The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 8.8 “YOU’RE A THIEF!” Ethan Klein xQc Fair Use Scandal & Debate, SSSniperwolf, Sneaky Ohio Politicians

Episode Date: August 8, 2023

Go to www.babbel.com/defranco to get 55% off! https://beautifulbastard.com Drop Goes Live NOW! 30% OFF for a Limited Time! Catch up on our latest PDS: https://youtu.be/92Mh7zT0iF8 Check out our daily newsletter! http://dailydip.co/pds  Follow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/phillydefranco/?hl=en  –✩ TODAY’S STORIES ✩ – 0:00 - Ethan Klein and XQC Fight Over “Reaction Content” 05:01 - Denver Principal Put on Leave for Throwing Kids in “Seclusion Rooms” 07:14 - Barbie Crosses $1 Billion As Summer Box Office Grows 08:39 - Sponsored by Babbel 09:43 - Hollywood’s Union Fever Hits VFX Workers, Stylists, and Reality Stars 11:45 - Ohio Heads to the Polls to Vote Over State Constitution  13:45 - Ukrainian Scammers Convince Elderly Russians to Set Fire to Military Offices  14:54 - Thousands Protest Gang Violence in Haiti and Demand Better Safety Previous Ohio Coverage: https://youtu.be/lnJw4Whmg68  ——————————   Produced by: Cory Ray Edited by: James Girardier, Maxx Enright, Julie Goldberg, Christian Meeks Art Department: William Crespo Writing/Research: Philip DeFranco, Brian Espinoza, Lili Stenn, Maddie Crichton, Star Pralle, Chris Tolve  ———————————— #DeFranco #xQc #EthanKlein ———————————— Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we're talking about the nasty, messy scandal around React content and content theft, including the strange twists and turns along the way. Schools in Denver are being investigated for locking kids in solitary confinement like it's prison. While we're seeing historic protests over gang violence. And why democracy in the will of the people is on the line today in Ohio's special election. We're going to talk about all that and so much more in today's brand new Philip DeFranco Show, your daily dive into the news. But first, this is your friendly reminder that the new Summer Beautiful Bastard drop is live

and the 30% off sale is only available for a limited time, but it's for everything on the site. Whether you want some of the awesomeness, you just haven't been able to snag yet, or our fantastic new shirts, crews, hoodies, tie-dye socks, new premium linen button-ups, the new summer shorts, everything. You can grab it over at beautifulbastard.com, but do hurry because some sizes have already sold out.

So click there, or if you're watching on TV, QR code.r code with that said hit that like button and let's just jump into it starting with in internet drama news let's talk about this xqc ethan klein situation because at the core of this story there really is an interesting like legal and moral question to content creation reaction content but to get to that we have to go through debate content which is something i have a love-hate relationship with. Because when it's good, it's great. And when it's not, which is like 95% of the time, it's just people acting like fucking children. And at one point in this debate over big streamers potentially stealing smaller creators' videos under the guise of just making reaction content, it got to this point. People would rather watch me full screen cam, do the fucking warm.

Do that. Bro, do it for a week. Do a week of no reaction content and see how many views you get. Oh, he's crying in the corner. Oh, OK, sure. With that clip coming from the H3 podcast where they were arguing over whether or not XQC actually makes genuine reaction content or he's just stealing smaller creators videos to rake in easy views. Well, no one expected this to be a respectful, calm debate on both sides. You know, it could get

messy after things first bubbled up after ethan featured a reaction video from xqc while on his leftovers podcast last week with hasan piker so like i mean just right off the bat what the is this editing there's 10 seconds of him sitting there like a moron look at this idiot yeah i mean it's not it's not high effort no No, no, no. It's, this is like that. The editing is not high effort. I mean, hold on. No, it's not. He didn't even intro it.

He didn't talk about it. He's literally just sitting there quietly for the first 30 seconds. You should sue him. F*** you, XQC, you thief b****. I'm not surprised he's stealing people's videos. He steals people's money too. He's attitude on this. Essentially, Ethan's main claim is that XQC didn't add any real value to the original video,

but was still playing it to draw in viewers. And as some have argued, that in turn can be an easy way to farm ad revenue. While the video's original creator doesn't see any of the benefits. With the creator of one of the videos that XQC featured saying on Twitter, he leaves the room five seconds into the video and then returns ten minutes later, making a mockery out of the fact that he's not reacting. With that then leading to this very public fight between the two, XQC even saying at one point, Also, when they were watching my clip, it wasn't very reactionary, was it? I'm on his screen right

now, and there's not much reaction going on. There isn't much of a transformative value to this. I'm being thiefed. I'm being thiefed in a moral way that I'm feeding this guy. It seems like if somebody has a lawsuit, it seems like it's me on them. I mean, that's what it looks like to me. With Ethan then choosing to do really the most Ethan thing ever and saying publicly, I'd like to say publicly that XQC is a content thief. And if you think that is defamation, please sue me, bitch. Destroying morons in court is my favorite hobby. And if you want me to explain why you are a content thief, I'm happy to chat with you anytime.

With that leading to yesterday, XQC going on H3 to debate Ethan. And in addition to that clip that I used to open up this story, the two argued for about an hour before Ethan ultimately ended the call. How long do you want me to sit here and listen to you watch you crawl around on the ground like a worm? I have a show to do, dude.

Unlike you, I actually fucking organize and put work into my show. I understand for you, you're just burning time. You could sit here for 12 hours. That'd make your life easier. You wouldn't have to go steal videos. But me, I planned this. I have a show. I have a schedule. This is stop being interesting because you're just sitting there saying silly shit and doing the worm. So with that being said, thank you for calling. I feel like it was very illuminating and I wish you the best and I hope you have a great stream. Even then going on to Twitter and showing DMs that he had

with XQC, but the chunk of that appearing to be XQC flexing his watch and saying, I make more money than you. Something that it feels like he did because he had his feelings hurt because much of the internet felt like he lost the debate. And not by just a little, but in an embarrassing fashion. I mean, even people that hate Ethan Klein were like, yeah, Ethan got him. But again, like that last stuff, that's more the drama aspect of the story. And it doesn't relate to the core thing, which is what I want to ask you a question on.

What are your thoughts regarding reaction content? Because while a lot of attention is on the XQC Hassan Piker types because they're massive streamers and they have so much content being clipped all around, this is an argument and debate that we've seen popping up elsewhere. Like with on YouTube you have a creator by the name of Sniperwolf with many including old school creators like Jaxfilms calling her out saying she's just stealing the content she's getting millions, tens of millions, hundreds of millions of views on not crediting the creators creators, showcasing there that it doesn't appear to be helping out those smaller creators. And again, because fair use is a thing, a lot of the criticism being you're not really doing anything. But a lot of the arguments being, you know, if you're watching a video of a guy

dunking a basketball and you say, oh, wow, look at that guy dunk a basketball, that that's not transformative. But with everything going on, I want to know, what are your thoughts? And then middle schools are already a little bit like prison. If your school was anything like mine, those similarities started in the cafeteria with the food. Though some middle schools are going even further and embracing solitary confinement, which sounds like it should be a joke. But McAuliffe International School, a middle school in Denver, Colorado, reportedly threw students in a so-called seclusion room, also dubbed incarceration rooms by some. Room 121, he had locks placed on both the doors and the windows so that students with behavioral issues just could be kept inside alone with no way out. Reportedly, numerous staff

members knew about this practice and actually helped put kids in the room, sometimes dragging them down the hall, screaming and fighting. With the Denver Public School Board vice president saying, multiple administrators would stand outside the door and hold it shut as a student would scream and destroy the room and try to get out. They would do this until the students tired themselves out and possibly fall asleep from crying. This could last 30 minutes to an hour or as long as it took. When he says destroy the room, he's not kidding.

A work order from a school employee for repairs notes that there were multiple holes in the drywall due to student rage and incarceration. Officials also finding the vent was destroyed when they visit, which on top of the locks amounted to a fire hazard. And reportedly, mainly male students who were brown and black or had disabilities were put inside,

which is also why you saw the school board secretary giving this really emotional statement at a news conference. We must face this horrific reality that some of the destructive mechanisms of a system we fought to dismantle still finds its way into our schools. Now, when seven whistleblowers filed anonymous complaints about this room, there was some confusion about whether it was one of the de-escalation rooms

common across the district. But there shouldn't be confusion there because those are meant to be quiet, open rooms where an employee takes a student who willingly enters and uses techniques to calm them down. And so right now with the situation, we're seeing the community reeling from the shock, the interim principal being put on paid administrative leave. And that after the last principal, Kurt Dennis was fired

for allegedly violating student privacy laws by publicly expressing safety concerns about district employees being required to check students for weapons. But the whistleblowers say this scandal implicates the entire administrative body. And actually the police are investigating the situation. So we could see some criminal charges come from all this. And that's in addition to possible legislation with a Democratic state lawmaker vowing to introduce a bill banning seclusion rooms next year, with her declaring that students are not caged animals and it will not allow them to be treated as such. And then, Barbie Fever apparently is going nowhere, because after just 17 days in theaters, it has now crossed $1 billion at the global box office, which I imagine surprised sad boys who made 45

minute videos and then other content about just how much they didn't like the movie. Cry more, Ben. But yeah, Barbie has made $459 million here in North America and another $572 million abroad, which also happens to make Greta Gerwig the first ever solo female director to make a billion dollar film. So huge on that, but also in terms of the general success of the box office. To give you some context here, since COVID, only five other films have crossed that mark. Notably, this Barbie news is just one good headline among several. You had Oppenheimer crossing $500 million at the box office, with Universal saying this makes it the highest grossing movie set during World War II,

which I know may sound niche, but then you think like how many World War II movies there are, and also how many good ones there are. And actually, with all the success, we're seeing the film extending its run in IMAX 70 millimeter. Though notably, in the United States, it's only going to affect 19 theaters. But the demand for those theaters and those screenings have been incredibly high. But also notably for Hollywood, those are not the only movies thriving right now. The Meg 2, despite its 27% Rotten Tomatoes score, brought in a global $142 million. It was really driven by a big international audience. On a global scale, it destroyed the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles mutant mayhem.

Though notably, that's gotten great reviews from both critics and fans. And it actually kind of had the opposite of the Meg's numbers, right? Doing far better domestically than abroad. Of the $51 million that was made worldwide, $43 million came from North America. And that five-day haul was better than expected. And then, hola amigos, gracias por estar conmigo hoy. You know, for most of us, learning a second language in school wasn't exactly a high point in our academic careers. After three years of Spanish, I was still questioning my conjugations.

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Rules and restrictions apply. And then, you may have noticed that there's something going on with Hollywood and unions right now. And I'm not even talking about the writer and actor strike. Rather, what we're seeing right now are major unionization efforts in a bunch of different sectors of the industry, starting with VFX, specifically Marvel's VFX workers. They've now filed for a union election aiming to be represented by the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees. And these crew workers explaining on their website,

VFX is integral to almost every film and television production made today. Now it's our turn to gain the rights and protections almost every other entertainment worker has had for decades. Because as the Hollywood Reporter covered, even though VFX has been a part of film for ages, it's been a mostly non-union career since the late 70s, which is why people in the industry believe it is long overdue that they get unionized. With some staffers saying that working conditions are incredibly harsh and that turnaround times, protected hours, and certain pay standards do not apply to VFX workers. With Matthew D. Loeb, the president of IATSE, saying, we are witnessing an unprecedented wave of solidarity that's breaking down old barriers in the industry and proving we're all in this fight together. That doesn't

happen in a vacuum. So now the National Labor Relations Board has set a date for an election vote. But then in addition to that, we're seeing celebrity stylists across the pond in the UK also wanting to form their own union. With Variety explaining stylists are often hired by studios to dress talent for a red carpet because good styling can actually lead to good marketing. Or you just think of things like how Zendaya, she can shut down a red carpet with a good look and then you see it everywhere on Twitter for 24 hours. Or how parts of the internet can just spend the better part of a week debating an outfit Harry Styles wore. And while the super big names have their own stylists and are not always using what the studios pay, the point still stands for the entire industry. And so we're seeing UK stylists argue they're not getting the money they deserve for creating that attention, claiming that the average fee has hardly changed in the last seven years

and often leaves them earning less than minimum wage. And so the stylists here are hoping to improve their pay by setting up a new branch under BEC2, a British crew and broadcasting union, with Variety noting that they were previously under the live events branch, but they want to create their own for something more specific to their issues and rights. You also have some reality stars hoping for change, arguing they should also be on strike. I mean, during the last writer's strike in 2007 and 2008, reality TV saw a major boom. With these strikes, history may repeat itself.

So you're seeing Real Housewives star Bethany Frankel saying reality TV stars should be on the picket lines as well. Claiming they are also getting the short end of the stick. Saying, I have never made a single residual. So either I'm missing something or we're getting screwed too. And then, today is a huge day for Ohio, because Ohio voters are heading to the polls for a special election today, where democracy itself is on the line. If this sounds familiar, I actually did a deep dive on this, I'll link to it. But the very surface level TLDR is that basically the special election is being held for people to vote on issue one, which is a measure that will make it harder to pass constitutional amendments

by ballot initiative. And it achieves this in a few ways, but the most significant being that it would raise the number of votes required to approve a constitutional amendment from 50% to a 60% supermajority. Right, or to simplify it, 59% of the voters can want an amendment and a minority can undermine the democratic will of that huge majority. And if that sounds like minority rule to you, it's because it is literally minority rule. Right, this measure is so controversial that it initially faced bipartisan opposition in the GOP-controlled. But then Republican lawmakers changed their minds after it became clear, oh, there's an initiative to enshrine abortion protections that's going to be on the ballot this November. And wouldn't you know it, polling showed that more than 50%, but less than

60% wanted those protections. And so the GOP moved quickly to make it harder to approve ballot initiatives before the abortion measure could be voted on. And with that, setting up an August special election, despite the fact that Republicans had literally banned August special elections just months before. Because literally one of the arguments that Republicans were arguing was usually you see people do August special elections because not many people actually vote in them

and you're trying to jam something through. And so because of all that, today's election has basically become a proxy fight for abortion rights. And it is something that has absolutely stirred up voters with turnout being totally off the charts so far. According to the Secretary of State's office, just by Friday, more than 578,490 Ohioans had already voted. To give you context here, that is more than double the number of people who voted early in the May 2022 primary for U.S. Senate.

And those are numbers from before weekend voting, which also saw long lines and high turnout. And although Ohio voters do not register by political party, data from a firm that tracks mail-in and early in-person voting indicates that turnout so far has been higher among Democratic leaning voters than for Republicans. With it also appearing like women are turning out in higher numbers than men as well. But as far as what's going to happen, I mean, polls are going to stay open until 7.30 p.m. local time. So if you're in Ohio, this is catching you before that time. There's still time for you to do something. And of course, in the meantime, I'll be watching this closely to see the results, and I'm sure we're going to be talking about what happens tomorrow. And then, why are people cheering for scammers right now?

Because today, I'm not talking about all those influencers that push crypto scams on their viewers. But rather, the situation where the Russian Interior Ministry is warning people not to fall for phone scams that coerce them into burning down military recruitment centers. With them saying that these scammers are calling their victims, usually elderly Russians, stealing their money and then promising to return it if they firebomb an office. With video catching an alleged example of this last Tuesday in St. Petersburg, where a 66-year-old supermarket clerk lobbed a Molotov cocktail at a recruitment office. Or like, not long before that, a 76-year-old pensioner reportedly trying to set an office ablaze,

but the Molotov cocktail just hit the wall without igniting. And while as of right now, we don't have direct evidence that these were caused by scammers outside of police and media reports, it is notable that most of the perpetrators appear to be over the age of 50 and around a third of all reported attacks since the war began have happened in the last week. Though another plausible explanation for this is the mass recruitment drive the military has launched in recent weeks, with this coming after the Kremlin raised the maximum conscription age by three years last month. And of course, like with any claim by the Russian government, you've got to take it with a big dose of skepticism, especially when it's a case like this, where the blame conveniently gets

shifted away from the genuine anti-war protesters and when it's a case like this, where the blame conveniently gets shifted away from the genuine anti-war protesters and towards Ukrainians. But then again, as the BBC also noted, if Russia's allegations are actually true, they ironically read as a massive compliment to the prowess of Ukrainian intelligence agents. And then, in big international news, Haiti's gang violence is so bad right now

that thousands of people have actually taken to the streets to protest and chant, we want security. Showing their displeasure with security forces that they think are not doing enough. Because for years, gangs across Haiti have literally been the sole authority in many cities and neighborhoods. And things only got worse after the 2021 assassination of the president. And it's now believed that upwards of 80% of the capital is controlled by one gang or another. And these specific gangs are extremely

violent with more than 1600 reports of people being killed, injured, or kidnapped just between January and March of this year. And that's 30% more than the last three months of 2022. Also, while murder might seem like the worst thing that could happen for many, it's the kidnappings that are destroying them and their communities. Because they're happening so often and causing communities to delve deeper into poverty, with many families even selling their homes and all their belongings to try and make the ransom. But there may be a glimmer of hope. Because the recent protests also showed that while many fear the gangs, there are others who want to expand the efforts done by vigilantes to fight them. And it's looking like pretty soon the government's request for foreign intervention might actually be

answered. With the most likely proposal coming from Kenya, which has offered to lead a multinational police and military force to try and restore some semblance of order and fight off the gangs. With their plan just needing UN approval. Although that vote won't be expected to happen until at least August. Because that is when the United States takes over the Security Council presidency and will then be able to introduce the plan. Now, that said, this entire plan reportedly is still in the hypothetical stages, so it's really unclear if this will be a pan-African effort. Kenya seems to really want that,

or if it's going to be one of the countries like the U.S. getting involved, though that could inflame anti-colonial sentiments that many Haitians understandably have. And that's where your Daily Dive into the news is going to end today, though. Two things. The first being, you need to go to beautifulbastard.com right now to get in on that 30% off new drop. And secondly, for more news you need to know, I got you covered right here as usual, or I'll even link down below. And if you're all caught up, don't worry, because my name's Philip DeFranco. You've just been filled in.

I love your faces, and I'll see you right back here tomorrow.