The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 9.20 WOW! New Online Safety Laws Targeting Andrew Tate Could Crush Free Speech & Privacy & Today's News

Episode Date: September 20, 2023

Start your free trial today: http://www.Squarespace.com/Phil  & enter offer code “Phil” to get 10% off your first purchase!  Go Buy http://WakeandMakeCoffee.com 50% OFF select orders! This new batch won’t last long. Catch up on our latest PDS: https://youtu.be/OaCarcKyOGg?si=TUZnaWaOyJ7Yzcat Check out our daily newsletter! http://dailydip.co/pds  Follow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/phillydefranco/?hl=en  –✩ TODAY’S STORIES ✩ – 00:00 - Cops Under Investigation After Saying 11-Year-Old Victim Could be Arrested 01:36 - Lawsuits Allege Louisiana Police Held Detainees in Unmarked “Torture Warehouse” 03:12 - Britain Passes Expansive Online Safety Law, Prompts Privacy Concerns 06:10 - Colleges Increasingly Outsource Student Housing to Private Companies 09:30 - Sponsored by Squarespace 10:16 - The Universe Could be Nearly Twice as Old as We Thought 12:19 - Pennsylvania Will Start Automatic Voter Registration  14:10 - Anti-Affirmative Action Group Sues West Point 16:34 - Azerbaijan Launches Offensive Against Ethnic Armenians in NK 18:08 - Your Thoughts on Yesterday’s Stories ——————————   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 #AndrewTate #TaylorSwift ———————————— Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today, we're talking about how a newly passed online child safety bill is coming for people like Andrew Tate, but also there are massive free speech concerns. Louisiana cops are getting exposed over a torture house. We've got amazing and or scary space news. We break down why student housing has gotten so ridiculous. A massive change just dropped that could decide who wins the 2024 election. You've got the wild sudden start and stop to the fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan. We're talking about all that and so much more on today's brand new Philip DeFranco show. You daily dive into the news, all made possible by beautiful bastards like you who buy Wake and Make Coffee. Y'all, it's time to ditch the burnt, bitter, and overpriced coffee that you got used to and just go to wakeandmakecoffee.com to buy

your first bags for 50% off. It's so smooth and delicious. Some of y'all have said that it even tastes like a better life, but with that said, we got a lot of news to talk about, so let's just jump into it. Starting with, this father in Columbus, Ohio just wanted some help, and instead he got threatened with jail. So last week, according to him, he finds out that his 11-year-old daughter had been manipulated into sending nude photos of herself to an online predator. So he calls the police for help, hoping they could talk to his daughter and help her understand what's happening. But when two officers knock on his front door, one of them surprises him with this. It's not much to say, I can probably agree about it, isn't it? I mean, she could probably get charged with child porn. Who, she can? She's 11 years old.

She's creating it, right? She's 11 years old. Doesn't matter, he's still making porn. No, she's not. She's being manipulated by a grown-ass adult on the internet. Is she taking pictures now? You guys have a nice evening. Okay. Thank you for coming. Are you serious? Have a nice evening.

Right, so that video went absolutely viral on social media over the past few days, and those cops have taken some serious heat. With it leading to the police chief to say that the department has apologized to the father and intends to investigate the alleged crime against his daughter. And now the city's inspector general is reportedly investigating the officer's conduct, though they both appear to still be on active duty. And then, police in Louisiana have been holding detainees in a torture warehouse. That's what's being alleged in a new lawsuit against the Baton Rouge Police Department

by a woman by the name of Turnell Brown. Because back in June, Brown was detained over suspicion of illegal drug activity when police found bottles of legal prescription medication in her car during a traffic stop. But instead of taking her to the precinct, Brown's suit claims that the officers brought her to an unmarked warehouse where the department's street crimes unit detained people and subjected them to assault and invasive searches. With the suit going on to describe the facility which officers called the Brave Cave as a torture warehouse. Alleging that Brown was kept there for two hours, forced to expose herself in a strip search and body cavity examination, and then was released without a charge. But notably, Brown's

suit is just the latest allegation against the Baton Rouge police regarding this terrifying situation. In fact, the use of the so-called Brave Cave was first reported back in August when a man by the name of Jeremy Lee sued the department and several officers, claiming that he was beaten in the warehouse back in January. And a key thing is that suit, as well as body camera footage verifying Lee's account, resulted in the Brave Cave being shut down, the street crimes unit being disbanded, and a full-blown FBI investigation. And at the time, the department's police chief implied that the officers had been engaging in this conduct without any approval. Instead, claiming that the facility was used by the police department for narcotics processing for decades,

and that he had never heard of officers calling it Brave Cave or of the alleged misconduct. But since Lee's suit, more people have come forward with very similar allegations. Brown's lawsuit claiming that detainees were regularly taken to the Brave Cave, including many that were detained and released without a formal arrest. Also, despite the police chief's claims back in August, Brown's suit also alleges that the department ignored previous complaints and squashed internal investigations into misconduct committed by the Street Crimes Unit. Again, notably, the chief did deny those accusations and comments to reporters. We're gonna have to wait to see what happens, what more information comes out, especially as attorneys representing both Brown and Lee have said they believe this is just the tip of the iceberg.

And then, we need to talk about the online safety bill that just passed yesterday. Because while the majority of you watching are Americans, and this passed in British Parliament, you have outlets like the New York Times noting that this is one of the most far-reaching attempts by a Western democracy to regulate online speech. Right, so this bill has been years in the making, and the driving force behind it is the protection of children on the internet. Some of the requirements including things like introducing age verifications on pornography sites and social media. The law also demands that content aimed at children featuring suicide, self-harm, and eating disorders be restricted. And that's on top of things like social media companies being forced to implement

new features that will allow users to see less content featuring self-harm, misogyny, racism, and anti-Semitism. Essentially, it's meant to require companies to remove illegal content and prevent children from seeing harmful content. The bill was reportedly born from the growing concern of the mental health impacts of internet and social media use specifically for children. Some of the most passionate supporters of this bill being parents who attribute their children's suicides to social media, with people like Laura Woods, a professor of internet law at the University of Essex, saying, At its heart, the bill contains a simple idea. That providers should consider the foreseeable risks to which their services give rise and seek to mitigate.

Like many other industries already do. And what was interesting is that one of the big names that surfaced while this bill was in development was Andrew Tate and his content. For example, back in July, the government and the UK Parliament's House of Lords debated a series of amendments to the bill, regulating algorithms that push harmful content onto children. With Baroness Kidron and the House of Lords arguing that social media companies' content-neutral algorithms are harmful, and saying they, quote, deliberately pushed 13-year-old boys towards Andrew Tate, not for any content reason, but simply on the basis that 13-year-old boys are like each other, and one of them has already been on the site. And going on to add, to push hundreds of thousands

of children towards Andrew Tate for no reason other than to benefit commercially from the network effect is a travesty for children, and it undermines parents. Now, notably, these amendments and the bill as a whole faced some criticism when they were added, with Robin Wilton, the director of Internet Trust at a global nonprofit focused on internet policy and development, saying, These new amendments demonstrate the biggest problem with the online safety bill, that it is too big and tries to do too many things at once,

some of which are counterproductive and will even undermine online safety. And that's actually been a recurring criticism of the bill, that it's just too big and it's trying to do too much. But also the issues don't stop with the bill's size. Many have also brought up concerns about free speech, saying that by incentivizing the removal of content, this bill is threatening freedom of expression. And then also with privacy,

specifically end-to-end encryption on private messaging, that's been another major concern. Under the terms of this bill, companies may be forced to check their users' messages for illegal material, which means that companies like WhatsApp may have to break their promise about end-to-end encryption depending on how the bills enforce. With Open Rights Group campaign manager James Baker saying, these are powers more suited

to an authoritarian regime, not a democracy, and could harm journalists and whistleblowers, as well as domestic violence survivors, parents, and children who want to keep their communications secure from online predators and stalkers. At one point, WhatsApp even threatened to remove their service from the UK altogether rather than comply and change its encryption policy. And as for the enforcement of all this, that falls on Ofcom, the British regulator for broadcast, television, and telecommunications, who now has to outline exactly how they plan on enforcing these laws. And with all of this, we know that companies who choose not to comply could see fines of about 18 million pounds or around $22 million, or 10% of their global annual revenue, whichever is greater.

So one, definitely something we need to keep our eyes on as it takes effect and we see what the enforcement actually looks like. And two, whether you're British, you're American, you're whoever, what are your thoughts on this news? And then, if you or someone you know is an American student attending an in-demand college or university in 2023, y'all have actually suffered from the housing shortage more than almost anybody. Right between 2013 and 2020, rents at conventional apartments within three miles of college campuses reportedly grew 30%, outpacing inflation. And when Moody's Analytics looked at 11 metros, where at least 19% of the total population was college students, it found that rents at student housing properties grew about 3% faster than regular apartments over the past four years, with one metro even

seeing a growth rate difference as large as 15%. And actually, part of the reason this is happening has to do with who owns and manages that housing. Because as places like Insider have put it, in the decade plus since the Great Recession, the student housing market has transformed from a patchwork of on-campus dorms, small apartments, and shared houses into a huge industry that's coveted by some of Wall Street's biggest investors. For example, the private equity giant Blackstone last year bought American Campus Communities, the largest developer and manager of student housing in the U.S., for $13 billion. With just that deal alone putting nearly 112,000 beds into its portfolio and spurring on a wave of student housing acquis the U.S. for $13 billion. With just that deal alone, putting nearly 112,000 beds into its portfolio and spurring on a wave of student housing acquisitions

by other investors. I mean, investors spent $23 billion in the space, more than double the sum in 2021, according to the commercial real estate firm CBRE. And RealPage Market Analytics estimated that roughly 80% of privately owned student housing has been built in the past 20 years. Now, because as more people went to college

in search of that degree that could give them the leg up at a competitive job market, the promise of recession-proof profits in a relatively untapped market spurred a construction boom. And for the colleges themselves, building new dorms is harder than ever due to funding cutbacks, high interest rates, and local zoning laws.

Plus, they're not eager to take on debt to finance development. So feeling the pressure to increase enrollments, they're doing one of two things. One, simply relying on the private market to provide enough off-campus housing to fill in the gap. Or two, outsourcing student housing to a private third party. And that's happening in a couple of different ways. They sometimes lease out campus land to a private developer who then

builds residences and collects rent. Or they keep ownership of the dorm buildings, but they get an outside company to do management renovations and rent collection. So not only does this trend lead to growing rents for students and their parents who are already saddled with growing tuition bills and growing student loans, it also arguably widens the gap between rich and poor students. And it's because, one, the more expensive apartments tend to be closer to campus, so students are actually segregated by class and forced to commute further if they're less wealthy. And two, as the gold rush for student housing ramped up, investors began competing to offer more lavish amenities that could be featured in advertising materials. So for example,

just outside of UT Austin, you can see this cluster of newly built high-rises sprouting up at an area known as West Campus. With one 19-story tower called Villas on Rio advertising vacation-style amenities such as a full spa and a sky lounge with sweeping views of the city. Then in another building, the Mark Austin, that includes a tanning bed, a two-story gym, and a bowling alley. Or for peak comfort, you got a 30-story tower called Waterloo boasting a rooftop infinity pool, a pair of saunas, a yoga studio, an in-house coffee bar, and ample nooks and tables for socializing or studying. And so then increasingly you see all the poor stuffed into traditional housing while mommy and daddy pay for the rich kids living up in these buildings. But there are also exceptions to that trend. Right actually at Waterloo, for

example, the tower was only allowed to be built 30 stories tall because of a change to the zoning code in 2019 mandating that it make 20% of its units affordable. So now students who rely on financial aid can actually apply to get one of those units, which reportedly are indistinguishable from the other apartments and offer all the same amenities and cost between 800 and $1,100. So even there, the numbers appear to lie, right?

All those affordable units are studio apartments, meaning that they hold only 49 out of the 796 beds in the building. So it ends up being a numbers game. While 20% of the units are technically affordable, only about 6% of the beds actually are. But with all that, I gotta ask, what are your thoughts on the news? But also, what have your experiences been as a student, a parent, or an educator in this realm? And then,

any of you focused on getting your business off the ground, creating a place to share your homemade goods, or even a personal blog, I got a great solution for you. And it comes from, and I want to thank, the fantastic sponsor of today's show, Squarespace. I've been partnering with Squarespace for years now, and I have to say, it's just so easy. There's nothing to install, patch or update ever. Creating a beautiful website with Squarespace's fluid engine is so easy. You just drag things where you like no coding necessary. And if you need a starting point, Squarespace has a bunch of great professional templates. You can even sell custom merch easily. And Squarespace handles all the production and shipping. Plus with Squarespace, you get access to all their marketing tools and analytics and their award

winning customer care team via email or live chat 24 seven7. So go check it out, see why so many others love it, and see why you're going to love it, and start your free trial today over at squarespace.com slash phil. When you realize you love it like so many others have, just make sure you enter an offer code phil to get 10% off your first purchase. And then scientists are puzzling right now over this cosmic mystery that may suggest that our universe is twice as old as previously thought. Let's say that a star was born 10 billion years ago, but has long since disappeared. Well, if it was far enough away, let's say 10 billion light years, then that star's light should take so long to travel across the universe

that by the time that it reaches us, we're basically looking at 10 billion year old light. So in effect, the further we look into space, the farther back we can peer through time as well. And the James Webb Space Telescope, the most powerful ever to be put in space, lets us see really fucking far. So far, in fact, that for the first time,, astronomers have picked up the faintest traces of light left behind by galaxies forming just two to five hundred million years after the Big Bang. And what's more is that they're appearing to be bigger and brighter than our models would have predicted. Instead of the barely formed blobs we were expecting, we got highly structured galaxies, possibly with spiral arms that look a lot like our local universe. Which to astronomers is shocking because they didn't think there was enough time

for those galaxies to grow that much. With one professor telling NPR, it's like if you went to a kindergarten and you saw a teenager. And so this mystery has divided astronomers, with one publishing an article in the monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society that reaches a radical conclusion.

With him suggesting that the universe may not be 13.8 billion years old, as we've long thought, but rather 26.7 billion years old. And notably, this wouldn't be the first time that we revised our estimate, right? In the 1920s, we thought it was just two billion years old, as we've long thought, but rather 26.7 billion years old. And notably, this wouldn't be the first time that we revised our estimate, right? In the 1920s, we thought it was just 2 billion years old. But you do have people who are skeptical, who doubt the article's findings, with them pointing out that it combines two models of the expansion of the universe, one of which has been disfavored. And so instead, you have other astronomers suggesting that the early galaxies are simply not as big or as bright as they seem. They're saying there could be an

active supermassive black hole at their center with bright accretion disks that shed off a bunch of light, or maybe high energy jets that would make them appear bigger than they actually are. Maybe there could be hot dust in the galaxies, which looks very bright in the infrared wavelengths picked up by James Webb. But yeah, who really knows?

I'm personally using this as my every now and then reminder that the universe and everything in it is both mystifying and terrifying, but also beautiful. And when you remember how unimaginably big and infinite everything is, sometimes that's all you need to remember that what's big in the moment may not be that big. I just got weirdly insightful

for one of you going through some stuff right now. Oh, is it a sign? No, it's just the musings of a man who did not get enough sleep last night. Or is it? And then, this right here could be huge for 2024. Yesterday, Pennsylvania, which will likely be one of the most important states

in this next election, announced that it will implement automatic voter registration. Meaning moving forward, Pennsylvanians who can legally vote will automatically be guided through the voter registration process when they go to the DMV

to get or renew a driver's license or state ID. And if they don't want to be added to the voter rolls, they'll have to manually opt out. And that could be absolutely massive for this incredibly essential battleground state. I mean, according to state officials, while the state had around 8.7 million registered voters by the end of 2022, there are around 10.3 million residents eligible to register. That's nearly 2 million more people who could potentially sway the outcome of a presidential election.

And notably, this move comes as part of a broader trend. Since 2015, when Oregon became the first state to take this step, nearly two dozen others have followed suit. What's more, this announcement was made on National Voter Registration Day, a time when many politicians and celebrities were drawing attention to the matter and urging people to register. This including Taylor Swift, who urged her incredibly powerful mandate of Swifties to take the same energy they have at her shows and bring it to the political process. Posting on Instagram to her 272 million followers yesterday and writing, Are you registered to vote yet?

I've been so lucky to see so many of you guys at my US shows recently. I've heard you raise your voices and I know how powerful they are. Make sure you're ready to use them in our elections this year. With Swift going on to link to vote.org in order to register to vote in less than two minutes. And already her efforts have driven up registrations. With the communications director for vote.org

saying in a tweet that after Taylor's Instagram story, the organization's site was averaging 13,000 users every 30 minutes. But of course, while Taylor was one of the biggest names, she was not the only one spreading the word. You also saw Liza Koshy and Bretman Rock teaming up with Michelle Obama's organization when we all vote in a video urging people

to check their registration status and encourage others to register as well. Which again, whether you're in Pennsylvania or any other state, you should be voting. If not, because you wanna vote for the world you wanna see or against the world you don't wanna see, it gives you that extra added legitimacy to complain when things don't go your way.

But again, in states like Pennsylvania, it is extra important. I mean, even kind of highlighted by the last 24 hours, with the Democrats, thanks to a special election, getting a one-vote majority in their house. And then, it's believed that this latest anti-affirmative action lawsuit could actively undermine U.S. national security.

And at the center of this story, you have the same group that successfully got the Supreme Court to ban race-conscious admissions. With that group, Students for Fair Admissions filing a lawsuit against West Point yesterday, and arguing that the high court's affirmative action ruling should extend to America's military academies as well. Because while in that historic June decision, the Supreme Court explicitly said that its ruling did not apply to the nation's military academies like West Point, the Naval Academy, and the Air Force Academy. This because of the potentially distinct interests that military academies may present.

Because that was not at all decisive, it left this wide open space for more lawsuits. And as was expected, Students for Fair Admissions has seized on that, with a group in their lawsuit arguing that considering race and admissions is unconstitutional under an equal protection clause of the Fifth Amendment. And they're claiming that West Point has no justification for using race-based admissions. But then on the other side of this issue, you have many military experts, officials, and those who actually run these academies having long argued that race-conscious admissions are essential to America's national security. With outlets like NPR explaining, the military has long maintained that the nation's security depends on having a diverse officer corps that is ready to lead an increasingly diverse fighting force. And because these service

academies produce about one in every five of those officers, supporters of using racial preference say that it is absolutely key to ensuring that future officers represent the diversity of troops they will lead and the American people at large. And that's actually an argument that's been made in multiple cases before the Supreme Court. This including the 2003 ruling that upheld race-conscious admissions at the University of Michigan's law school and acted as the leading precedent on the issue for decades. And there, a group of former high-ranking officers and civilian military leaders filed a brief arguing that the percentage of African-American officers in the Vietnam War was so small that it actively hurt morale and created racial tensions. Because while black service members made up 16.3% of the

armed forces and up to 25% of men enlisted in the army, only 2% of officers across all branches were black. And that argument that having diverse officers is crucial for military readiness is also made multiple times in the most recent affirmative action case. With the U.S. Solicitor General saying during oral arguments that having a diverse officer corps is a critical national security imperative. With that also being echoed in a brief filed by the Biden administration opposing the suit, which also noted that it was still an issue today. Pointing out that while white service members make up around 53% of the active duty military, nearly one in every three officers are white.

Meanwhile, only around 8% of officers are black, even though black service members are about 20% of active members. But then, going back to Students for Fair Admissions, they claim in their complaint that the belief that race-conscious admissions are important to safeguard national security is specific only to the Vietnam War and no longer applies to the modern-day force. But ultimately, that's where we are with this. And it's going to be something to watch because it is widely believed that any decision in the West Point case will likely

apply to other service academies as well. So as a result, this is all but guaranteed to make its way into the Supreme Court. And then it looks like Azerbaijan may have finally gotten what it has spent decades trying to do, reestablish control over the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region. And while we've touched on the situation a few times over the last three years, here's the quick version. The area has a majority Armenian population that wanted to make the breakaway state of Artsakh with the backing of Armenia. Relatively recently, the two sides fought over it, which led to a ceasefire and Russian peacekeepers being sent to the region. But Azerbaijan decided yesterday that wasn't enough and launched an anti-terrorist campaign, killing at least 32 people and wounding 200. And really, it had looked like

it was only a matter of time before this happened, and Azerbaijan had been testing the water since at least December. That's when it cut off essentially the only highway connecting Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia, and thus nearly all of the region's food, fuel, and other supplies. It was also a serious test

of how serious Russian peacekeeper forces in the area were. They were supposed to prevent Azeri troops from doing stuff like this and couldn't or just didn't care to. Although, it's not like they didn't do anything this time around. They actually managed to broker a ceasefire

just about 24 hours after fighting, started an old manage its implementation, which is pretty much an unconditional surrender by Artsakh officials. They'll surrender all their weapons, disband their defense army, and withdraw from the region. They also added a commitment

to withdrawing Armenian army units from the region, although Armenia continues to deny such units exist, which has been described as a hilarious claim considering Azerbaijan is currently occupying parts of Armenia along the border. However, the reality here is that even with a peace deal in place, there's still likely going to be fallout from this conflict going on. And it's because Armenia's prime minister is facing fresh calls to resign, and its security

council is warning that there would be large-scale unrest and vowing effective measures to maintain order. And in fact, we're already seeing that unrest as protesters clash with security forces, leading to more than 30 being injured. Definitely something we have to keep our eyes on here, especially because there's this growing impression that Russia can't really project its power like it used to, which absolutely could be a huge sign to its neighbors that it really can't be the big man in the region anymore. And then let's talk about yesterday today, where we take a look back at yesterday's show, where we talked about a lot of stories and we dive into those comments to see what y'all were sounding off on. Starting with the top comment of the show. No one is surprised what pastors or so-called religious people are trying

to sell people. The top comment being, man, if I had a nickel for every time a religious leader tried to feed people bleach as a medicine. As well as people sharing, I'm an autistic adult and a person of faith and stories like these make my blood boil. It's still all too common to not only try to cure autism, but using potentially fatal methods. And it's especially infuriating when they hide behind religion. And there was definitely a generally shared disgust there. There was also a lot of conversation around the Fetterman short scandal. Y'all saying it's crazy to me

what a politician is wearing gets more screen time and coverage than literal assassinations between countries. People in general saying they adore Fetterman's response to the so-called outrage. Meanwhile, others proposed a new dress code saying, honestly, if Congress is gonna have a dress code, it should be for all lawmakers to dress up like clowns. But for me personally,

where I ended up spending the most time in the comment section and scrubbing through were the reactions to and also experiences of excessive government spending. Though I will preface this with something you should keep in mind whenever we dive into the comments. This is a quick glance and I haven't verified who's saying what. But we have people saying things like, as someone who works for the Department of Defense in one of the weapons programs, I can absolutely agree that they waste so much money. I noticed this literally my first year working for them. But you have people saying it's not just the big projects.

With comments like, Navy veteran, I always thought it was funny that a broom I would order on the ship is $50 when I could go down and buy the same broom at the dollar store for five. There was also this fun mixture of surprise and lack of surprise in the comments.

It was usually people that lived in the United States and people who didn't. With comments like, gotta love most of our money is going into faulty weapons rather than actually helping our own people. America, rah. And then as a non-American, it baffles me the whole lobbying thing. It's like an established ecosystem for corruption. Yeah. But that is where your daily dive into the news is going to end, and I gotta

say, as always, thank you for watching, thank you for subscribing. My name's Philip DeFranco, you've just been filled in, I love yo faces, and I'll see you right back here for more news tomorrow.