's interview with Billie, she says that the relationship started when Kai started messaging her online. And when she was eventually flown out to visit Kai and Greg, she was over the age of 18, but she also said she really had no idea what she was getting into

and that she was really just interested in Kai. But when she got there, she said that Greg was continuously pressuring them to kiss in front of him, very insistent that he watch their first kiss. The first time she visited, nothing sexual happened, but later she said they ended up having a three-way sexual relationship

that happened both naturally and by Greg kind of urging it on. And though she did know that she doesn't think that anything illegal occurred between her, Kai, and Greg, that they were also sort of kind of constantly walking towards the line. And she also said that a lot of the time that she spent there overlapped with the time

that Sarah was living there. And she did believe something illegal could have happened with Sarah, but she didn't specify what laws may have been broken. She also said they spent a lot of time with Greg and Kai's kids. And for a lot of the time that she and Sarah were there, they did what she referred to as babysitting.

But if it was both of us, that's like what we were doing, like babysitting, cleaning up, helping like cook food, just, you know, helping with like whatever general grocery shopping kind of thing. So did you get paid for this? No,

though she did say she was paid for helping with social media moderation, but as Chris Hansen then puts it, it sounds like they treated you like the help and the help was expected to service them sexually. Is that fair? Yeah. Like, I feel like the dynamic's just really weird.

She also, like Sarah, talked about having to sign contracts. I'm sure he has a folder. Like, I have signed countless contracts. Like, this isn't even the first one. Like, there have been so many where it's just like... How many contracts did Greg Onision

have you sign? I want to say possibly four or five. And one of the most notable things, at least here, legally speaking, that interview ended with Chris making an announcement. I should let you and our audience know that I did have a conversation with the FBI yesterday. A little bit of breaking news here. And obviously there is evidence that some of the young women have that could very well be of interest to investigators. And adding that even though Greg and Kai appear to have been careful in terms of the legality of their physical sexual relationships. What many people in these cases don't know, don't think about, aren't aware of, is that the transmission of sexually explicit pictures of people younger than 18 is a federal crime.

Also saying that the penalty can be up to 10 years per image, and with Sarah, we saw that she said she engaged in photo sharing. Also in another interview, we saw Chris Hansen speak with YouTuber Daniel Solsback, also known as Repsion. He's been discussing Greg for years, and in that interview, Daniel said that Greg had deleted online forums after Chris started talking about him and saying

that likely was because young girls were posting photos in those forum discussion threads. Archive stuff of images of from girls from the ages of literal 12, all the way up to 16 to 17 years of age in their, you know, very scantily clad or something just their underwear. Last night, we actually saw Chris Hansen say that he's not only in touch with the FBI, but they are now involved. It's a case that is now under investigation by the FBI. It's a case we've been looking at for a number of weeks now. That said, we're trying to get a general understanding with this coverage.

If you want to watch those interviews, you want to watch those pieces by Hansen, I'll link to them down below, along with, among other things, that Blair White interview, Jay Aubrey has a really deep 45 minute video. Like I said, there's really no shortage when it comes to this topic. But all of that kind of catches us up to last week when we saw Greg actually banned from Patreon. And this was reportedly for doxing.

He reportedly tweeted a screenshot of text that he said he sent to Billie, but also included her phone number. That tweet was removed within an hour of it being posted and Patreon considered this to be doxxing and a violation of their policy, telling The Verge in a statement, Yes, we removed Onision from Patreon as he violated our bullying and harassment as it relates to doxxing. And at first he responded to this in what some people have described as a meltdown. He then said he'd be taking a hiatus, but then he didn't stick to that, continued posting. And in those videos, which I do not recommend you watch,

I mean, part of the reason why I've ever had a kind of hesitation of talking about him is he seems to thrive on any and all attention. But in those videos, the behavior is really all over the place. There are moments where it appears all sincere, and then it's just complete erratic behavior. He's also been tweeting up a storm. A lot of it seems kind of just sexually explicit. Yeah, that's essentially what the story is now. Once again, I'm linking to a number of resources if you want to fully dive deep on this. That said, it will be interesting to see what happens from here.

Will something new come out in general or from one of these live streams with Chris Hansen? Also, will something come from this FBI investigation that Hansen has referenced? Now, a big question that I've seen online are why has YouTube not done anything about this? Are you at Patreon? Shut down Greg's Patreon. Why doesn't YouTube do the same? While I don't have an official comment from them right now, if we just look at kind of historically,

Patreon is a company that will shut down your account for something that violates their rules off platform, even if it's not a criminal offense. Whereas when you're talking about YouTube for stories that we've covered in the past, we usually don't see a channel get completely shut down until after a conviction or based on videos that are still up on your channel, violating the rules.

But with all of that said regarding this story, I of course would love to know your thoughts on this one. And that is where we're going to end today's show. Of course, I'd love to know your thoughts and opinions on this. Also, if you liked today's show, let us know, hit that like button. Also, if you're new here,

you want more of these weekday videos, hit that subscribe button. Definitely tap that bell to turn on notifications. Also, if you're looking for more to watch after today's video, you can check out that brand new podcast I put out just yesterday, or maybe you just missed yesterday's 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. You've just been filled in. I love your faces, and I'll see you next time.