The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 2.22 Why Colleen Ballinger & Top Youtubers Are Freaking Out, Zion Nike Controversy, & More

Episode Date: February 22, 2019

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Sup you beautiful bastards, hope you're having a fantastic Friday. Welcome back to the Philip DeFranco Show. And if you're new here, on Fridays we do things a little bit different. On Fridays I try to cover more viewer-requested stories from the week, and this week in fact because we have now developed time travel technology. Including stories that were cut for time this week, either because the videos themselves were already too long, or they were going to make us just extremely late. But, with that said, let's just jump into it. And the first thing we're going to talk about today is the story about how I have finally accomplished something my son did before me. I have finally become a meme.

When my son was on a roller coaster when he was young, he was a meme. When I shared a photo of my cousin at a wedding, she became a massive meme. And finally, after saying it for 10 damn years, let's just jump into it as become a meme. And there's a range, let's experience it together. Any character, fully charged smash attack, me.

Let's just jump into it. Puddle exists, my kids, let's just jump into it. On Roof with Friend, me? Let's just jump into it. Puddle exists, my kids? Let's just jump into it. On roof with friend me? Let's just jump, wow that got, that got, whoa, that got dark fast. To those of you that put my dumb face in new avenues on the internet, thank you.

But also now that I've acknowledged it, I imagine it will die. Just as when I asked people to stop calling me daddy, that definitely stopped everyone. Or maybe I'm saying all of this so that you think that I want it and then you don't do it. Or is that what I want? It's all very confusing.

I don't even know the actual answer anymore. There we go, like I said, it's viewer requested. It is for better and worse. Moving on. And then of course, let's talk about updates around the situation that we've been dealing with on YouTube this week. And kind of a TLDR, and keep in mind,

this is just very on the surface level, not the deep dives that we did before. If you wanna see that, I'll link to those videos down below. But kind of a TLDR to bring you to this moment. Earlier this week, there was a video that blew up where it showed that if you search certain things, you could end up into this wormhole

where all of a sudden you're getting videos of young children doing gymnastics, and then if you went to the comments section, it was just horrible. Just monstrous comments about the kids, people seemingly preying on them, sharing time codes of the children in like vulnerable positions.

It was a horrible thing to see, but if you've been on YouTube for a while, you know that YouTube has been trying to combat this. Seemingly, rather than just trying to get the word out that this is happening, reporting these comments to YouTube, which YouTube has been combating, the person who made the video that blew up,

as well as a small community around him, just started spamming advertisers that may have had their ads put on videos that, once again, most of these videos were fine. It was the comments section that was horrible. So brands did what brands do. They got extremely panicky. All of a sudden, people were pulling their ad campaigns,

pausing them, and while all of this was happening, YouTube jumped into action. If you didn't see, they told us, quote, "'In the last 48 hours beyond our normal protections, "'we have disabled comments on tens of millions of videos. "'We've also terminated over 400 channels "'for the comments they left on videos "'and reported illegal comments to law enforcement.'" Right, so as we discussed, YouTube takes this very seriously. They've also terminated over 400 channels for the comments they left on videos and reported illegal comments to law enforcement.

Right, so as we discussed, YouTube takes this very seriously. They've been developing technology, they've been doing mass hiring, they're trying to handle it. But with all of this, every time we've talked about this, I've explained that this is a lose-lose situation for YouTube no matter what. When certain videos or comments sections slip through and there's this disgusting thing that's out there,

all of a sudden people throw out this crazy narrative that YouTube is fine with all this horrible stuff. They're just so happy to monetize it, which is once again a ridiculous and insane narrative. All right, so that's a lose for them there. Of course, with this story, YouTube is going to have to crack down even more than they've been doing,

which means with YouTube's scale, how massive the site is, how many minutes of video are uploaded every single second, there's really no perfect way for them to crack down without some people that should not be getting hit, getting hit. And that is the big update we saw last night. Jessica Ballinger, who is a family YouTuber

on this platform, posted that all of a sudden she had several of her videos demonetized. Saying, my five year old son does gymnastics and is a happy, sweet, confident boy. YouTube, not advertiser friendly. And that post was going on its own, but it definitely was supercharged thanks to Colleen Ballinger, who of course is Miranda Sings,

and her sister-in-law, quote tweeting it, saying, this is ridiculous. Team YouTube then responded to Jessica, tweeting, hi there, for reference over the past few days, we've taken a number of actions to better protect the YouTube community from content that endangers minors. Then, because why not throw me into this,

they wrote, here is a tweet from Philly D for more context. So essentially YouTube's first response was they tweeted a TLDR tweet, that linked to my TLDR tweet, that included a screenshot of an official But maybe not official comment from team YouTube which if I can just chime in real quick It's it's probably best for you guys to have an official blog post rather than linking to my tweet But we'll continue and the second of the tweets they sent to Jessica is one that just sent the YouTube community into a frenzy

They wrote with regard to the actions that we've taken even if your video is suitable for advertisers Inappropriate comments could result in your video receiving limited or no ads yellow icon Let us know if you have any questions and in general the entire YouTube community was like yeah We got questions what because even to the tweet that they linked of mind I mean there there's no reference to demonetization there So all of a sudden you have all the creators on YouTube saying wait So so essentially I could just people could become bombard my YouTube comment section And I'm gonna get demonetized that's insane you could weaponize that policy to attack anyone and this fear spread incredibly fast for example

There was a there was a really viral tweet from Colleen again writing so now YouTube can punish creators by disabling the comment section and Demonetizing videos if the comments aren't ad friendly if this is true every youtuber needs to start looking for a new job There are hardly any videos on YouTube that lack vile comments. How is this fair? And you know, because I, like many others, was nervous, I reached out to my contacts over at YouTube. And while I don't have an official comment yet, because I think that they're working for an official blog post, so that they can have like this one place that they can point to, what it sounds like, and I think that's a safe way to say it, is that this is not a policy that will affect all YouTubers. Instead, one, it seems hyper-specific to the content that this could happen on.

For example, when you look to the photo that Jessica posted where you have several videos that have been demonetized, several of them have something in common, that is they have a young, young child doing a split fully in frame in the thumbnail. And that ends up being very close to the kind of content we talked about earlier this week that YouTube was coming under fire for.

Completely clean, nothing inappropriate video that ended up featuring a child doing something like gymnastics. So it appears that right now, if the focus of the video is a very, very young child and they're doing something that could be manipulated or preyed upon, or you get the idea, that would be a video that would be effective.

But also what it sounded like is that YouTube right now may be over-correcting because they're getting so hammered by the media and advertisers. It very much sounded like the preferred method to control things moving forward would not be to demonetize videos, but rather just shut down the comments section. Which I think for creators like Jessica

will be frustrating, but obviously that would be way better than just getting mass demonetized. And actually, literally as we were exporting today's show, YouTube did update this story. I'm gonna link to it down below, but you can see more information there. But yeah, that's the situation as it is now. I'm gonna keep my eyes open to see if we get a new comment

or get any updates from YouTube. But really it was just a matter of time with this story till something like this happened. Right, a situation where YouTube's being both classified as a place where YouTube doesn't even care if you post horrible things, where we're children or vulnerable, and also at the same time anti-creator for cracking down. But, you know, that is the situation as it is right now. And of course, with this, I pass the question off to you because I am very interested to know what your thoughts are. There are a lot of different creators and a lot of different communities that are receiving all of this new information and some of the updates a lot differently. So I'm just really interested question off to you, because I am very interested to know what your thoughts are. There are a lot of different creators in a lot of different communities that are receiving all of this new information,

and some of the updates a lot differently. So I'm just really interested to hear from you. Then for our next story, we have to jump through time. Haters are gonna say that it's just jump cuts, but it's time travel, don't at me. And then let's talk about sports, but it's not really a sports story, but it involves sports. Let me explain.

So if you don't watch college basketball, you might not be aware that Duke University played the University of North Carolina last night. And this is a massive game. You have tons of people across the nation tuning into the game. You have people in attendance like Barack Obama, Spike Lee. But the story's not about them.

It is about Duke freshman Zion Williamson. He's a massive basketball star, an NBA hopeful. And understand when I say NBA hopeful, like they're expecting him to be drafted number one. But he ended up actually having to leave the game with a crazy injury that happened within a minute of the opening tip off. He falls, he grabs his knee,

so it looks like he hurt his knee. If you watch the clip, which I don't think we can actually show you, he slips, but he also actually doesn't slip. What happened is that his shoe just fell apart. Like the sole literally broke off from the shoe. And after this happens, he ends up walking off the court to try a new shoe,

but he then eventually leaves for the locker room. And in fact, later that night, Duke announced that he had sustained a mild sprained knee. In this game, North Carolina, the number eight team would go on to beat Duke, who is the number one team in the country, but that's not really the story here. Since last night, people all over social media have been talking about that blown out shoe,

which was actually made by Nike. And Nike, of course, is a huge brand that sponsors tons of sports teams of different levels, and in fact, they provide Duke with their uniforms as part of a 12-year contract that they have with the school that ends in 2027. And so we've seen a ton of backlash against Nike, many people trashing the brand online saying that they could have ruined Zion's career. And in fact looking into it further there are sneakerheads out there that are saying that he shouldn't have been wearing the shoe in the first place. This because he's wearing the PG 2.5 which is part of Nike's collaboration with the Oklahoma City Thunder player, Paul George. PG 2.5 retails for $110 and is currently on sale

via Nike's official site for $92.97. And so you had a lot of people wondering why a 6'7", 285 pound guy playing basketball at almost the highest level was wearing one of Nike's cheaper basketball shoes instead of one with features better suited for his position. And Brad Crawford even penned a piece for 24-7 Sports diving even deeper into these shoes.

He mentioned that the PG 2.5s were engineered for guards and even said that this model was actually one of the least expensive Options out of the many other options that Zion could have chosen to wear and added from in-game photos Williamson's pair of the player edition PG 2.5 and Duke's familiar white and blue colorway appear to be worn quite a bit hence more Give than usual in the midsole where separation occurred in a violent manner He goes on to say that if you wear a shoe enough, pressure points will, of course, weaken all areas. And so in generally saying that the shoe falling apart wasn't actually surprising.

Now as far as Nike's response to all of this, they have since released a statement saying, "'We are obviously concerned and want to wish Zion "'a speedy recovery. "'The quality and performance of our products "'are of utmost importance. "'While this is an isolated occurrence, "'we are working to identify the issue.'"

And the thing is, looking at that statement, that statement makes sense. That investigation, if they actually do it, makes sense. Not because maybe they as a company care about Zion. That's a question about intention, but this is horrible press for Nike, and it's also seemingly affecting their business. Since last night, the company stock,

which had been doing really, really well, it was riding this nice wave, has dropped over a percent. Which maybe you hear that and you're like, well, one percent's nothing, but when you're talking about a company that has the market value of Nike, that's a lot of money. I mean, think about it this way, and I'm simplifying and kind of minimizing

the situation a little bit, but it's still true. A guy slipped and hurt himself because his shoe was busted and a company lost over a billion dollars in market value. Now keep in mind the stock market and value in general, it's all fluid. This is, in my opinion, this is most likely going to be a blip for Nike. But in the meantime, especially based off of the actions

or inaction of people involved with that company, I mean, that's a massive deal. Also of note with this story has been this conversation of should Zion return? While of course tons of people are wishing Zion a healthy recovery, including Barack Obama on Twitter, there has also been a lot of talk about whether he should even return to play college ball.

You know, we've talked about the NCAA in the past, and while it wasn't a big topic of our last video, when you have people that play in college, they're not getting paid. Meanwhile, there is the ever-present threat that at any time he could be injured and lose his entire career. In this situation, Zion was wearing a brand

that he had to wear. But if he wants to get to the NBA and he doesn't want to play overseas, he has to play in college because they don't draft high school players anymore. Which actually, on that note, interestingly enough, a part of this story has to play in college because they don't draft high school players anymore. Which actually on that note, interestingly enough, a part of this story has to do with insurance. Zion actually has a loss of value insurance policy,

which if you've never heard of that, according to the NCAA, it protects a student athlete's future contract value from decreasing below a predetermined amount due to a significant injury or illness suffered during the policy's designated coverage period. And according to reports, Williamson's policy is actually worth $8 million on the chance

that he is picked 16th or later in the NBA draft. And personally, finding that out, if I was Zion, I would have flopped harder than Neymar. I would have been grabbing every part of my body. I'd show up in the second half in a full body cast. Maybe you get drafted late by an even better team than you expected, especially because once again, while the school and the coaches and everyone,

except the actual players are getting paid, it's the players that are at risk every single day. But with all of that said, the big reaction, the stock market, the future. At the end of the day, unless there is another injury, most likely Zion will still be picked before the 16th spot. Also a thing to consider is that reportedly this is just a mild sprain,

so this is not a longstanding injury. It's more of a scare. As far as the possibility of Williamson sitting out from here, that seems unlikely unless he's drastically changed because of this incident. In recent weeks leading up to thisson sitting out from here, that seems unlikely unless he's drastically changed because of this incident. In recent weeks leading up to this incident, he said he would have played a year in college

even if the rule didn't exist. Adding, if I was going to sit out, I wouldn't have gone to college. I'm thankful that Coach K gave me the opportunity. And so for now, it seems like the main person or group here damaged from this incident is Nike. Who, I mean, they've been criticized for the quality of their gear in the past.

I mean, back in 2017, there were complaints because NBA jerseys were ripping. But yeah, there was that. And with that said, we go back to the future. Then let's talk about ISIS. If you listen really closely, you can hear the demonetization right from here. So, and this is a really interesting one,

there are two young women who joined ISIS in Syria when they were teenagers, and they are now begging to go back home to their home countries. One is from Alabama here in the States, and the other is from London. And these two cases are actually very similar. And we'll start with Hoda Mathana,

who was 19 when she decided in 2014 to leave Alabama to join ISIS in their former capital of Raqqa. She reportedly told her family she was going on a school trip to Atlanta back in November of 2014, and once she got there, she then got on a plane trip to Atlanta back in November of 2014 and when she got there She then got on a plane to Turkey as far as how she got to Syria that remains unclear at this moment

But when she got there first married an Australian jihadist who died fighting for Isis Then she married a Tunisian man who she has an 18 month old child with that second husband also died fighting for Isis And she recently married her third husband a Syrian man, but she says she doesn't know where he is right now And a few weeks ago She fled with her son from Susa, which is a village not far from where US-backed forces are closing in on ISIS. And after, she made her way towards the Kurdish area

in Northern Syria. Now, this escape reportedly wasn't her first attempt and she told The Guardian on Monday that she tried to escape for months. Meet Tim's new Oreo Mocha ice caps, with Oreo in every sip. Perfect for listening to the A-side, or B-side, or bull-side.

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pick guaranteed fresh Canadian produce first. Restrictions apply. See in-store or online for details. I've been planning, literally planning to get out for months. I got caught twice by ISIS and I was so scared I broke my phone. From what I heard, if they were to read my messages, I would have been killed. And after wandering the desert for two nights, she was captured by Kurdish forces. So she and her son are now in a camp for the displaced and what will ultimately happen to her is still being decided also around The story there was an interview with Hoda that aired on Tuesday, and it was kind of interesting

She tries to explain how she went from living in the United States to joining Isis in it she says one of the things that led her down the path towards Isis was her extremely strict upbringing She found that the only way out was to become more religious I had a good relationship with my family, but I wanted a more Americanized life. I just wanted to go out I wanted to have like friends go to Places. Yeah, they didn't get any of that The only way out for me was just to become practicing to become more religious more religious Yeah

And from there she then began connecting with pro-ISIS Muslims online. And with this, also joining a Twitter group of roughly 3,000 to spread ISIS propaganda. Using her account, she tweeted things like, Veterans, Patriots, Memorial, etc. Day Parades. Go on drive-bys and spill all of their blood or rent a big truck and drive all over them. Kill them. And then from there, she said when she heard that the caliphate was announced, that she felt it was her duty to go. And in her ABC interview, Hoda expressed remorse.

It's crazy. I can't even believe I thought of that really it's The more I gained knowledge the more I knew that it wasn't correct So we had just young people not knowing much about their religion. We interpreted everything very wrong I hope America doesn't think I'm a threat to them and I hope They can accept me also now saying that she regrets what she did and that she was brainwashed. And so as far as what's going to happen, well on Tuesday we saw US State Department spokesperson Robert Palladino saying that he couldn't discuss a particular case, but did say quote, Our policy in this regard would be to repatriate them and it's what we call on all countries to do

who have FTF, Foreign Terrorist Fighters, in Syria. Repatriating these foreign terrorist fighters to their countries of origin, ensuring that they are prosecuted and detained. That's the best solution to preventing them from returning to the battlefield. We view these fighters as a global threat and we seek global cooperation to resolve that threat.

We've also seen Trump in the past say that he wants American ISIS fighters brought back to the US to face justice. But on Wednesday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement that Hoda is not a US citizen and thus will not be allowed to return to the United States. Saying she does not have any legal basis, no valid US passport, no right to a passport, nor any visa to travel to the United States. We also saw Donald Trump tweet,

I have instructed Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and he fully agrees not to allow Hoda Mathana back into the country. And at this point you might be a little bit confused, right? So she was from Alabama, she left, but she's not a US citizen. Well, according to Mathana's family attorney, Pompeo's assertion that Hoda is not a citizen is based on the fact that Hoda is a daughter of a former Yemeni diplomat. Which is important because children born in America to foreign diplomats are not automatically considered US citizens. But Mathana's attorney said the Trump administration's position is based on a complicated interpretation of that law, stating, they're claiming her dad was a diplomat when she was born, which in fact he wasn't. Also adding, the Trump administration continues its attempts

to wrongfully strip citizens of their citizenship. And Hoda Muthana had a valid US passport and is a citizen. She was born in Hackensack, New Jersey in October 1994, months after her father stopped being a diplomat. So there's that situation, and then we have the Brit. So, as I mentioned earlier, it's a pretty similar case. We have Shamima Begum, who was 15 when she left London to join ISIS back in 2015.

She also married an ISIS fighter and she had two children that died. Shamima actually gave birth to their third child over the weekend in the same camp that Hoda is being held. She also did an interview, although she did it with the BBC and in it, she was asked about what she thinks about her role as part of the terror organization and given a chance to apologize for it.

And what's really interesting is that she appears to be almost unapologetic. So here's your opportunity then to apologize to some of the people who were murdered by the group that you joined. Some of the British men, some of the women, some of the kids from Manchester who were killed in the Manchester arena. You must have heard about that attack. What did you think about that? I was shocked but... I just couldn't... I didn't know about the kids actually but... I still haven't heard you apologize to anybody.

Okay yeah I am sorry for all the families that have lost them, like husbands and sons and brothers, you know. And I'm sorry for all the men that have lost their women and children because of the attacks back in the UK and other countries. It wasn't fair on them. They weren't fighting anyone. They weren't causing any harm. But neither was I and neither are the women who are being killed right now back in Bahroush.

She then goes on to call atrocities committed by ISIS a two-way thing. It's a two-way thing, really. Because women and children are being killed back in the Islamic State right now. And it's kind of retaliation. Like, their justification was that it was retaliation. So I thought okay that is a Fair justification also in another interview with Sky News She said I don't regret it because it changed me as a person it made me stronger tougher. I married my husband I wouldn't have found someone like him back in the UK. I had my kids and adding I did have a good time there

It's just that at the end things got harder and I couldn't take it anymore And so now Shamima says she wants to return to the UK for the sake of her child. However, British authorities have indicated that they may revoke her citizenship. In fact, on Wednesday during an interview, Shamima was shown a letter from the British government saying that she has in fact lost her UK citizenship. Please find enclosed papers that relate to a decision

taken by the Home Secretary to deprive your daughter, Shamima Begum, of her British citizenship. What do you think? I don't know what to say. I'm not that shocked by him, I'm a bit shocked. And this move raised questions about what would happen to her child, to which Britain's Interior Minister said,

"'Children should not suffer.' So if a parent does lose their British citizenship, it does not affect the rights of their child." You also had the likes of UK conservative MP George Freeman saying that revoking her citizenship was a mistake, writing on Twitter, "'I'm afraid that for various reasons, "'I think today's decision to strip Miss Begum

"'of her UK citizenship is a mistake "'and a dangerous precedent. "'She was born here, educated here, "'and is our responsibility. "'We should defend our system, "'and she should be brought back to face the UK courts.'" Also on this note, according to international and UK law, it is illegal to revoke someone's citizenship

if that would leave that person stateless. So how has her citizenship been revoked? Well, according to section 42 of the British Nationality Act of 1981, which I'm so familiar with, the Secretary of State can deprive a person of a citizenship status if the Secretary of State is satisfied that deprivation is conducive

to the public good, as long as they would not become stateless as a result and because both Of Shamima's parents are Bangladeshi nationals according to Bangladeshi law that would make her a citizen However, Shamima was born in the UK and claims to not be a dual citizen saying in an interview I wasn't born in Bangladesh. I've never seen Bangladesh and I don't even speak Bengali properly So how can they claim I have Bangladeshi citizenship? But because she could technically apply for a Bangladeshi passport, that is thought to be the justification behind the move to revoke her citizenship.

Which on that note, Wednesday morning, a Bangladeshi state minister of foreign affairs said in a statement, the government of Bangladesh is deeply concerned that Begum has been erroneously identified as a holder of dual citizenship. So as of right now, it's unclear if the move to revoke her citizenship will actually stand up

to a challenge, but Shamima has also said that she may attempt to gain Dutch citizenship through her husband. And so ultimately, you now understand those two situations. As far as my personal opinion, I do believe that there is an option that all of these countries have not considered, and that is we just take these ISIS or former ISIS fighters and we throw them into the ocean, he said sarcastically,

as to not create some sort of controversy about violence. But I mean, you know, what do you think? Do you think that the UK and the United States, they should bring them back, prosecute them? I mean, that's what you should be doing here? Or no, you think, take that trash somewhere else? And really, any and all thoughts on this subject, I'd love to know.

And that's where I'm going to end today's show. And remember, if you like this video, you like these daily dives into the news, let us know, hit that like button. Also, if you're new here, you want more, hit subscribe. I'd ring that bell to turn on notifications. Those sometimes even work. Also, if you really wanna make sure

you get notifications for the videos, you should follow me on Twitter and turn on notifications there. Also, on that note, if you missed the last Philip DeFranco show and or the morning news deep dive and you wanna catch up, you can click or tap right there to watch those. 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 Monday.