The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 7.16 The Bianca Devins Tragedy, Netflix Censorship, 25 Most Influential Internet People, & More

Starting point is 00:00:00 Sup you beautiful bastards, hope you're having a fantastic Tuesday. Welcome back to the Philip DeFranco Show and a quick note, yesterday we started our brand new shop, DeFranco.com drop. We got the awesome summer collared tee, the bottoms and women and men's cuts, there's three brand new sock designs. We are not completely sold out, although some sizes are sold out. Yeah, if you want to make sure that you do get something from this drop, I would go now, link down below. But with that said, let's just jump into it. The first thing we're gonna talk about today, and actually I feel like I need to give a warning today. Today's show is in general heavy. I try to give us a little break in the middle. But for example, to give you a warning,

Starting point is 00:00:30 the first and last story today involve, in part, stories involving self-harm. So if you're not ready to kind of consume that, I would recommend you use the time codes that we put up in every video, or the top comment in every video is always me adding time codes. Yeah, it is one of those days. So as you may or may not have seen, Netflix made an announcement yesterday in a tweet

Starting point is 00:00:48 with a caption and update on 13 Reasons Why. They wrote, we've heard from many young people that 13 Reasons Why encouraged them to start conversations about difficult issues like depression and suicide and get help, often for the first time. As we prepare to launch season three later this summer, we've been mindful about the ongoing debate around the show. So on the advice of medical experts, including Dr. Christine Motier, Chief Medical Officer at the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, we've decided with creator Brian Yorkey

Starting point is 00:01:12 and the producers of 13 Reasons Why to edit the scene in which Hannah takes her own life from season one. Which if you're unfamiliar with that series, it centers around the suicide of a fictional character named Hannah Baker. And in this series, there's a nearly three minute long scene that aired around midway through an episode that shows Katherine Langford's character, Hannah, looking And in this series, there's a nearly three minute long scene that aired around midway through an episode

Starting point is 00:01:25 that shows Katherine Langford's character, Hannah, looking at herself in the mirror before she was shown cutting her wrists in a bathtub. And in this scene, the camera holds on Hannah during her graphic final moments before showing her parents finding her body. Right, you had critics of the show finding that scene particularly upsetting because of its graphic depiction

Starting point is 00:01:39 of Hannah taking her own life. You also had organizations like the National Association of School Psychologists and the Parents Television Council accusing Netflix of glorifying and romanticizing suicide to vulnerable teens. Although at the same time, you had people praising the show for raising awareness around suicide and bullying. And I will say personally, I can kind of see the validity

Starting point is 00:01:54 of both arguments. But I think anything that allows us to have a legitimate conversation about mental health, depression, bullying, that we should hope for that. And there's something about a story that involves missed opportunities to just treat people better, to be there for others that can be helpful. But also at the same time,

Starting point is 00:02:10 it feels like it's the story of a girl that wanted to have an impact on a number of people, and based off of the action she took, it ended up actually being successful. But the main point here is that scene has now been re-edited. The scene now shows Hannah looking at herself in the mirror and then cuts directly to her parents

Starting point is 00:02:25 finding her body in the bathroom. Also of note here, because obviously anything that exists on the internet is there forever. Sources have reportedly told The Hollywood Reporter that Netflix will also monitor and issue takedowns for any pirated clips that feature the original scene. Now following this re-edit and announcement, there were a number of reaction.

Starting point is 00:02:39 It was met with support from the American Association of Suicidology, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, and much more. And in a statement, they say we support the decision. There has been much debate about the series and the medical community, but this positive change will ensure that 13 Reasons Why

Starting point is 00:02:51 continues to encourage open conversation about mental health and suicide prevention, while also mitigating the risk for the most vulnerable teenage viewers. But this move was also met with mixed reactions online, with some arguing that the scene was painful, but also powerful and should have remained in the show. Some arguing bad call and needs to be graphic

Starting point is 00:03:05 because suicide isn't glamorous or an easy way out, deauthentic. Another claiming it's disrespectful not to show the gruesomeness, sadness, and pain of the suicide. It's supposed to be upsetting and guttural. Also, you had people angry at them, saying too little, too late. Examples like if their teen listened

Starting point is 00:03:18 to the mental health professionals who advised them against this scene in the first place, they'd be saving some time now. Some saying they should still stop making the show. You know, now with all of that said, I pass the question off to you. What are your thoughts around this? For those who have watched the series,

Starting point is 00:03:29 you saw that scene, what are your thoughts on them removing it? You know, even for those who haven't, around the idea of showing something that horrible. Do you feel like that's something that should or shouldn't be showcased? And of course, as I always try to do with any story like this, if you or anyone you know

Starting point is 00:03:44 is contemplating suicide, I'm gonna include resources down below, both US and international. And you know, this is not 100% completely related. Yesterday on my Instagram, in an Instagram story, I just said, hey, tell me something. Talk to me about whatever. There were people that shared, you know, jokes, random stuff, cool stuff happening in their life, but a lot of people shared a horrible thing that they were going through or it happened to them. It made me sad because I feel like a lot of people just need more of that, the ability to just get it out of them, talk to someone, a friend, a professional, I would say whoever, but you know, it needs to be someone that you think cares.

Starting point is 00:04:17 It's one of these resources or lines in the description down below, fantastic. If you have, you know, someone that you haven't reached out to close by, please do that. You are not alone in this, the feeling of being lost or underwater or broken, that unites a lot of us. But yeah, that's where I'm gonna end that story and I'm gonna give you a little pocket of breathing room and then we're gonna go back into the negative. Then we had Time giving us their 25 most influential people on the internet.

Starting point is 00:04:41 Time saying that they evaluated everyone based on their global impact on social media and their overall ability to drive news. Now despite Time looking at their impact, the list is also unranked, which is arguably a good move on their part for two reasons. The first being that, you know, any sort of conversation, any sort of news, it's not necessarily equal to some other news.

Starting point is 00:04:58 And also you get to name drop 25 influential people, give them all winner trophies. Then people can't get angry that BTS is ranked above or below insert whoever by the way BTS is on the list along with Lil Nas X AOC and Trump Liza Koshy James Charles Chris Godfrey who you might not know is the guy behind world record a also and I can already hear the keyboards heating up Carlos Maza and Ben Shapiro are on the list. Dr. Lupo, Emma Chamberlain, all Hong Kong protesters. They also weren't the only group that was included.

Starting point is 00:05:27 You also had the school strikers. But also rather than just rattling off, you know, the complete list of 25, I thought that this could be an interesting moment to learn more about you. Who do you personally, like based off of what you consume online, find to be the most influential people to you?

Starting point is 00:05:40 It could be a list of three to five. And keep in mind that this isn't just kind of a fan poll. It could be for good and bad reasons. And then let's talk about what's going on in Puerto Rico. Yesterday, thousands of people took to the streets there to call for Governor Ricardo Rossello to resign. And those protests took a turn after demonstrators gathered near the governor's mansion

Starting point is 00:05:57 and police fired tear gas and pepper spray into the crowd. With the island's police commissioner later telling reporters that protesters had thrown rocks and bottles and tear gas canisters at the officers. But yesterday's protests weren't just a one-off thing. Monday marked the third consecutive day of demonstrations calling for Rossello to step down. This, after leaked messages from a group chat on Telegram showed Rossello and 11 men in his inner circle repeatedly using sexist and homophobic slurs to insult political opponents, women, and others. The excerpts from the messages were first leaked to the media by an anonymous source on Thursday and then on Saturday Puerto Rico's

Starting point is 00:06:26 Center for Investigative Journalism published nearly 900 pages of messages from this group chat and in those chats Rossello himself reportedly used sexist slurs to describe the former New York City Council speaker also using profanities when talking about the federal oversight group working Puerto Rico's debt crisis. Also notably Rossello and others joked about shooting the mayor of Puerto Rico's capital San San Juan. Also very notably, they talked about manipulating public opinion and discrediting journalists and other opponents of the governor. And keep in mind, like, all of this, the homophobic comments about Puerto Rican singer Ricky Martin, these are just the highlights. Right, because remember, this scandal, which has been cleverly named ChatGate or my personal favorite, Ricky Leaks, we're talking about a leak of over 900 pages. And all the people in the chat were either current or former administration officials.

Starting point is 00:07:06 And notably, this included the current Secretary of State, the Secretary of the Interior, the Secretary of Public Affairs, and the Chief Financial Officer. After these messages were leaked, there was a ton of backlash. Many of Rossello's political allies have withdrawn their support for him.

Starting point is 00:07:18 Puerto Rico's Senate President and House Majority Leader said that they have lost faith in Rossello, which also might not be the most shocking thing because both those leaders were actually mocked in the messages even though they're members of the same political party. Also, Puerto Rico's non-voting representative in the United States Congress said that Rossello should not run for re-election in 2020 and saying that he should immediately reflect on his role as governor. We also saw other political figures and members of the island's House and Senate coming out against the governor. We also saw prominent Puerto Rican celebrities like Lin-Manuel Miranda and Ricky Martin

Starting point is 00:07:45 having voiced support for the protest and condemned Rossello. And over the weekend, we saw Puerto Rico's Secretary of State and Chief Financial Officer resign, but Rossello has refused to step down. After the messages were leaked, Rossello released a statement where he apologized for the comments, saying that he had been under a lot of pressure

Starting point is 00:07:59 and working long hours, and that these messages were just him releasing tension, but also saying that he would fire the members of his administration who were in the chat with him, except he said he would keep the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Public Affairs, meaning that the two highest ranking officials in the chat that didn't resign would still be in office.

Starting point is 00:08:14 Rossello also said in a statement that he will announce a government reorganization and anti-corruption measures in the next few days and added, quote, this is a very painful situation for me as governor, as a human being, and as a Puerto Rican, and adding, but I recognize there is no other way out and there is no worthwhile forgiveness on my part

Starting point is 00:08:29 that does not include corrections and clear signs of intent to change. And during a radio interview yesterday, Rossello insisted that it is in Puerto Rico's best interest for him to stay in office, saying, I have to lift myself up and I have to move forward to do what's best for Puerto Rico. Now, part of the reason that these messages

Starting point is 00:08:43 are such a big deal and have created such a big response is that for many Puerto Ricans, this is a result of a lot of built up frustration with a governor who ran as an anti-corruption and pro-transparency candidate. The first leak to the media came just one day after the federal authorities revealed a massive corruption investigation into the high levels

Starting point is 00:08:58 of the island's Rossello government. And they arrested six people, including Rossello's former education secretary and the former executive director of the Puerto Rico Health Insurance Administration. And they ended up filing criminal charges against them for illegally directing nearly $15.5 million in federal contracts to politically connected consultants. And after that scandal, there were already calls for Rossello to step down. And both of those scandals only added to the frustrations over how Rossello handled Hurricane Maria, which of course killed upwards of 4,645 people according to a new Harvard study. People are also upset about Rossello's controversial education policies,

Starting point is 00:09:26 as well as the country's nearly 12 year long economic recession that many feel he has done little to fix. So in general, there was a lot of buildup and we are where we are now based off of this. As some lawmakers have called for a federal investigation of the chat. Yesterday afternoon, there was also a lawmaker introducing legislation to bring impeachment charges

Starting point is 00:09:41 against Rossello. But regarding that, leaders in Puerto Rico's House and Senate both of which are controlled by the governor's party, have said they will give him time to think about his future before starting impeachment proceedings. Also, as far as reactions outside of Puerto Rico, we have seen the White House chime in, with White House spokesman Judd Deere saying in a statement,

Starting point is 00:09:56 "'The unfortunate events of the past week in Puerto Rico "'prove the president's concerns about mismanagement, "'politicization, and corruption have been valid. "'We remain committed to Puerto Rico's recovery, steadfast in protecting taxpayers and the Puerto Rico survivors from political corruption and financial abuse. But ultimately, that is where we are.

Starting point is 00:10:11 It's gonna be interesting to see what happens. Will we see a resignation? Will we see an escalation? But for now, we're going to have to just wait and see. And the last thing we're gonna talk about today is this just horrible story coming out of Utica, New York, about the murder of a girl named Bianca. Bianca Devins was a 17-year-old micro-influencer

Starting point is 00:10:25 who, according to reports, had around 6,000 followers at the time of her death. Reports say that she was known as an e-girl who posted about video games and other online content. And yesterday, Utica police confirmed she had been killed and that photos taken of her after she was murdered were posted online. Officers identified the man who killed her,

Starting point is 00:10:39 but we won't be showing his face or his name in this video. Given the nature of this crime, it feels like, in part, the monster responsible for this, the goal was to get their name in this video. Given the nature of this crime, it feels like in part the monster response for this, the goal was to get their name out even more. But what we will say is he's a 21 year old who also had 3,000 followers on Instagram. And so here's what we know about what happened. According to a statement from the Utica Police Department,

Starting point is 00:10:56 Bianca and the man went to a concert together on Saturday night. It's believed that on the way back, they got into an argument. They didn't get back to Utica until early on Sunday morning and their argument was still ongoing. And the man ended up stabbing Bianca and the report says, During this time it is believed that he took and distributed photographs of the killing on the discord platform.

Starting point is 00:11:12 Members of discord then viewed the images and posts and contacted the Utica Police Department. We can confirm that the images distributed of both the victim and the offender's injuries are authentic and occurred at the time of the incident. According to other reports, the photos were also posted on Instagram and 4chan. The man then called 911 himself, making comments alluding to the murder as well as comments about harming himself. Reportedly, when officers arrived at the scene, he began stabbing himself on the neck.

Starting point is 00:11:35 An officer also noticed a tarp at the scene with brown hair sticking out from underneath, with the police statement continuing to say, the male advised him that the female was beneath the tarp and proceeded to pull out a cell phone. It was at this time that it is believed that the male took self photographs of himself laying across the deceased female. Officers were able to disarm the man who was taken to the hospital with severe injuries, but is expected to survive and according to reports he has been charged with second-degree murder.

Starting point is 00:11:56 Now thing of note here is that the police investigation is still ongoing and officers are still trying to figure out the nature of Bianca's relationship with this man. According to their statement, they met online two months ago. However, some reports have identified him as her boyfriend, while others have said he was just a man who was obsessed with her. Other reports are saying that he was her family friend, and that seems to be going off what appears to be an Instagram comment from Bianca's sister identifying him as such. But of note, and I really want to hit this, that has not been verified. Now that said, Bianca's family has released a statement about this tragic news saying, We are very grateful for the outpouring of love and sympathy we have received from our friends, family, Bianca's friends, and the whole community. Your prayers help to strengthen us through this difficult time. Bianca was a talented artist, a loving sister, daughter, and cousin, and a wonderful young girl taken from us all too soon.

Starting point is 00:12:36 Now obviously a huge aspect of this investigation and story is the social media part. The photo that was posted to Discord was reportedly captioned with, Sorry fuckers, you're going to have to find somebody else to orbit. Which if you're unfamiliar, orbiting is a phrase which refers to a non-alpha male type who idolizes and puts a woman on a pedestal in hopes of pursuing her. We also saw Buzzfeed obtain screenshots of very cryptic messages he allegedly posted on his Instagram story that night, including this quote from the movie Fight Club that says, This is your life and it's ending one minute at a time. And this photo that says, Here comes hell, it's redemption, right?

Starting point is 00:13:04 Also according to the Washington Post, the accused in this incident had marked posts about the violence with a winking reference to a popular YouTube star writing, subscribe to PewDiePie. This according to images obtained by the Washington Post. Buzzfeed also had screenshots of his Instagram bio before it was taken down,

Starting point is 00:13:17 which reportedly was updated to include Sunday as his date of death, along with, just know that I feel no pain now. Regarding Instagram, they gave a statement to Rolling Stone saying that they took down his account, adding, "'We have also taken steps to prevent others "'from re-uploading the content posted "'to that account to Instagram.'"

Starting point is 00:13:31 Discord also giving a statement saying, "'We are shocked and deeply saddened "'by this terrible situation. "'We are working closely with law enforcement "'to provide any assistance we can. "'In the meantime, our hearts go out "'to Bianca's family and loved ones.'" Also another social aspect to this story

Starting point is 00:13:43 is just how it blew up online. The hashtag, RIP Bianca, trended on ones. Also another social aspect of the story is just how it blew up online. The hashtag RipBianca trended on Twitter with people sharing their condolences and also speaking out against violence of this nature. Examples like stories like RipBianca are the reason why women fear men on a daily basis. This guy stalked her, was obsessed with her, and then killed her for denying his advances

Starting point is 00:13:58 and then posted all of this on his IG. So when you say, well, why don't you just say, no, this is why. Another writing, what we're not gonna do is use the term orbiter in place of stalker murderer criminal sick minded piece of shit We need terms that'll put a bad taste in people's mouths when they read what happened to a 17 year old girl Sickening as well as people calling for the end of the photos being spread people writing Bianca doesn't deserve her body being posted all over Social media, please let her rest peacefully and that last words really notable because unfortunately there was a huge ugly side of this

Starting point is 00:14:25 on the internet. With some people trying to share their photos on their profiles, others blaming her for her death, saying that she knew what she was doing in terms of meeting men on the internet and literally had it coming. Now luckily it appears that those disgusting assholes are nowhere near the majority,

Starting point is 00:14:38 but it's still horrible to see. And it's something that users online have been trying to combat since the photos of this poor young girl still are continuing to bypass defenses. Which is also why you have people out there trying to kind of overwhelm the hashtag where people were spreading these pictures. Instead people posting pictures of Bianca where she's alive or flowers or animals or pink clouds. And ultimately that is where we are with this story right now and I don't know how to end this. It's just horrible. There's nothing else in this story right now, and I don't know how to end this. It's just horrible.

Starting point is 00:15:05 There's nothing else in this story. It's just a showcasing of some of the worst that this world has to offer, obviously in two different leagues. One, you have the murderer himself, and not only does he commit this horrible act, he then decides to use this moment as an opportunity to metaphorically throw her body into the streets

Starting point is 00:15:22 and make this about him, to have her be remembered as his victim as a product of his actions Rather than the young woman who had her entire life ahead of her which I will say maybe there is something there regarding the people posting photos of her alive right people not wanting to give him and them that because to you have the the fucking Disgusting trolls the outright sickos and the Right, and this is a little bit all over because you had some people celebrating the act, some people victim blaming, some people deciding,

Starting point is 00:15:49 hey, this should be a meme. As well as the disgusting pricks out there who were like, hey, look, I posted the picture, you can come, if you wanna see it, you can come follow me. But that's it, we still breathe the same air as these people. And so maybe with a story like this, that's okay for us to talk about it,

Starting point is 00:16:02 that there doesn't need to be a silver lining, and even if there is, that's not the point, this is a reminder. World of times and in parts is a horrible, scary place. And yeah, unfortunately, that is where we're going to end today's show. Thank you for watching and or joining the conversation and or sharing so the news gets out to more people. And for those that want more to watch,

Starting point is 00:16:21 if you wanna see a brand new bonus news video, you can click or tap right there to watch that. Or maybe you missed yesterday's Philip DeFranco show. You can click or tap to watch that. 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 tomorrow.

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The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 7.16 The Bianca Devins Tragedy, Netflix Censorship, 25 Most Influential Internet People, & More

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