Operation Red Herring | YouTube Geographic

[Music] [Applause] inspires innovation in the waning hours of February 17th 2019 a youtuber under the alias of Matt's what it is uploaded a video that would send shockwaves across the entire site by morning the video would reach the front page of Reddit accumulating millions of views on YouTube all of a sudden waves of outrage inundate every corner of the web YouTube now faces ferocious controversy over Matt's allegations that the platform is wilfully harboring child predators YouTube reacts swiftly by deactivating the comment sections of thousands of child oriented channels their efforts to subdue the mounting outrage would prove futile as the controversy was now spiraling out of control over the next five days no fewer than 70 articles report on YouTube's child endangerment problem at around the same time companies begin pulling their ads McDonald's Disney Nestle AT&T Epic Games some of YouTube's biggest corporate partners withdraw their funding ad rates falters site-wide youtubers scramble for answers the whole platform is tumbling down a spiral of outraged parents ravenous reporters and terrified advertisers all led by a single red-haired stranger then just as quickly as he appeared he vanished never to return now more than a year afterwards we are only just beginning to pick up the pieces [Music] [Music] first we have to talk about the man behind the mayhem Matt Watson a common ordinary name for a common ordinary man you see the best thing about being ordinary is that it's really easy to blend in with the rest of the crowd and in the YouTube community nobody had any idea who Matt Watson was no one had any contact with him on twitter facebook instagram discord the guy was a total outsider simple online searches for the stranger revealed a few other past social media accounts with limited information the most substantial discovery would be his former youtube channel a channel that housed some rather strange videos but all things considered Matt's old videos only raised more questions than they answered ultimately they provided no further details about his identity occupation or greater purpose on the platform when the time came he stormed into YouTube as an army of one but prepared to recruit many others to his cause [Music] YouTube wake up the brick in the window that started the riot ground zero of YouTube's worst meltdown yet a video that left many of its viewers red in the face and ready to burn the site to the ground but amidst the anger chaos and disgust many lost sight of whether the video was actually accurate at a glance Matt's efforts seemed noble enough child predation is the universally scorned activity and Matt was doing his civic duty by alerting the greater public of a rather egregious example the issues of Matt's video and his subsequent livestream stemmed from his odd mischaracterizations of YouTube and the YouTube community as a whole several of the implications in the video range from deceptive to outright lies about the platform and its creators to the average layman the video may have seemed perfectly fine but two seasoned YouTube veterans these issues became a lot more apparent first and foremost the video is predicated entirely on the point that YouTube is facilitating a rabbit hole of content that connects bad actors with unsuspecting children and each other I have discovered a wormhole to that I can find this wormhole wormhole wormhole two klicks I'm now in the wormhole once you enter into this wormhole now there is no other content available the way Matt presents this the audience is left to assume that YouTube is either grossly negligent or worse intentionally aiding child exploitation on the platform and while youtubers certainly know Saints in this regard specifically highlighting these videos and comments as a wormhole of scum and villainy is deceptive because it overlooks the fundamental directive of the general video recommendation algorithm on YouTube once you enter into this wormhole for whatever reason YouTube's algorithm is glitching out to a point that nothing but these videos exist if you look up any category of video on YouTube the algorithm will recommend you more videos like it this applies to cartoons basketball mukbang ASMR boss removal videos anything you enjoy watching its the algorithms job to indiscriminately serve you more videos that will keep you on the site the key word being indiscriminate the algorithm doesn't know morality its job is not to tell you if what you're watching is ethically wrong it's only purpose is to deduce what you like watching and give you more of it the problem with Matt's video is that he presents an incredibly myopic view of the algorithm by highlighting only its capacity for abuse by bad actors and he makes they do you know why are you watching bikini haul videos who cares that's besides the point here who cares that's besides the point here a deeper dive into YouTube will reveal a variety of dark disturbing and macabre wormholes YouTube is not facilitating the abuse of baby monkeys for example these wormholes only exist because of the strange users who inhabit them it is the people who abuse this framework that create the wormhole YouTube only provides the framework and expecting them to manually patrol the activities of billions of independent users is simply impossible but therein lies the issue with Matt's video Matt portrays the wormhole as if it's YouTube's direct responsibility Matt implies it's YouTube's fault that predators are on the platform and therefore that YouTube deserves to be punished I want nothing to do with this platform I'm disgusted I'm angry so in a way I want YouTube to pay is it really YouTube's fault that unsupervised children ignore YouTube's minimum age requirement to upload videos of themselves is it YouTube's fault that foolish parents post videos of their children to a public platform for the whole world to see she's so cute I love children look at my kids are we supposed to expect YouTube to moderate the comments sections of each and every video as if the individual uploaders are unable to do so themselves YouTube has made its fair share of missteps in its handling of children on the platform many of which I've personally criticized before but in this video Matt heavily implies that YouTube is totally indifferent towards child endangerment and they essentially allow predators to have a field day on the platform like how is YouTube not doing anything about any of this they're flaunting the fact that YouTube is doing nothing about this how is this not a violation of their terms of service how are they not doing more that's disgusting and nobody's doing anything about it this is a blatantly false narrative and can be disproven using events that happened the very week before Matt uploaded his video the week of February 15th multiple channels were terminated by YouTube without warning they would later find out that they were unjust victims of a new YouTube initiative to remove videos with CP in the title it just so happens that in this case they forgot to whitelist videos about Club Penguin and Pokemon go combat points was YouTube's decision clumsy and misguided yes absolutely but to claim that YouTube isn't trying to combat child endangerment on the platform is simply dishonest this would pop up this would load and you would see that there is looking ok there was some sort of unusual behavior going on here there's some sort of glitch in the algorithm not only does Matt mislead the audience about YouTube's efforts he then goes on to misrepresent the entire YouTube community Matt ends his expose with a montage of youtubers complaining about D monetization which is intended to paint youtubers as self-centered and oblivious to the real problem on the platform when confronted about his questionable claims on his subsequent live streams Matt will get very defensive and often retort with the claim that youtubers are purposely ignoring child endangerment because they are motivated only by their own selfish greed that is literally your perspective your perspective is put my monetization frankly they don't probably don't want to admit it but they care more about money than they do about the fact that there's a there's an easily exploitable ring of creepy child videos on YouTube they care more about money and I'm not when I say they I'm not talking about YouTube I'm talking about these [ __ ] youtubers or salty as well just admit it you're salty this was an oddly ignorant and divisive stance considering that many high-profile channels have dedicated videos to combating child endangerment on the platform channels like nerd city h3 h3 PewDiePie and pyrocynical have all exposed predatory content pyrocynical acts led to an entire wing of abusive content getting shut down paradoxically Matt seems ignorant of this fact Yeti includes many of these same channels in his video while simultaneously shaming them for not caring about the issue so does Matt watch these channels or not does he only pay attention to them specifically when they're complaining about getting demonetised Matt's confrontational view of the YouTube community is so baffling that it becomes suspicious what would Matt have to gain by throwing the entire YouTube community under the bus I thought the issue here is child endangerment which many youtubers agree is a huge issue on the platform why would you not want them on your side this doesn't make any sense unless of course you believe that Matt Watson had a different motive in mind [Music] and I'm not one of these people that says Oh get a real job being a youtuber isn't a real job I don't think that at all 20 minutes lay down you know when monetization bro yeah here you go get a part-time job uber uber looks good for you Matt Watson's demonstrable lies deception and dishonesty should confirm him as an unreliable narrator his dubious behavior reeks of someone with a hidden agenda an agenda which becomes more obvious with Matt's call-to-action in his expose I hope with the video evidence that I have that more people find out about adverts being played on videos like this and that YouTube it's the bed ten times worse than they did in 2017 Matt's plan to protect children on YouTube is to incite a mass boycott of YouTube's advertisers guys please contact them trust me these companies care people care don't worry if this sounds ludicrous to you you're correct but it kind of makes sense if you're all riled up and bash your head against the wall a few times Matt's rationale is to force YouTube to protect kids by hitting them where it hurts in their wallets because remember the only time that YouTube is going to do something is when it starts to hit their pocket when it starts to hit their their wallet and the only way to get them to respond is through their wallet and the only way to hit Google and hit YouTube is where it hurts in their wallet nevermind the point that YouTube is already making an effort to stop predators Matt is suggesting that hundreds of thousands of YouTube creators across the entire site lose revenue because of a few unmoderated comment sections completely out of their control matt is suggesting that rather than flagging and reporting the abusive videos we take money away from innocent creators so that YouTube will flag and report abusive videos if you're not quite up to speed on how YouTube ads work companies pay YouTube every time one of their ads gets placed on a video and the revenue then gets split between the creator and the platform YouTube and its creators exist in a symbiotic relationship this is the primary reason why inciting ad boycotts makes no sense because to stab at the heart of YouTube you must first drive the blade through thousands of innocent channels even if YouTube took 100 percent of the revenue Matt's plan would still be totally nonsensical YouTube is one of the few massive websites that is not publicly traded on any stock exchange as I mentioned in previous videos no one knows whether YouTube is even profitable it's clear at this point that Google does not keep YouTube running as a lucrative venture they support YouTube because of its enormous market share in online video what you too lacks in profit in more than makes up for in influence YouTube itself may not bring in the big bucks for Google but what it does bring in is the customers who will for this reason YouTube will likely never have to worry about financial woes as long as Google stays in business which is why advertiser boycotts hold no actual leverage every time this happens the platform gets impacted far less than the creators who don't have the financial padding of a trillion dollar company at some point it seemed that Matt cared more about punishing youtubers than punishing predators he demonstrated this with his repeated insistence that any youtuber who disagreed with inciting an ad boycott was greedy you know when one position broke when youtubers like nerd City attempted to reason with Matt on these issues he responded with total collegians the community was on his side for the first few days people were sharing the video we were stopping by his chat and saying like you know how can we help thank you for what you did nerd City is here okay who's a nerd city I gotta look all these people up people like myself and Leon lush and keemstar we're reaching out to him and saying hey man we're on the same page here what you found is a problem and YouTube needs to address it but pump the brakes on the contacting advertisers that is not gonna solve the problem that's just gonna injure YouTube like potentially fatally Matt just kept dismissing anything that youtubers were saying to him about like don't contact advertisers like don't do this yet that's that's the nuclear option his stubbornness Beach started to become the problem like he pretended he was listening and he would ask act like alright man I want to talk yeah I'd love to talk and he would put someone on live to talk on discord and then once they would say something he didn't like he just you know put his hands over his ears and said sorry no no no what I'm doing is right and you're just greedy and YouTube is gonna have to suffer for this this means that youtubers are gonna suffer unfortunately the only way to get YouTube to do something about this is to hit the where it hurts and that's in their wallet there was never a point when Matt elaborated on how his plan was more effective than just manually reporting the Predators the rhetoric in his streams was akin to that of a political rally featuring lots of sloganeering dogmatic statements and emotional appeal I mean this is disgusting disgusting comment I'm disgusted I'm disgusted I'm angry how does this exist that's all I have to say disgust it I've been more emotional in this video that I've wanted to be I wanted to be more collected and calm Matt used to stream almost exclusively as a way to galvanize his audience into contacting brands at times have felt like pressuring advertisers to pull their funding was the only thing Matt cared about yes dude that's what I'm talking about we did it thanks for bringing it to our attention Jamie our team is aware in investigating this material good now at this point some of you may be starting to realize that Matt Watson wasn't quite the noble vigilante that he originally appeared to be unfortunately for YouTube too many people were unable to see through the illusion the public outrage sparked by Matt's video was astounding to say the least by morning it had skyrocketed to the top of our videos becoming one of the most widely shared videos in the history of the site within a week of its upload more than 70 news articles had reported on the controversy with most directly linking Matt's video to readers with all this considered Matt Watson had single-handedly incited possibly the most circulated controversy in the history of YouTube in terms of initial media coverage only logan paul's most infamous controversy was comparable in scale Matt's video was reported on so extensively that it raises the question of how exactly it spread so far as I mentioned previously many high-profile youtubers have covered the issue of child endangerment before yet they hardly received any mainstream coverage if you want to compare apples to apples in 2018 a French youtuber with hundreds of thousands of followers uploaded a video covering the same topic as mad with coincidentally the exact same hashtag why didn't this video spawn 70 articles or hit the front page of Reddit what made Matt's video different well aside from the language barrier it's highly likely that Matt Watson employed some rather sneaky tactics to nudge his video in the right direction Matt published his video at 11:27 p.m. Eastern Time which is very late in the evening by YouTube's standards most youtubers choose to upload in the afternoon or early evening so they can capitalize off-peak Internet traffic Matt deliberately published his video after most people had gone to sleep a poor strategy for YouTube views but a necessary strategy for what he likely had planned approximately 40 minutes after Matt published his video on YouTube he posted the link to read it about 90 minutes after that he begins live streaming on his YouTube channel where he links his viewers to the reddit post so that they can upload it link in the chat will upload them yeah that's a good idea actually know what I'm gonna stay on the chat right now okay guys it's up so I'm gonna post a link over here in the window post that's my post so yeah I'll poke that all you can this is a strict violation of the solicitation rule on our videos and should have led to the post removal however at around 1:00 a.m. on a weekday most of the mods were probably asleep and the violation went completely unnoticed Matt's initial karma injection was enough to push the video to the front page and after that point the reddit hive mind did the rest almost by design the video was inundated by a furious wave of outsiders who had little to no understanding of how YouTube works and before the YouTube community could respond the video was already too big to fail the media coverage of Matt Watson's video was as dubious as any other aspect of the controversy dozens of publications jumped on a bandwagon to elevate Matt's video as if he made a groundbreaking discovery this issue had been discussed by YouTube commentators for years why did everyone decide to get outraged by it now was the word wormhole just a trigger for people to suddenly pay attention last spring I was able to discuss the issue of child predation with anxiety war who has become the modern-day Chris Hansen of YouTube through his years of experience in identifying and confronting predators he identified that the most dangerous sites for children are instant messaging apps like snapchat and the now defunct kik which allow predators to communicate directly with children will yeah of the victims that contact me in unity they tell me where they were the perpetrator etc I've never heard of YouTube a messing it doesn't exist I'm sure it happens I'm called quite a bit but it's mostly just a service like snapchat and kink YouTube's direct message system was buried in the video manager for years and in 2018 that removed the future entirely content wise apps like Instagram and tic toc are far more dangerous for children than YouTube with Instagram ranked as the leading app in giving kids depression among other psychiatric issues and tick tock continually luring unaware kids to injure themselves in ridiculous challenges both of these apps also have an easily accessible instant messaging feature which allow predators to speak directly to minors as far as child endangerment goes YouTube should be far from the top of anyone's list of the most dangerous apps for kids yet the media seems to treat YouTube far more harshly than any of these other sites apps like tic toc are often portrayed as fun and quirky you never see any outrage mobs trying to incite an ad boycott of snapchat or Instagram YouTube certainly has its fair share of issues with its handling of children but to scrutinize them while simultaneously ignoring far more dangerous sites is either dishonest or downright foolish is this all just another case of boomers being boomers maybe so but something else about the media's coverage of Matt's video is far harder to explain out of all 73 articles written about the controversy not one featured any interview with Matt every one of the articles either cites the video itself or a different article covering the controversy only two out of the 73 articles even mentioned reaching out to Matt for an interview this contradicts Matt's own claims of supposedly contacting media outlets himself I've written a report and I'm sending that report out to every news outlet that I possibly can I get that nowadays our standards for journalistic publications are at an all-time low but this is just ridiculous usually when reporting on a story it's common practice to base it off some sort of credible research from a verifiable expert in their domain not some unknown dude who made an angry video but even in the off chance that you do decide to platform a fringe weirdo with no credentials whatsoever you should at least be able to interview the guy and have him elaborate on his more extraordinary claims of course most of these publications probably did reach out to MADD which presents an even stranger implication that Matt Watson outright refused to be interviewed you know I just want to create some awareness for this I want to try and get this hashtag trending I have I concealed my identity when I did it because I have emailed several news outlets BuzzFeed and stuff like that and so my concern with contacting the FBI or the police is that would someone like myself be implicated by simply sending the information to them or the recordings to them that have these sort of borderline the thumbnails in them could I be implicated in something so BuzzFeed as an example I can send something to them anonymously and they will protect my identity BuzzFeed as an example they will protect my identity so I feel like by sending it to them you know I've started the process here we're talking about this stuff somebody's talking about Fox News I don't like fox news why would the leader of a major social movement turn down the free publicity from appearing in dozens of articles from major publications for someone seemingly so passionate about the issue someone who claims to be just a concerned citizen doing the right thing what would you have to lose by answering a few questions for reporters all I'm doing here dude is I'm just trying to make some awareness about this whole thing I'm just trying to create awareness for this you guys are helping to create awareness for this we're all creating awareness for this right now we have one single solitary purpose for being here right now and that is to bring awareness to this issue hashtag YouTube wake up anyone in Matt's position should have been fully cooperative with the media unless of course they had something to hide [Music] another aspect of the whole situation that most people missed was Matt's inconsistent outlook of corporate accountability throughout his whole campaign he had a remarkable ability to flip-flop between a staunch opponent of corporate abuse to an outright boot licker Nestle was quick to pull their ads from YouTube amidst the controversy despite undergoing numerous lawsuits for using child slavery to harvest their cocoa beans Disney also pulled their ads over concerns of child exploitation despite notoriously exploiting children for years in their Chinese toy factories Matt Watson seemed oblivious to all of this as he actively aided both of these companies in his suppose admission to help children no matter who you are no matter what your politics are no matter what your skin color is about protecting children that is intrinsic to human nature to protect children hey pal you just blow in from stupid town eventually pretty much all of these companies quietly return to YouTube a few weeks after the controversy had blown over like most corporate stunts it was all just smoke and mirrors so much for boycotting Child Exploitation it turns out that YouTube's proverbial wallet runs very deep and eight thousand dollar refunds aren't a steep price to pay when you make fifteen billion in annual revenue ultimately Matt's whole plan of forcing an Advocaat amounted to nothing more than inconveniencing innocent creators for a few weeks the advertisers predictably returned and everything went back to normal like how it always does after any YouTube controversy yet another example of why ad boycotts on YouTube make no sense whatsoever and Matt's whimsical double standard of corporate abuse was yet another example of his suspicious behavior [Music] so let's once again visit the strange topic of Matt's old videos although they were ignored by practically every major news outlet the YouTube community quickly gathered them as ammunition to defend the platform from his deception some of you have probably seen this clip where Matt allegedly harasses a girl in the sidewalk yeah interested in shooting in that adult video most youtubers utilize this clip to reach the conclusion that Matt was an unscrupulous creep and a failed content creator however diving deeper into Matt's past content reveals that many YouTube commentators had missed the greater context of his origins the few mentions of his channel in articles and forum posts reveal that Matt started on YouTube by making men's health videos he was perhaps most known for his no fat blogs which he uploaded to the Matt's what it is channel the same account that would eventually host the YouTube wake up video and his subsequent streams Matt's original account dates back to 2016 1 year later Matt would open up a new account called totally uncreated to which he would upload what he described as comedy videos be sure to check it out over on Mike omni-channel totally uncreated this is the channel that spawned Matt's more questionable content which was later circulated by the YouTube commentators most of whom would assume that the content was genuine Matt's eventual reddit history would contradict this theory and imply that his entire catalogue of videos on both channels were attempts at ironic satire now I found myself kind of browsing through a lot of your old videos you know really got me wondering you know what happened you know you haven't posted anything in close to 5 6 months and I found a comment that she had pinned I think on your most recent video that kind of announced that that you were done man or you were done the whole YouTube thing in mysteriously the old Matt's what it is videos were archived and re-uploaded by an anonymous channel a week after the controversy had subsided although the nature or purpose of this channel is unknown it is rather strange that it not only archived Matt's old videos prior to their sun deletion but chose to re-upload them only after they served little purpose to discredit him ultimately Matt's old content serves as yet another wrinkle in the tapestry of confusing circumstances around him and provides further reason to doubt his motives for starting the controversy [Music] On February 19th just 48 hours after arriving on the scene Matt streamed on YouTube for the final time so that's it man I think we're said thank you all you know that's all I have his name man he's own after the stream went dark Matt Watson disappeared from YouTube the YouTube wake up Twitter account which was presumably operated by Matt remained active until the beginning of March before also falling dormant Matt's last known online activity can be found on this reddit account on February 22nd three days after his final stream Matt posted a long rambling mostly incoherent comment on the newly minted YouTube wake up subreddit in the post he generalizes the mounting criticism as slanderous and continues to parrot the same rhetoric about youtubers being greedy he then goes on to sanctimoniously lecture us about the dangers of social media presumably as a means of accounting for his future absence as of July 1st 2019 Matt Watson has vanished from the web any details about his personal life or current whereabouts remain a mystery to this day later in 2019 the Coppa controversy once again placed YouTube's child safety standards in serious doubt despite Coppa providing Matt with ample incentive to return he has thus far decided to remain a poltergeist to the digital world leaving the rest of us to wonder what in the world just happened when we come back we will discuss the alternative theories of what Matt was really trying to accomplish by making YouTube wake up [Music] people wake up okay this kpop stuff it's evil and I want it off of my radio station and I want to offer my television YouTube Geographic is brought to you by keeps hair loss prevention and by viewers like you thank you [Music] hi are you interested in shooting an adult video why are you running I mean this is disgusting I can't believe it man rejected again and to think it's only because I'm bald hi I'm dr. spiral and I'm here today to talk about keeps the easiest and most affordable innovation in baldness prevention technology millions of men make the mistake of taking their hair for granted until it's too late once you go bald your self-worth flies out the window faster than my medical license everyone knows that hair is the only true source of a man's power which is why baldies burned through thousands on tacky wigs smelly tonics and painful implants keeps will help you battle baldness before it's too late no other fda-approved hair loss product is more affordable and you can visit an online doctor right now to get your medication shipped directly to your door so try keeps today for up to 90% effectiveness at reducing and stopping the symptoms of hair loss visit keeps calm /m Pleming for 50% off your first order that's ke EPS calm slash and lemon please buy the product you guys I can't take any more of these ad boycotts [Music] the prevailing narrative regarding the YouTube wake-up controversy is pretty much everything that was reported by the mainstream media the general public assume that Matt was simply acting as a Good Samaritan and exposing the issue as part of his civic duty most people especially the ones on reddit assume that Matt was portraying these issues fairly and honestly the reddit traffic in heavy media coverage were thought to be organic and a result of people passionately caring about the issue by demanding accountability from YouTube for those outside the YouTube scene Matt's mission to contact advertisers seemed like a reasonable enough method to inspire change and the subsequent advertiser boycott came as a logical consequence of Matt's well-intentioned campaign for almost everyone aware of the controversy this was a satisfactory explanation for the sequence of events however as we discussed previously delving deeper into the details of the situation reveals a lot of strange inconsistencies that place the mainstream Theory into serious doubt the following theories will attempt to account for the most dubious discrepancies more specifically analyzing Matt's behavior to deduce his true motivation for inciting the YouTube wake up controversy successful YouTube channel and one of the two things they recommend was to be super high energy given the sequence of events the first Theory many would consider is that Matt Watson wanted to get revenge on the platform for some unknown reason based on his apparent hatred for YouTube specifically and his unwillingness to cooperate with youtubers in any capacity it's weird to say but I want to make it look bad for YouTube I want to make it look very bad for YouTube the crux of this theory comes from the inconsistency of Matt's overall knowledge of the platform he had no problem setting up a live stream but claimed to have no idea how to edit monetization settings then you can go back and watch my streams where people are telling me yo do this is monetized and I'm saying how do I turn this off I literally didn't know how to turn it off he seemed very familiar with watching certain channels but somehow neglected obvious examples of those same youtubers supporting the cause he claimed to represent even though Matt's behavior reflected someone with years of experience on the platform he would frequently play dumb to his audience acting ignorant to very basic features on the site there was some sort of unusual behavior going on here there's some sort of glitch in the algorithm of course many commentators would eventually expose that Matt did in fact spend at least two years making content before the controversy content which he deliberately tried to obfuscate from public view much of YouTube's commentary community seem to reach the consensus that Matt Watson was a failed youtuber who manufactured the controversy for views and attention but regardless YouTube has taken action they're taking the stuff down stop trying to milk this for attention after spending years trying and failing to grow his channel Matt began to resent YouTube and it's more successful creators with that resentment eventually boiling over into a full-on vendetta eventually he hatched a plan to sabotage the platform and it's greedy creators YouTube wakeup was a result of Matt actively seeking revenge on YouTube while the rogue youtuber Theory may explain Matt's abrasive attitude towards other creators it doesn't account for many other discrepancies first of all the commentator consensus that Matt manufactured the controversy for fame doesn't hold up when you factor in his subsequent disappearance from the internet as a whole Matt clearly acted with grander motivations than simply furthering his own status additionally this theory creates inconsistencies with Matt's level of competence throughout the whole process are we supposed to believe that Matt is capable of manipulating thousands of people to do his bidding but he can't figure out how to make people watch his YouTube videos if he knew how to exploit reddit karma to boost his viewership why not just use that tactic on his existing content this theory paints Matt as a failed youtuber who grew disillusioned with the platform yet he gained almost 20,000 subscribers in more than a million total views in just two years of making videos which is far more successful than most channels at that point with that being said his apparent motive for hating YouTube appears much more flimsy suggesting that he had a different incentive than just getting revenge on the popular kids and even if he did start the controversy because he hated the platform why was his campaign so successful in particular every year dozens of videos come out seeking to expose YouTube's dirty dealings to the general public and so far Matt's video stands alone as the only YouTube expose to garner significant mainstream attention was a Dalek coincidence or just dumb luck could be either but it's far more likely that a few hidden entities had vested interest in Matt's video succeeding I am once again asking for your financial support in leftist communities online there has been a fixation at how YouTube's algorithm has promoted right-wing content many argue that YouTube has inadvertently created a pipeline in which viewers are recommended political content that gradually radical has them so you'll start with one or two videos of a red-haired college feminist and end up on videos about demographic replacement this is the thesis of ideas like the pewdiepie pipeline as well as the motivation for them to produce their own content while Matt's video predates the pewdiepie pipeline this asserted rabbit hole was covered extensively in a research paper by Rebecca Lewis for data in society published in September of 2018 the abstract summarizes the review of YouTube rather well YouTube is a principal online news source for young people which is why it's concerning that YouTube a subsidiary of Google has become the single most important hub by which an extensive network of far-right influencers profit from broadcasting propaganda to young viewers this study received not just news coverage but was also the foundation for this video by youtuber three arrows which has since accumulated nearly 1 million views how is this relevant to Matt Watson you may ask well nearly one month after Matt Watson swore to never return again he made a reappearance on Reddit YouTube's algorithm is the mirror of its average user start with PewDiePie and with start with Joe Rogan and with Schapiro start with news and with less than two months later Matt Watson posted again in the subreddit this time in a thread calling for action its title reads turn off your ad blocker go to the sub reddits take screenshots of adds an extra little content send the screenshots to companies and ask why they're promoting veganism Matt Watson simply commented on this post yep I can attest that this strategy works there are a number of reasons as to why this is significant firstly one has to remember that at this point met had already essentially been forgotten no one seemed to recognize him when he commented even though he referenced his grand accomplishment so one should view this as his mask off moment how he behaves when he's no longer in the public's eye but you also have to take this into consideration with the context of his content before the YouTube wakeup scandal on his comedy channel he made videos mocking the Man O spear where he would parody with a pickup artists he clearly had a vested interest in opposing these fringe communities and these comments revealed that he views ad boycotts as a proportionate response to them so it's not out of the realm of possibility that he had an ulterior motive additionally it provides an explanation for his disdain of other youtubers he comments on a thread mocking boogie2988 YouTube and its content creators are one in the same they only give a book about money enforcing policies nah these content creators are such self-centered pieces of trash there is a direct correlation between how garbage their content is and how frequently you'll find them wincing about SJW boogeyman coming for their adsense remember when he first released his video he framed himself as an outsider but as that facade began to slip away he revealed that he was fairly knowledgeable about the commentary community what this tells us about Matt is that going into the controversy he was familiar with the youtubers he was screwing over and surprise surprise most of them are associated with the anti sjw rabbit-hole many have interpreted Matt as simply not understanding the collateral damage he was going to cause but since he's acknowledged both their past and present influence he can't claim ignorance and this by proxy sheds a doubt on his stated motivations it's now entirely plausible that he could have been concerned trolling inciting a PR disaster under false pretenses to undercut the financial earnings of propagandists and then after it was all said and done he could sit back and laugh as they've all been relegated to becoming Ober drivers uber uber looks good for you looking at his post from before the controversy revealed that it was Jordan Peterson that led him to broaden his focus from just the mono sphere sometimes it feels like the mono spirit anti SJW types permeate every corner of YouTube it seems like no matter what video I watched in the comments are infected with angry lords whining about feminism liberals and or whatever minority group they can scapegoat for the world's woes it's depressing at this point it's worth clarifying that if all this is true Matt had an extremely flawed plan by broadly attacking all content creators he skewered not just the right wingers but LGBTQ creators and leftists remember YouTube is a platform where pretty much anyone can upload videos this makes it an invaluable tool for financially unstable people to have a voice as YouTube becomes less sustainable as a job the people being affected the most are the ones who can't afford to do it anymore if Matt's intention was to combat right-wing pundits the best way to avoid this collateral damage would have been to fight them using the algorithm instead he chose to do the more woke thing of pandering to millionaire ad agencies but with all that said the uncertainty of this theory and his general incompetence makes it impossible to confirm sure he was celebrating his victory after the fact but he always stopped short of saying he did it intentionally and it's not like he wasn't aware of the left as he was going to hurt prior to the controversy he'd advised an aspiring left-wing creator to only do it for fun because it didn't pay like it used to and throughout all his messages despite posting in and leftist community he never seems to talk about class so maybe it's possible that Matt wasn't motivated by feelings of class solidarity maybe he did have ulterior motives but ones that were even more covert than his reddit account let on what if Matt Watson wasn't trying to be a proletariat hero but instead the exact opposite a corporate shill [Music] one of the strangest aspects about Matt that is thus far gone unexplained is the lack of any substantial information about his identity aside from those who deliberately remain anonymous nearly all leaders of social movements have some sort of paper trail that reveal aspects about their personal lives as far as we know Matt Watson is a blank slate how can this be the case for someone who spent days openly broadcasting his name and face for the whole world to see throughout all this exposure you'd think that at least one youtuber or one redditor or one news reader would know the guy in person and be able to divulge any sort of details about his identity all this seems extraordinarily bizarre until you consider the possibility that Matt Watson as we know him doesn't actually exist each spring media companies and advertisers hold annual meetings called up fronts up fronts were originally used by television networks to partition and sell commercial time for brands to market their products eventually up fronts expanded to the digital space and companies now use these meetings to determine their online marketing budget for the upcoming year YouTube has typically hosted their up front in the first week of May but upfront negotiations across all networks spanned into the beginning of March this time frame is significant to our theory because it indicates that brands must outline their tentative advertising budgets by the end of February the time period that just so happens to align with YouTube wake up it also happens to align with another infamous YouTube controversy in February 2017 Wall Street Journal reporter Jack NICUs would Co publish an article accusing PewDiePie of anti-semitism much like Matt Watson's campaign The Wall Street Journal seemingly manufactured a controversy out of thin air much like Matt's video the article was manipulative and deceptive and also featured a strange emphasis on advertisers as well as YouTube supposed responsibility to micromanages creators one month later Jack nica's would target advertisers head-on by using a singular screenshot to accuse YouTube of running ads on racist content he would curiously omit a key detail that the video was monetized not by the uploader but by a music copyright claim rather than blame the music companies who frequently operate above the law on YouTube NICUs would instead blame YouTube itself and instigate the first ad pocalypse in the following months YouTube would implement sweeping changes to the revenue system on the site most notably mass D monetization introduction of the hidden channel rating system and the subsequent suppression of edgy content a tremendous impact all from a single misleading article if you're noticing a pattern here it's probably that springtime on YouTube is starting to bring a vigorous bloom of dubious controversy and advertiser boycotts do you think it's possible that these two prickly plants may have sprouted from the same seed it's possible that Matt Watson was no ordinary garden-variety plant he may very well have been an industry plant a fulcrum through which brands attempted to leverage cheaper ad rates on YouTube the entire ad boycott was just a smokescreen for companies to renegotiate their existing contracts with YouTube and return at a lower rate at the time of the YouTube wakeup controversy many companies had ample incentive to do so ever since the first ad pocalypse YouTube had been secretly subsidizing numerous brand safety agencies third-party companies who worked with major corporate clients to ensure that their ads would not appear alongside questionable content in hopes of enticing major brands back to the platform YouTube essentially refunded the charges of these third-party services so brands could access them for free at the end of 2018 YouTube disclosed that they would no longer be footing the bill and that advertisers would now have to pay for brand safety services on their own this announcement frustrated both the third-party services and their clients who now both faced unexpected budgetary complications you have to imagine that heading into the new year some of them were looking to recoup their losses On February 6th Business Insider published an article revealing that YouTube was no longer subsidizing brand safety agencies just 11 days later Matt Watson would initiate the YouTube wakeup controversy while heavily M I think that YouTube is unsafe for brands but I have multiple examples of big name brands we're talking dodge ram disney in one video I can't imagine what these brands are gonna say about their content appearing on these kinds of videos think about the consequences of this you have a Disney advert you have a McDonald's advert appearing on a video where a creep is time stamping a little girl if news outlets start reporting this and brands like McDonald's find out that their advertisement is appearing on these videos YouTube will do so [Music] there's no denying that these companies have incredible reach and influence open slate was notably partnered with Group M the largest advertising company in the world and one that claims to be responsible for a third of all ads broadcasted they certainly have the means to pull some strings in the mainstream media especially in an age where news outlets have been revealed to be increasingly corrupt these days most news agendas are determined not by what's newsworthy but by what's profitable for those running the show and YouTube wake up sought to make many companies a lot of money this theory explains how Matt's campaign got so much coverage the brands had always been planning to pull out they just needed an angry activist to provide them with the opportunity it's possible that the key to solving the mystery of Matt Watson may have been hiding in plain sight this whole time this whole thing was never about protecting kids some brands even admitted it practically all of them eventually returned to YouTube likely at a cheaper rate than before as for Matt well as far as we know his entire channels story and persona is a fabrication the reason we can't find anything on his identity is that Matt Watson as we know him doesn't actually exist Matt Watson was just the alias of a covert agent hired to do a very specific job by an unknown entity once he accomplished his mission he no longer had any reason to stick around in the description I've included all the social media contact information for every brand that appears in my video and I've included a time stamp for where exactly that brand appears in my video of course like the other theories the industry plant hypothesis doesn't account for everything if Matt really was a hired agent then how could you explain his older content it seems rather ridiculous to suggest that he was planning the stunt for more than two years if the advertisers needed an unsuspecting plant to orchestrate a controversy then why select one with any sort of history attached to his account especially one with history as bizarre as Matt's old content additionally at with any conspiracy containing a ton of moving parts this theory potentially involves a lot of people that would need to be kept quiet and finally if it was really that easy for companies to take advantage of YouTube shouldn't we have seen a bunch of Matt Watson's popping up all over the place at least for now that remains to be seen [Music] unfortunately we may never know Matt Watson's true intentions with the YouTube wake-up campaign at the end of the day all of our theories are nothing more than educated guesses and unless we get some serious testimony from any of the parties involved all we can do is wonder speculation aside it is fairly evident from the facts of the case that we should be skeptical of Matt Watson's self-proclaimed mission to protect children the circumstances surrounding his behavior were too suspicious and contradictory for us to buy into the official narrative it's obvious that Matt had some hidden agenda but what exactly that agenda was may forever remain up for debate one thing for certain is that the fulfillment of Matt's agenda came at the expense of both YouTube and its creators the meteoric success of YouTube's wakeup may be indicative of changing tides in the digital landscape the controversy likely represents one of the mounting consequences of YouTube's de facto monopoly on long-form user-generated content as the site continues to scale beyond the limits of human control the platform will keep finding itself in more precarious positions these days it's more than just creators who are growing increasingly frustrated by their lack of options with billions in corporate transactions on the line YouTube is under more pressure than ever to perform to a certain standard in the future YouTube may further transform into a battleground between clashing corporate Titans while the rest of us are just along for the ride ultimately Matt Watson exposed YouTube's most confounding issue of all not their lack of child safety but their lack of communication perhaps the biggest factor that made YouTube's wake up so successful was YouTube's complete failure to inform the public on hardly anything happening on the platform YouTube is a site that likes to shroud itself in a cloud of mystery so that they can operate invisibly to the prying public eye they thrive within an information vacuum leaving the general public totally ignorant to even the site's most basic features it was this ignorance which Matt Watson exploited to transform a simple expose into one of the biggest controversies the site had ever seen his blatant dishonesty should have been immediately debunked yet it was only detected by the most savvy creators on the platform the vast majority of observers accepted Matt's emotionally-charged rhetoric as the truth and YouTube paid the price honesty is a two-way street the more you hide from the public the less likely they are to trust you after burning so many of us for so long it's hard for anybody to trust YouTube these days YouTube wake up serves as the ultimate indictment to the site's severe transparency issue it also serves as an indictment against the site's total lack of direction or leadership it's safe to say that over the past half decade YouTube's internal decision-making can only be described as hapless whether it's their persistently baffling and unwanted policy changes through totally inconsistent enforcement of the rules or their preferential treatment for the vapid celebrities at the top of the site many of YouTube's issues are completely self imposed brought about mostly by their inability to think proactively about future obstacles lately the direction of the site seems about as coherent as a headless chicken like how YouTube has spent the past five years dedicating an entire section of the site to kindergarteners only to scramble and panic when shockingly targeting them with ads was against the law much of YouTube's aimlessness could be attributed to their pitifully weak leadership in the event of a crisis like the Matt Watson controversy most youtubers have nowhere to turn for news and guidance who is supposed to be YouTube's spokesperson in situations like these the anonymous Team YouTube Twitter account Susan with her biannual blog posts how is it that a guy like Matt Watson a single angry dude in his bedroom is a more effective leader and communicator than anyone at YouTube YouTube wake up once again proves that unless the platform makes some major changes in their management they will continue to get eaten alive by companies who know they can get away with it until YouTube's administration can learn to effectively communicate its goals and solutions to the greater public cowardly decision-making will continue to threaten the stability of the site in the future we may either look back on Matt Watson as an anomaly or as the beginning of a far more sinister trend I'm sure that every creator would hope that controversies like YouTube wake up remain in the past Matt Watson sparked a wave of rage and disgust by supposedly uncovering a war nobody realized that the real wormhole would be the mystery behind Matt himself whoever he was and whatever he was doing here Matt Watson will go down as YouTube's most infamous red herring [Music] you [Music]

Channel: EmpLemon

Views: 1,201,335

Rating: 4.9295568 out of 5

Keywords: EmpLemon, YouTube Geographic, Matt Watson, YouTubeWakeUp, Nerd City

Id: nBQFls_elpY

Length: 55min 27sec (3327 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 27 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/[deleted]]

YouTube had $15.15 billion in ad revenue for 2019, up 36% from $11.16 billion the year prior, according to Alphabet. For Q4 2019, YouTube advertising sales were $4.72 billion, a 31% year-over-year increase. YouTube's ad revenue was $8.15 billion in 2017.

[u/thecnoNSMB]

Here is Nerd City's full commentary, of which only a few clips were used in the video.

[u/serg27]

Great video