The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 8.31 Piper Rockelle Exploitation Scandal is Dividing People, Lil Nas X, Video Game Bans, & More

Episode Date: August 31, 2021

Go to http://www.getroman.com/Phil for 50% off your first ED treatment + free two-day shipping if prescribed Watch More News: https://youtu.be/euAkm9YmpCM TEXT ME! [phone] Get More Phil: https://linktr.ee/PhilipDeFranco -- WATCH Newest Podcast: https://youtu.be/1Hy6BKjjAQQ  WATCH Full “A Convo With” Podcasts: https://www.youtube.com/ACW   LISTEN On The Podcast Platform Of Your Choice: http://LinksHole.com  WATCH the ACW Clips channel!: https://youtube.com/ACWClips  -- 00:00 - Bishop Sycamore ESPN Scandal Explained 03:45 - Virginia School Board Prank Goes Viral 05:37 - Lil Nas X & Tony Hawk Post Skateboarding TikTok 06:30 - Piper Rockelle Responds to Pink 08:08 - Sponsor 08:54 - China Limits Video Game time 11:32 - Facebook to De-Emphasize Political Stories  13:04 - South Korea to Outlaw App Fee Requirements -- ✩ TODAY’S STORIES ✩  Allegedly Fake High School Dupes ESPN Into Airing Game Against National Powerhouse:  https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/highschool/2021/08/30/bishop-sycamore-high-school-football-espn/5657217001/ Virginia School Board Meeting Goes Viral After Name Prank: https://www.dexerto.com/entertainment/virginia-school-board-meeting-goes-viral-after-fake-names-bart-simpson-prank-1643148/ Lil Nas X and Tony Hawk Post Skateboarding TikTok: https://people.com/music/lil-nas-x-teams-up-with-tony-hawk-for-hilarious-skateboarding-video/ Teen YouTuber Responds to Pink’s Claims That She’s Being ‘Exploited’ by Parents:  https://www.complex.com/music/youtube-pink-accusations-response China Limits Kids to 3 Hours of Video Games Per Week While Cracking Down on Big Tech:  https://roguerocket.com/2021/08/30/china-moves-to-limit-gaming-time/ Facebook to De-Emphasize Political Stories in News Feed: https://www.axios.com/facebook-news-feeds-politics-b4a32c93-3dab-42cd-b761-039363ebdb7c.html South Korea Will Become the First Country To Outlaw Google and Apple’s App Fee Requirements https://roguerocket.com/2021/08/31/south-korea-google-apple/ ✩ STORIES NOT IN TODAY’S SHOW ✩ Paramount Sues Insurer Over COVID-19 Shutdown Costs During “Mission: Impossible 7”:  https://roguerocket.com/2021/08/31/paramount-sues-insurer-mi7-shutdowns/ European Union Removes U.S. From Safe Travel List https://roguerocket.com/2021/08/31/european-union-removes-u-s-from-safe-travel-list/ Florida Withholds Funds From 2 Schools With Mask Mandates Despite Court Ruling: https://roguerocket.com/2021/08/31/florida-withholds-funds-schools/  ——————————     Edited by: James Girardier, Julie Goldberg, Maxx Enright Produced by: Amanda Morones Art Director: Brian Borst  Writing/Research: Philip DeFranco, Lili Stenn, Maddie Crichton, Cory Ray, Neena Pesqueda, Brian Espinoza Production Team: Zack Taylor ———————————— #DeFranco #PiperRockelle #LilNasX Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sup you beautiful bastards. Welcome back to the Philip DeFranco show. Hit that like button, subscribe, do all the good stuff to feed those algorithm gods, especially because at the end of this week, I'm gonna be giving a thousand dollars to a subscriber. But with that said, let's just jump into it. First up today, we have easily one of the most requested

and weirdest stories of the week. And actually maybe you saw it trending this morning. Let's talk about Bishop Sycamore. Right, so according to reports, ESPN airs a high school football game on Sunday between Florida's IMG Academy and Ohio's Bishop Sycamore as part of the network's Geico Kickoff Classic.

So IMG, if you don't know, they're defending national champions, they're consistently one of the best teams in the country, and as far as Bishop Sycamore, there's not much known about them, but apparently they told ESPN that their team was stacked with Division One prospects. But if you actually watch that game, Bishop Sycamore did unbelievably bad, in fact losing the game 58 to zero. A matchup so incredibly uneven,

it made ESPN commentators concerned about the safety of the players. And now we're seeing reports that suggest that Bishop Sycamore isn't even a real high school. According to Football Scoop, it appears to be an online only charter school with a website that resembles a blog. With awful announcing later confirming

that the Ohio High School Athletic Association doesn't even recognize it as a legitimate school. Also adding that their physical location, practice facilities and roster eligibility could not be verified. Though apparently they did play last season going 0-6 routinely blown out, making it even weirder that ESPN agreed

to air their game in the first place. Also reporters found out that Bishop Sycamore actually played a game on Friday, which also raised concern about the player's safety since they only had one day of rest before playing such an elite team. And on top of all of that, it turns out that many of Bishop Sycamore's players,

they're already high school graduates. Many around 19 and 20 years old. Some allegedly have already played in junior college games. And thanks to all this weird due attention, we've learned that the team's head coach, Roy Johnson, allegedly has an active bench warrant for failing to appear in a domestic violence case, with him also reportedly being sued for unpaid loans,

while others are threatening to do the same for unpaid bills and services. You know, looking through this, it looks like the shady football program is something that's been running for a while now. Over the last few days, reports coming out, continuing to expose a ton of details about the team's history.

For instance, one former recruit spoke to Complex about his experience saying that he was brought on in 2018 when it was known as Christians of Faith Academy. Saying he was recruited under false promises of the team being on Netflix, becoming one of the best teams in the Midwest. Saying at first things seemed legit until the coaches quit over lack of payments.

Also saying that the team didn't even go to school, that they lived in a hotel for months that the coach couldn't even pay for. Adding that they even slept on the floor, they played games without practice and even robbed grocery stores just to eat. And you have people saying that it looks like all of this adds up because in footage of their games,

you can see they don't even have enough gear for every player. And so as far as how did they actually end up on ESPN? How did this scam get through? Awful Announcing reported that the game was scheduled by Paragon Marketing Group. The firm's president, one, denying knowing that the team played a Friday game,

and two, admitted that the company did not do its due diligence in researching them. But the ESPN also saying that we regret that this happened and saying Paragon has ensured us that they will take steps to prevent this kind of situation from happening moving forward. But you know, with all that said, many are left with just concern

about how this program is still operating. Because as that one former player noted, they've even relied on donated funds from church and have scammed a lot of people. Also saying that they robbed a lot of the younger players of their time and education. The former recruits saying, I know some kids that are seniors in high school

and now their senior year is gone. That's how it was for me. My junior year was taken away from me. Still with all this coming out, accusations getting thrown around. The coach spent time saying this is not a scam saying, yes, they do in fact have classes, but it's a system that's untraditional.

But also at the same time, according to some reports, this is a bit of an open secret in certain football spaces. With for example, a former Ohio high school athletic association investigator who trailed Roy Johnson for years, telling Fox news that some of the powerhouse teams know all about Bishop Sycamore, but quote would rather play an illegitimate school

than have a bi. And actually last second update, this came out as I was finishing filming, Roy Johnson has apparently been fired, which I imagine has to be rough to be fired from a school whose address is listed as a PO box. I don't know, what a mess. Do you have any thoughts on the mess?

Also in news that's kind of connected, it's about schools, specifically a school board meeting. This one happening in Virginia. With that set up, you might be expecting some absolutely deranged people screaming into a microphone. Right, a lot of those instances involving parents screaming about masks. There was also a very intense one back in April in Arizona.

It ended up with board members having to be escorted to their car after parents protesting the mask mandate stormed into the meeting. Situations were across the country. We've seen board member after board member stepping down, right, resigning, saying that an unpaid volunteer position is not worth the harassment. Some saying that they feared for their life,

their property, they've had thoughts about suicide. But today I wanted to do something almost unheard of on the PDS and that is show you something that'll make you smile. And that's because in the school board meeting in Virginia, you have a woman that she's finishing up speaking, giving her point of view. And then it's time for the next person who happens to be.

Phil McCracken. Phil McCracken. Now, unexpectedly, Phil McCracken is not there. Who knew? I guess Phil was busy, so he continues to go down the list of names. Suk Mahedek. Suk Mahedek. Ophelia McHawk. Ophelia McHawk.

Eileen Dover. Eileen Dover. Don Kittick. Don Kittick. And really there's nothing else to add to that story. I love that he like realizes it halfway through. Yeah, shout out to viewer and friend of the show, Amanda Hug and Kiss for recommending that story.

I think I speak for the audience when I say the audience truly appreciates Amanda Hug and Kiss. Then in celebrity news, we have two stories. The first involving Lil Nas X and Tony Hawk, with them seeming to make a video together to show, hey, there's no animosity, there's no beef, we're blood brothers. This of course, because Lil Nas X and Tony Hawk, with them seeming to make a video together to show, hey, there's no animosity, there's no beef, we're blood brothers. This, of course, because Lil Nas X released those Satan shoes with a little drop of his blood, then Tony Hawk released

skateboards that were actually painted with some of his blood, after which Lil Nas X pointed out the massive difference in public reaction, writing at the time, now that Tony Hawk has released skateboards with his blood painted on them and there was no public outrage, are y'all ready to admit y'all were never actually upset over the blood in the shoes? And maybe you were mad for some other reason. With many people thinking he was specifically targeted because he's a black gay man. Meanwhile, you had others pushing back saying,

no, it was more about the satanic stuff. But ultimately the two making the video together it served as a collab, but also seemingly as a way to show that they don't actually have any anger towards one another. Even with Lil Nas X being disappointed or angry with the general reaction. Yeah, with this story, I would love to know your thoughts on was there a double standard in the public reaction here

or no, are the products inherently different? Although you might end up wanting to leave a comment about the second celeb story, and that is a story that involves Pink and Piper Raquel, which I will say also feels like a story that showcases how big the internet is because I had never heard of Piper. According to her profile, she is an actress, dancer, singer

with 4.8 million followers on Instagram and over 8 million subscribers here on YouTube. While on her own, she gets millions and millions of views per video, she ended up making headlines because Pink took aim at her parents. With the singer tweeting, "'How many kids like Piper Raquel

"'are being exploited by their parents?' And at what point do the rest of us say, "'This isn't okay for a 13 year old "'to be posing in a bikini whilst her mother takes the photo. And so boom, instantly brings up the conversation and debate about younger people on the internet. Sometimes you get accusations thrown around about young kids being exploited in family vlogs

or in a situation more closely connected with this situation when people say, hey, it's not okay for that teenage girl to be dressed like that. And actually with this story, one of the updates is that Piper actually hit back at Pink. Reportedly telling TMZ, "'The first thing I want everyone to know "'is that my mom doesn't make me do anything.

"'Quite the opposite. "'I'm a kid who had a dream "'and my mom is amazing enough to help me live it out.'" Also adding, "'I don't think Pink has ever seen "'one of my YouTube videos because if she did, "'she'd see it's just my friends and me having fun "'and acting like ourselves.'"

Regarding the wearing and posting of a two-piece bikini, she said, "'Well, it's summer.'" And reportedly adding, "'She doesn't see anything sexual about a 14-year-old "'wearing a two-piece in and of itself.'" two piece bikini, she said, "'Well, it's summer.'" And reportedly adding, she doesn't see anything sexual about a 14 year old wearing a two piece in and of itself. And essentially closing saying, "'I know there are kids who are being taken advantage of

and that's a real problem, but I'm not one of them.'" But then of course, the pushback you're gonna get from that with supporters of Pink or critics is you don't really know cause you're only 14. And so with this story and debate, I really wanna know where you land on this. Do you see this as Pink rightly pointing out exploitation or no, she's overreaching, she's assuming things? Yeah, main thing, where do you land on this. Do you see this as Pink rightly pointing out exploitation or no, she's overreaching, she's assuming things.

Yeah, main thing, where do you land on this and why? But from that, I wanna take a second to thank the fantastic sponsor of today's show, Roman. Roman is a digital health platform for men that makes high quality care accessible and convenient by connecting you with a US licensed physician, delivering treatments from their pharmacies, all from the comfort of your home.

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So make sure you click that link in the description down below to get 50% off your first ED treatment. Then let's talk about this absolutely wild news around video games, screen time, and China. So it's possible that during the past 24 hours, you've maybe seen a headline about a crackdown on video games in China, but there's a lot more to it. Because this isn't a new thing,

this is an escalation of what we've been seeing more and more. About a month ago, you had a state-owned Chinese newspaper calling gaming the opium of the mind. Also, before the changes that we're about to talk about, players under the age of 18 were already limited to no more than 90 minutes of gaming on weekdays and three hours a day on the weekend. But now the news is that regulators have announced

that anyone under the age of 18 will only be able to play video games one hour a day on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, as well as holidays. And as far as how this will reportedly work, video game companies are supposed to enact systems that ensure that minors only play between the hours of 8 and 9 p.m. Which by the way, did you know that all of China

is in one time zone, despite geographically spanning almost five of them. And reportedly they have to have other systems to ensure that users are using their real names, which is actually a key thing because even with the prior rules, they were widely circumvented by people using their parents' ID.

But also with this, there appear to be a number of changes happening in China right now that yes, are focused on the physical and mental health of students, but also others, but I'll start with the students. We've seen China banning many forms of afterschool tutoring that dominated their lives. Additionally, the country is moving forward with plans to ban exams for young children between the ages of six and seven. The Ministry of Education

saying that they harm physical and mental health of students. Also going on to put a limit on the number of exams at high school and below students can take a year. These changes also following a ban on homework for young children as well as a limit on homework for older ones. And then finally, and I would actually argue this is the biggest change, though it's been overshadowed by the video game stuff, China's Supreme Court has ruled that the commonly held 996 rule is illegal. With 996 meaning people, many people, especially working at large companies, work nine to nine, six days a week.

Some overtime is allowed in China, but the 996 system quickly went beyond what Chinese law allowed. Around the same time, the country's Labor Ministry and Supreme Court issued a joint statement that warned against potential violations, indicating the country may be very serious about curbing the practice.

Also, according to Lo Ji Wei, a former finance minister, the 996 schedule disrupted work-life balance and saying if there is no proper regulation, everyone will adopt 996, which will reduce jobs and be harmful to society. Though, it will be interesting to see what this change actually looks like. Because on the other side, you've had tech moguls

like Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba, defending the schedule and saying that 996 was the reason it and companies like Tencent managed to grow into the behemoths they are today. And ultimately, as far as my opinion, you usually don't hear me say this with a story about China. I like most of what we talked about today,

except of course the video game stuff. I personally find it stupid how video games have been demonized. There are a lot of ways that it can serve you, whether it be an escape or actually a social tool to play with friends or meet friends. I mean, definitely over the last two years, it served as a sanity saver.

Yeah, with this story, whether it be the video game stuff or everything else, I'd love to know your thoughts here. Then, in potentially huge news news, according to an exclusive report from Axios, Facebook is now planning to make some very significant changes to its news feed, with one of the key things being de-emphasizing political posts and current events content, with this decision

reportedly coming amid negative user feedback and Facebook's desire to make its users experience less political and contentious. And this is potentially notable, but it's also not the first time Facebook's made a move like this. Right, doing things like following the 2020 elections, they stopped giving users recommendations

to join civic and political groups. On top of that, back in February, even testing cutting back of political content for some users in several countries, including the US. And reportedly there, they found that users liked the changes. So now, in addition to making this the default for users in those countries,

Facebook also planned to begin rolling out similar tests in several other countries. And with that, the platform will really change its algorithm so that there's less of an emphasis on whether or not a user shares a post and more of one based on user feedback. Right, and that possibly connected, of course, to one of the big criticisms with Facebook,

that they allow so much misinformation to spread, and actually the system is built for that to happen. But that said, even those who are trying to fight misinformation are potentially concerned about this change, this decision and move, if it actually works and Facebook does what it says, which they sometimes do, that also means that the reach of news publishers

will likely be cut back. But ultimately until we actually see this in action, see the changing of numbers, we have no idea. Is this just Facebook lip service or no? Are they actually doing something? How is this actually going to hit people? Who then is going to claim censorship and suppression? I mean, I just, I in general don't have a ton of faith in big tech companies, but I especially don't have a lot of faith when it comes to Facebook.

And when it comes to Facebook, it feels like less of is this going to be a shit show and more of what kind of shit show is it going to be? Also, while we're talking about crackdowns on big tech, while with Facebook, it's coming from inside the house, let's talk about Google and Apple getting hit from outside, with reports saying that South Korea will soon become the first country in the world to ban Google and Apple from forcing app developers

to pay commission fees for users in-app purchases. You know, this is a story in battle that we've talked about a number of times, largely popping up on radars last year when Fortnite developer Epic Games bucked against Google and Apple. And that because apps hosted on each company's app store were forced at that time to pay the companies 30%

of all the money that they made from in-app purchases. That resulted in Epic and dozens of US states suing, as well as both companies later revising their fees policy somewhat, but not completely getting rid of them. Also earlier this month, we saw both the Senate and the House introducing bills that would outlaw Google and Apple

from requiring commission fees. Now it seems like South Korea has beaten us to the punch, but it's also bigger than just South Korea. It is incredibly likely that once the president of South Korea signs this into law, it's going to be cited by lawmakers in the EU as well as the US. Potentially very massive news and just the dollar amount that this could hit both companies, it's huge. Like the numbers are insane. According to a CNBC analysis, in 2020, Apple's App Store grows $64 billion, which I mean, 30% of, that's a lot of V-Bucks. And it's part of the reason you should very much

expect these companies to fight tooth and nail as hard as they can. But fight or not, it does appear that changes are coming. It's just a question of where. But ultimately with this story and or, I mean, really anything else that stood out to you today, I'd love to know your thoughts in those comments down below, because yes,

this is a news show, but it's also a conversation. And hey, whether you're taking part in that conversation or not, be sure to hit us with a like, a subscribe, any of the good stuff that feeds those algorithm gods. Join the family. I guess I'll see you tomorrow at tomorrow's family breakfast, lunch, or dinner.

But that said, of course, as always, my name's Philip DeFranco. You've just been filled in. I love yo faces and I'll see you tomorrow.