The Philip DeFranco Show - The Markiplier GoPro Situation is Crazier Than You Think

Starting point is 00:00:00 Why the shocking Markiplier-Gro situation is even bigger and crazier than you think, though, it's also raised eyebrows of people like MKBHD. Amazon may have been screwing people out of tens of billions of dollars by secretly rigging auctions. The Abdul-Said CBS News scandal as the internet divided and even more skeptical on if they can trust mainstream news. And you've got this new bombshell claim from a whistleblower about the USPS and how millions of mail-in ballots could be caught in the crossfire derailing the mid-term elections. We're talking about all of that and even more on today's brand-new Philip DeFranco's show You Daily Dive, The news starting with this.

Starting point is 00:00:31 We've got to talk about this insane Markiplier GoPro situation because it is bigger and weirder than a lot of people realize. Because if you didn't know, GoPro, which is largely known as the action camera company, they haven't been doing so hot. Revenue, profits, camera sales, all down significantly. They're losing money. They recently cut almost a quarter of their workforce. The stock has dropped to over 55% this year, more than 90% over the past five years,

Starting point is 00:00:51 and it put it at risk of falling off the NASDAQ. The company's total value went from a peak of $11 billion in 2014 to around $100 million, dollars, give or take. You had an auditor even saying that there was substantial doubt about the company's ability to survive the next 12 months. But then, yesterday happened. All of a sudden, you see the stock explode by more than 128% in a single day. And the only thing that had really changed publicly was this little report from Bloomberg that revealed the identity of the company's now single biggest investor, Markiplier, right? With him ultimately getting a hold of an 8.5% stake in GoPro. And so immediately seeing this, I reach out to Markiplier. And among other things that

Starting point is 00:01:24 we talked about, he explained, you know, why he thought that it was undervalued. I figured that what the market cap said it was is undervalued simply by the name. They are literally the Kleenex of cameras because people will colloquially call an action cam a GoPro, even if it's not that brand. So I just assumed from that alone they had value, but I knew that they were up to something. It seems horribly ignorant of me to say that I accidentally got to where I am. But there was no intention to get to this point where I have to submit paperwork and say, I am a blah, blah, owner of this company. I had never done that for any company before. It was just, you know, I really believed in it. And I was like, this seems like a good investment. And then I learned what a 13G was.

Starting point is 00:02:11 And I'm like, oh, God, I have to file with the SEC. Oh, oh, God. And when you invested, I believe, did you file as like kind of a passive investor? Yeah. So 13G, 13D. 13G is passive with no intention of having influence over the company. 13D is like, I want to say in this. And it's like, I would rather stick as a 13G because, you know, I don't think you would even be able to say anything about the company for your 13D and had like insider information.

Starting point is 00:02:39 And so Mark, he appears to believe, at least to some degree in the company, he's used GoPro cameras for some of his YouTube videos. He shot the behind the scenes for his debut film Iron Lung on one, right? He's clearly a fan of the company. I mean, I'm not trying to be up high in the sky optimistically. Oh, they could have had. It's like, look, they released their financials, you know.

Starting point is 00:02:55 I definitely looked at it, but you know, sometimes you got to swing for the fences, and I think that this is an example of GoPro doing that with the mission one. That is a swing for the fences. That's like going all out on a camera. And it actually is legitimately great. Then also, while you had many, you know, excited by or amused by Markiplier, you know, throwing himself into the space like this, you also had the news of his investment rubbing some people the wrong way. And part of that reaction appears to be connected to how a few days ago before this report came out that he was investing and before the spike in the stock price, Markiplier put out a video, hyping up GoPro's new camera. Right, it's called the ILS Mission One. It's tiny, it's relatively or comparatively cheap, like 700 bucks minus any extra equipment. And you've got GoPro marketing it as a cinema camera, suggesting that you could use it to shoot movies,

Starting point is 00:03:37 which of course appeals to Markiplier now that he's a filmmaker. And so in this video, you add Mark comparing it favorably to the Red Komoto X, right, which costs seven grand for the camera and thousands more for the lens and other equipment. So this can shoot 6K resolution. That can shoot 8K, and that can shoot AK60. This can do 6K-80, I believe. This can do 4K 120 frames per second. That GoPro can do 4K 240 frames per second. And it looks amazing.

Starting point is 00:04:02 You can see the speed difference between them. If slow motion is what you need, this at one-tenth the price is kicking this thing's ass. Sometimes this footage looks better. I'm not blowing smoke. I'm not paid to say that. But now you're seeing some people going, hey, you never disclosed in that video

Starting point is 00:04:19 that you're a shareholder in the company. Or with people noting that Walmart said that video was sponsored by GoPro and even had an affiliate link. You had some feeling like he wasn't transparent about how much money he stood to gain from promoting the camera. And among these apparent critics was one of the biggest tech YouTubers in the world,

Starting point is 00:04:32 MKBHD or Marquez Brownlee. Because you had Marquez responding to the headline about Mark's investment with a screenshot from that sponsored video saying, this is not a line I see crossed very often, but to each their own. And so I asked Mark, what his reaction was to that? What's your reaction?

Starting point is 00:04:45 I don't know, actually. What is the line that's being crossed? I think for me, when I look at it, I believe very much in it, and I'm willing to put my money where my mouth is. The accessibility that opens up, I want more people to make movies. I want more people to make YouTube videos.

Starting point is 00:05:00 I want more people to make content that looks really good, learning to build the skills to be YouTubers. I'm not going to be a YouTuber forever. And the more I saw about the camera, I'm like, oh, this is actually something that I can use. And there's an opportunity here for me to tell people about it because I think that it's a good entry point for cinematography that other companies just don't have.

Starting point is 00:05:19 And a lot of people don't have access to. so. The cinema market is a fundamentally different market from the action camera market, and it's one that those other companies don't have, right now anyway. They probably will eventually, but they don't have a cinema line. And not many cameras do. And no camera does at this price point where it's actually like in the cinema camera style. This opens up a lot of possibilities for a lot of people. So me knowing cameras and knowing, you know, where it's useful, I'm like, oh, that is actually, that's actually valuable. And you then had market player adding that while there was a risk that he could loses money here. There was also a chance that this could open the door to more people making

Starting point is 00:05:54 cool content, so it was a risk he said he was willing to take on. And you also had him saying that even though the filing went through before his video about the ILS went live, it wasn't something that GoPro asked him to make or even knew about. I don't even know if GoPro was aware that I was an investor because it's like, that's just filed with the SEC. Apparently when you buy stocks, the company doesn't know who's buying it until they publicly disclosed through one of those forms. And then he also added that he used what tools were available to let people know that there was some sort of money element for him here. But I've said sponsorship from the beginning because I wanted to imply that I had some monetary gain behind it. I do not know the exact rules for with which I need

Starting point is 00:06:29 to disclose. And I want to make that very clear. I asked the lawyers and they said there was no need to do that. But I put sponsorship anyway in there because I wanted to imply that I had a financial gain to it. There is no box in YouTube to say, I am partially invested in this company. The only box to check is I have paid product placement in there, and that puts a disclosure in the beginning of the video. And that's what I have. So there might be, I do not know. I feel like I did as much as I should have done. But then this morning, the story gets even crazy. Right, because you had GoPro announcing a merger with Starman Optical Inc. And then this private optical photonics company with GoPro's press release saying there would be an aggregate cash payment of $285 million or $1.14 per share to the GoPro shareholders. Which is notable because before they put a hold on things to make this announcement, it was trading at roughly $1.50.

Starting point is 00:07:17 So that's going to be very interesting to see what that means for the shareholders who jumped on after Mark. And actually, I reached back out to Mark today, and he didn't have much more information than what was in the press release. A lot of people may think, I never spoke to anyone higher up at GoPro, never talked to Nick, had no idea about this happening. It is just such a hilarious coincidence that all this happens right at the same time. I don't know what the financial situation was that necessitated this and the urgency thereof. I think I don't know if Nick Woodman was in the shower this morning looking at the stock prices, biting a towel and crying, you know, just like, was I too early on this? But then even beyond the money, there was other stuff to talk about.

Starting point is 00:07:55 Because GoPro also said that they're moving into the AI space with this merger. And more specifically, the large and rapidly growing market for AI infrastructure and optical transceivers. And with this, I went on to explain the reported plans to Mark who appeared to be receiving this information for the first time. The Seng Gadget article is now saying GoPro is also planning to push into defense, government, robotics, and aerospace sectors bolstered by the combined company's IP optics and imaging. You might be part defense contractor now. Uh-oh. You know, as someone who went to engineering school, it's like that's where a lot of engineers reluctantly end up working for some part of the military industrial complex. And somehow I've escaped engineering school and circled right.

Starting point is 00:08:37 back into it. I want to hold on just because I want to believe that the cameras will still continue. That's what I think was important for this year, especially in terms of independent filmmaking and people getting started into it. I hope that the cameras continue. And so for now, we're going to have to wait to see what happens, right? The company is still going to remain public with shareholders continuing to own about 10% of it. And as a recording now that things are unhalted, though again, things are going to be moving. Shares are right now trading it around a buck 20. But definitely crazy news in general, very crazy 36 hours. And while we wait to see what happens, I would love know your thoughts in those comments down below. And then, actually, shifting gears from that,

Starting point is 00:09:10 we've got to talk about this Abdul al-Sayed situation, but first, two quick things. One, I'm going to be in San Francisco, Phoenix, and Denver, not this, but next weekend. And I'd love to see a beautiful face and crash out together. Just got back from our fantastic Boston and Philadelphia shows, hence also my voice. There's good times, meet and greets, exclusive merch. And you can get your tickets for those cities and dates, or even more at crashingout tour.com. I'll put a link in the description and the top comment for you. And then two, we're going to dive into some more news right after a quick word from the sponsor. You know, when I'm hiring, the people who stand out to me,

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Starting point is 00:10:34 ZipRecruiter, meet your match on ZipRecruiter. But then, Devin, right back into the news, we've got to talk about this Barry Weiss Abdul-El-Said scandal. Because it all started with an article that CBS News published yesterday, resurfacing old tweets El-Said had written, referencing 9-11. Right, because both the lead line of that story and the tweet sharing it online, said, As the nation prepares to mark 25 years since September 11, 2001, Abdul-El Sayyette, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Michigan, may be facing the risk of renewed scrutiny and fresh political attack. And that ended up rubbing a lot of people the wrong way, with many arguing that CBS's language insinuated that El-Said, who was a teenager at the time of the attacks, was somehow involved in or tied to 9-11, with many arguing that this is an especially

Starting point is 00:11:10 Islamophobic narrative to push because if elected, he would be the first Muslim senator. And even some lawmakers slamming the story, writing what an insane blatantly racist headline, unreal, and CBS News, shame on you. Targeting a duel like this is intentional and coordinated, disgusting. And as for what's in the article itself, that also faced a ton of criticism. Or because just by the third paragraph, you had it focused on El-Sayed campaigning with and then distancing himself from Hassan Piker. Right before then, bringing up two tweets El-Elsaid deleted from 2020 and 2021.

Starting point is 00:11:35 The first being from early in the COVID pandemic, as El-Sayed was previously a public health official. And so at one point, after the COVID death toll surpassed the death toll of 9-11, he compared the number of lives lost and then later wrote about the response, saying that means we'll spend the next 10 years fighting a war for public health and against poverty, like we launched a global war on terror after 9-11. And did another post on the anniversary of 9-11, he wrote, Today I mourned the 3,000 lives, 6,000 injuries, and infrastructural devastation in New York City perpetuated ignorantly in the name of my fate.

Starting point is 00:12:02 Tomorrow I'll mourn one million lives, millions of injuries, and infrastructural station in three countries perpetuated ignorantly in the name of my country. And while CBS focused on just those deleted tweets specifically, it's also worth noting that every single post of his from before July of 2023 has been deleted. And you had a spokesperson for his campaign previously saying they purge those old posts to prevent them from being taken out of context. But still, you had CBS singling out just a couple of them. And you then had the article describing him as someone who, quote, opposed American wars and capitalized on anger over anti-Arab sentiment in a state with a robust and active Muslim community. And that reporting didn't do much to ease the backlash with people

Starting point is 00:12:35 thing that it was bizarre for CBS to put out a whole hit piece about these posts. Because when it comes to COVID, El-Said was far from the only person comparing the death toll to 9-11's. And as far as the other posts, many just think that he can grieve the lives lost on 9-11 while also condemning the war that followed. And actually, in response to all this, you had El-Said telling CBS, I think all of us look back and say 9-11 was an awful thing that happened in this country. And I think all of us also look back and say, think about all the wars that were fought and how much safer do we feel like they made us. My point is just to say that what happened on 9-11 is a disaster. It was a terrible attack on

Starting point is 00:13:05 our country, and our responsibility is also to think about how do we build in America where we are protecting our servicemen and women from being asked to fight wars. We have no business fighting that ultimately end up doing harm to people. But then you also saw the outrage around this getting even bigger when status reported that Barry Weiss, the right, the controversial editor-in-chief of CPS News, directed that the headline be tweaked to reference 9-11. And while she reportedly praised the story in front of the entire network during an editorial meeting, other staffers at the outlet apparently do not agree with status claiming that many employees viewed the story with disdain, believing it served as yet another blemish, calling into question the organization's objectivity under

Starting point is 00:13:38 new ownership. Because as we've covered in detail, there's been a ton of backlash with things that are happening at CBS News ever since the merger that put David Ellison in charge. For people view him just as this major suck up to Trump, whether it be because of his father's ties to the administration, or because he wants to get even more acquisitions approved. And not only was his choice to hire Barry in the first place controversial, she's been accused of pulling stories that paint the Trump administration in a bad light. Now, as status explained, this is just the latest incident where CBS has gone out of its way to report critically on democratic Muslim public figures. Reclaiming, among other things, that the outlet's been combative in its coverage on Zoran Mamdani.

Starting point is 00:14:09 And regarding this story on El-Said, you had one former senior staffer telling status that the story is shameful and the racism is overt. With the outlet adding, it's difficult to imagine CBS News treating El Sayed's post as a major story if they had been written by a non-Muslim candidate, saying he didn't praise the 9-11 attackers, minimize the horror of the terrorist attacks, or promote conspiracy theories as to what happened that day. But also say this CBS report isn't the only case where El-Sayed's old remark, or causing controversy. Right, earlier this year, you had a man driving a truck into a synagogue near Detroit while preschool was in session in an attack described as a targeted act of violence against the Jewish community. And the suspect apparently had recently lost family members during an Israeli air strike in Lebanon.

Starting point is 00:14:43 And at the time, you would El-Said calling the attack heinous and praising the security, who stopped the suspect from doing anything further. But he also said, As an epidemiologist, I've spent my career studying the worst things that happened to people to understand how to stop them from happening. And I'll never forget one of the simplest lessons I learned while on my psychiatry rotation in medical school. hurt people, hurt people. And you would some hear thinking that by saying hurt people, hurt people, he was expressing sympathy for the perpetrator.

Starting point is 00:15:07 And actually, over the weekend, El-Said apologized for this, saying that his attempts to contextualize violence were not appropriate, and adding, I made a mistake, I should have issued a statement, of course, condemning it, and it just should have been the full stop. Though you're saying Republicans thinking that this is an opportunity, and in fact, you had J.D. Vance bringing it up again yesterday, saying, There's something about Abdul El-Sayed that is very, very evil and on the right in the United States of America today. And it's people who see themselves not as citizens of a common nation, fighting for every single person,

Starting point is 00:15:41 whether they're Jewish or Christian, whether they're white or black or brown, but see themselves as fighting for one group at the expense of others. And that is how, ladies and gentlemen, you destroy the United States of America. Branson now, you have a ton of headlines saying JD Vance called El-Said Evil.

Starting point is 00:15:58 They also will see how long those stick around because Vance is now also, also making headlines for a different reason, because what appears to be leaked audio of Vans talking to a gathering of Jewish donors and activists came out, and reportedly Vance, quote, defended his engagement with influencers whom Mr. Coleman, the coalition chairman, characterizes having platformed anti-Semitism. With Vans saying a lot of people in this room are going to disagree with things

Starting point is 00:16:16 that Tucker Carlson or Megan Kelly or Joe Rogan upset. But with using Rogan as an example, he argued that, quote, the best approach is to actually go in there and talk to him and make the argument as best as you can. Which I will say is interesting that the media is not then immediately jumping on a one to two-week news cycle of saying that JD Vance needs to denounce any and all of those people. Since apparently that's the new meta, right? And actually, well, I'm saying that sarcastically because the media does not treat everyone the same and there's some fuckery afoot right now.

Starting point is 00:16:43 In that New York Times article, they actually published a statement from Nick Fuentes in response to J.D. Vance, with Fuentes saying, J.D. Vance panders to the far right, but simply doesn't want the baggage of associating with the far right. And saying, if he has a problem with anti-Semites, then he should start by disavowing his best friend Tucker Carlson. But then also, while you have that playing out, there is actually a thing that Republicans and Democrats do agree on right now, and that is that Amazon sucks.

Starting point is 00:17:05 Because you've got the Federal Trade Commission and a bipartisan group of attorneys general from 22 states suing Amazon over what they say was a secret scheme to inflate ad prices. Where with a lawsuit filed on Monday in a federal court, Seattle where Amazon's based, and it accuses the company of sneakily increasing ad prices for more than a million brands and sellers over a seven-year period, potentially extracting tens of billions of dollars from advertising customers. And these customers include over half a million small and medium-sized businesses

Starting point is 00:17:28 that bid for ad placements on Amazon.com and the mobile app. And a key thing at the center of this 181 page complaint is a hidden soft reserve price. Basically, of the FTC saying that Amazon secretly set a higher minimum price for ads and had advertisers paying more than they realized they needed to. And actually, to kind of zoom out for a second to explain how all this works, Amazon sells its ads using auctions, which is the industry standard. And prospective advertisers bid to place sponsored product ads, sponsored brand ads, and display ads next to the results that appear when shot research for products.

Starting point is 00:17:54 But then here's where things get interesting. Amazon allegedly told advertisers that they would only pay, one cent more than the second place bidder. And so if you were willing to pay 10 bucks for an ad placement and the next highest bidder offered $7,00, you should theoretically be paying $701. But thing is, according to the FTC, advertisers have been paying their own bid about 80% of the time, turning what was supposed to be a second price auction into a first price auction, all without customer's knowledge or consent.

Starting point is 00:18:17 And so then the question is, well, why does the distinction matter so much? And well, that's because it totally affects how advertisers bid. In a first price auction, you know you're going to pay for what you bid, so you would typically bid lower to avoid overpaying. The mindset there is, how low can I bid and still win? Whereas in a second price auction, you're likely to bid a little higher because you're expecting to pay what the next highest bidder offers. And so if these FTC allegations are true, I mean, people have been competing in super rigged auctions. And actually, according to the complaint, senior executives at Amazon were actively concealing the real pricing system from its advertisers,

Starting point is 00:18:45 giving false and misleading answers to advertisers who asked the company directly if it had changed its auction format. And then you have the chairman of the FTC saying in a statement, When one of the world's largest online retailers engages in unfair and deceptive conduct, the impact can be staggering, saying Amazon has millions of advertising customers who were misled into paying significantly higher prices. And saying a very key thing of why this matters to you, these higher costs were largely passed on to American consumers. So with all this, you have Amazon denying the claims. In a blog post, you have the company responding by calling the FTC's lawsuit misguided and saying that it fundamentally misunderstands how advertisers operate. They say their ads have actually become more effective over the years and that the average cost per click of its ads remained flat when it just

Starting point is 00:19:22 for inflation. claiming the complaint cites no evidence of consumer price increases. But also, at the same time, Amazon's own internal documents cited in the lawsuit do appear to support the FTC's allegations. Right, one Amazon executive quoted in the complaint said that the employees discuss raising prices while, quote, hoping that advertisers don't notice and decrease bids or ad spend. And employees also quoted as saying that the system is good for Amazon because advertisers must pay more for the same advertising and the benefits Amazon comes at the cost of advertisers. Plus, the complaint includes studies and tests where Amazon teams tested how much they could manipulate the bidings. system to make more money. And as California's attorney general Rob Banta put it, Amazon has taken

Starting point is 00:19:56 many steps to hide this scheme because as employees have admitted internally, it knows it creates an irrevocable damage to advertiser trust, words straight from an Amazon employee. And while right now, we don't know how much money and damages the FTC and states are seeking from Amazon. You did have Pennsylvania AG Dave Sunday saying in a statement that he's hopeful the lawsuit will provide restitution payments to the sellers affected by this alleged scheme. And New York AG, Letitia James also said that the FTC and states are seeking a court order to bar Amazon from continuing the illegal scheme and to make them pay penalties, restitution, and other damages. Also, it feels necessary to point out that this is not the first time that Amazon's faced accusations of will call it suss tactics. Right, they've been the

Starting point is 00:20:31 target of several federal lawsuits recently. In effect, about a year ago, they paid a $2.5 billion settlement to resolve a lawsuit over their prime membership program. Or with the U.S. government saying that they con tens of millions of people into paying for subscriptions that were intentionally hard to cancel. And in 2023, they also paid $30 million to settle the FTC's allegations of privacy violations involving its voice assistant in Alexa and doorbell camera ring. And then also, I almost forgot this. In another case that's going to trial later this year, they were accused of being a monopolist that suffocates competitors and raises costs for both sellers and shoppers. And that last one's important to keep in mind because in addition to this latest lawsuit, where we saw backlash,

Starting point is 00:21:03 including Amazon shares falling two and a half percent after the news broke, this has also sparked an interesting conversation around the fact that Amazon really has no competition. Right, it is incredibly difficult for businesses to avoid the platform if they want to reach those millions of users. And so even if people and businesses feel like they are being majorly scammed or have been, they're probably going to keep buying ad space on the site. And so it appears to be another example of what happens when one company has too much power. But for now, we're gonna have to wait to see how things play out. And then from that, we've got to talk about this crazy mail-in voting situation, but first, a quick word from our sponsor. It's kind of insane

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Starting point is 00:22:42 words in this absolutely explosive federal whistleblower report alleging that the U.S. Postal Service has been secretly rushing to implement Trump's executive order on mail-in voting. And that is despite the fact that there is literally a court order blocking those plans and that mail-in voting for midterm elections officially starts this week. And in case you're coming into this kind of cold, some background to bring you up to speak. Trump signs an executive order back in March directing his administration to create a national list to citizens and mandate that the USPS only send ballots to the people on that list. So then a bunch of states sued and in June you had a federal judge in Massachusetts

Starting point is 00:23:11 blocking the order from taking effect. Ruling that Trump's actions were unconstitutional and arguing that the USPS didn't have the power to determine which voters should receive ballots. But then, as we talked about last week, the Supreme Court gave Trump a major win and struck down the federal judge's ruling. It effectively clear in the way for the administration to move forward with its plans. Though, very notably, the court did not actually rule on the legality of the executive order. They just said that it was too early for the states to bring a lawsuit because the administration hadn't started implementing its plans. But just a few days before the Supreme Court ruling, the USPS formally published its new

Starting point is 00:23:40 plans to comply with Trump's order. So the same federal judge in Massachusetts issued a new order on Thursday, temporarily blocking that rule from being enacted, arguing that changing the rules two months before election date, who would cause widespread chaos. Now, this new whistleblower report, which was published by Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal, claims that the Postal Service has been actively defying those court orders almost the entire time. And specifically, you have this federal employee claiming that the agency was working to implement a new online portal where state election officials submit absentee voters' names and ballot envelope barcodes before they can send those ballots out to the voters. Now, notably here, the report says that they were initially told the project was

Starting point is 00:24:14 going to be stopped after the initial federal court order back in June, but just a few weeks later, the project was suddenly resumed without explanation of what authority permitted USPS to ignore the court order. And that's incredibly significant because the Trump administration openly said that they had stopped working on that particular part of the executive order after the federal ruling. And then even beyond that, the USPS still kept working on the online portal, even after the federal judge once again blocked them from doing so in a ruling last Thursday. But then also, the open defiance of court orders, that's not even the most insane and terrifying thing in this report, which also hearing those words coming out of my mouth is a scary fucking sentence. But no, the scariest part of all

Starting point is 00:24:47 of this is the fact that there are a ton of incredibly alarming problems with the portal. And I'm not talking about like a couple of small bugs. I'm talking about massive systemic democracy destroying problems. Right. Specifically, you have the whistleblower alleging that the whole process of creating and implementing the portal was quote, secretive, rushed, chaotic, and fundamentally flawed. And adding that the system was entirely new and untested. There are a ton of different red flags outlined in the nearly 20 page report. Among other things, you had the requirements constantly changing, developer teams being separated and not communicating with each other. Individual parts of the software weren't being sufficiently tested before being combined, and in general, there was widespread

Starting point is 00:25:21 confusion among workers. You've got the whistleblower alleging that the project's development deviates dangerously from even the most basic software development best practices. And meanwhile, developers were under a massive rush to make the system public by September 1st, right, today, with the report explicitly stating that IT workers felt that even if they could get the portal together in time, there wouldn't be enough time to test and fix any issue that would inevitably arise in customer testing. I mean, the whistleblower even explicitly said that a project of this magnitude would normally take nine months to a year or more, but leadership forced them to do it in just three months. But there was one major flaw with the central aspect of the system, and this is kind of the most

Starting point is 00:25:54 important thing here. With the disclosure, it says that the Postal Service has secretly adopted an internal policy that has the potential to blow up the entire mail-in voting system. And under that policy, in order for the Postal Service to verify the mail-in ballots that states want to send out, they'll have to scan barcodes on a sample of envelopes to make sure that they match the information in the new portal. But if they find even one mismatch, they'll refuse to accept the entire batch of ballots. And so that would mean that if there's a single mismatch in a sample of 10,000 ballots, it would prevent the other 9,999 ballots from being mailed until the discrepancies resolve.

Starting point is 00:26:26 And a key thing here is this 0% failure policy hasn't been made public at all with the report alleging that the administration has hidden the high likelihood that the new ballot mail verification processes will result in major disruptions in mail ballots ever getting delivered to voters. But at this point of failure, it's absolutely massive. As you have the whistleblower explaining, even under normal circumstances, this would be problematic because of predictable errors in any barcode scanning process. But because the system was designed in such a sloppy and rushed manner, there's a much higher risk that it will contribute to failures in the verification process. But according to the whistleblower, state election officials will be required to resolve any errors identified by the portal and USPS will refuse to accept the ballot batch again until the so-called errors are resolved. And so as a result, the process could delay ballots by the thousands in repeated verification cycles and thus prevent states from mailing enormous numbers of ballots.

Starting point is 00:27:11 It's warning that, quote, potentially millions of American voters may not receive their mail-in ballot this election cycle in a timely manner or at all. Arguing that the risky and haphazard development of the project could result in catastrophic failure, which could derail the midterm elections. But according to Blumenthal, the senator who released this report, if the poorly made portal mistakenly marks a ballot is unverified, there's no clear process for state election officials or voters to challenge the rejection. So this could be an absolutely monumental problem that could disenfranchise countless voters, especially in states with some of the most competitive races that will determine control of not only Congress, but also many state governments. But at least as a recording, we have no idea the status of this portal, right? It was supposed to be released today But lawyers for the whistleblower say it's unclear if that's still the plan

Starting point is 00:27:48 So we end up just having no fucking idea if they're moving ahead with this plan And that's even though officials in North Carolina are set to start mailing ballots on Friday and other states they're scheduled to follow suit in the coming days and weeks And well of course hypothetically legal challenges could prevent it for being used You also have the USPS clearly ignoring court orders literally blocking them from doing this in the first place And unfortunately the Trump administration has shown time and time again that the rule of law literally means nothing to them especially when it interferes with their efforts to undermine elections and further the collapse of American democracy. But on that, chill and chipper note, it actually brings us to the end of today's Tuesday show. Thank you for being a part of another daily dive in the news together.

Starting point is 00:28:23 I'd also, I will say, love to hear from you on anything that stood out to you today in those comments. I've also got more for you to watch right here. But whatever you do, no, my name's been Philip DeFranco. You've just been filled in. I love yo faces, and I'll see you right back here tomorrow.

The Philip DeFranco Show - The Markiplier GoPro Situation is Crazier Than You Think

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