Linus Sebastian’s Linus Media Group YouTube empire is at present in disaster, with accusations of theft, lapses in ethics, and most lately, allegations of sexual harassment. The corporate has at present paused all manufacturing to enhance its assessment processes, and CEO Terren Tong tells The Verge an outdoor investigator shall be employed to look at the harassment allegations.
In a video posted this morning titled “What can we do now?” Linus Media Group CFO Yvonne Ho announced your complete channel was pausing manufacturing for the subsequent week to handle the problems raised by the YouTube channel Gamers Nexus about errors in movies and regarding moral practices. “I agree with the neighborhood,” Ho stated within the video, “so I’m placing my foot down. Efficient instantly all YouTube video manufacturing is on pause.”
The controversy began earlier this week, when Avid gamers Nexus posted a video outlining various factual errors and ethics issues in latest Linus Tech Ideas movies. “We’ve been seeing an alarming quantity of conflicts from Linus Tech Ideas because it pertains to their company connections, their stream of cash, and the potential bias because of these issues,” stated Avid gamers Nexus host Steve Burke.
Burke’s greatest concern was round a GPU cooling block made by Billet Labs. In accordance with Avid gamers Nexus, Linus Tech Ideas reviewed a copper cooling block from Billet Labs on the incorrect GPU, then auctioned it off at a latest fan occasion with out the corporate’s permission.
The afternoon after Avid gamers Nexus posted its video, Sebastian began responding to concerned fans in the Linus Tech Tips forums. “We’re utilizing this, like every little thing else, to proceed to drive ourselves to do higher,” he said in one post. He additionally stated that the auctioning of the cooling block was an accident as a result of miscommunication and that the corporate was working with Billet Labs to resolve the problem.
The state of affairs escalated on August 14th, when Gamers Nexus posted the video in response to Sebastian’s feedback on the discussion board, with a phase titled “Linus Tech Ideas response is disappointing nonsense.” In the meantime, followers expressed frustration and outrage on the Linus Tech Ideas boards and subreddit, with some fans demanding a public apology to Billet.
That led to Linus Tech Tips posting that video this morning that options Sebastian and different Linus Media Group staff outlining their plans to handle the issues raised by Avid gamers Nexus — together with halting manufacturing for one week to deal with bettering documentation and processes round testing. “I used to be the one on the head of the corporate for every mistake that our neighborhood has rightly delivered to our consideration,” Sebastian stated within the video.
Linus Tech Ideas posted its newest video at roughly 7AM ET. Nonetheless, final evening, at roughly 2AM ET, a former worker, Madison Reeve, posted a thread on X, the platform previously referred to as Twitter, accusing Linus Media Group of cultivating a poisonous work surroundings and inspiring a piece tradition that was detrimental to her well being in addition to sexual harassment directed at her by Linus Media Group staff.
“I selected to give up my function at LTT as a result of it, and the working surroundings I used to be dealing with, have been ruining my psychological well being,” her statement begins. “My work was known as ‘dogshit’ I used to be known as ‘incompetent’. After I would attain out to managers and attempt to get assist with these conditions, I might be informed to ‘placed on my large woman pants’ and be ‘extra assertive’.”
Reeve went on to accuse the corporate of barring her from movies after she reported being “grabbed a number of occasions within the workplace” and being told to “calm my tits” and “cease being such a bitch.”
“It felt like a horrible teenage drama film,” she said.
We reached out to Sebastian about these newest accusations, and he responded by way of electronic mail, saying:
I used to be in a state of shock studying by way of these allegations, plain and easy. They aren’t in step with my recollections. They aren’t in step with our inner processes. They aren’t in step with our firm values.
We satisfaction ourselves on sustaining a secure and inclusive surroundings. Along with our current report techniques (each nameless and in any other case) we’ve proactively reached out internally immediately to encourage members of our crew to report any office bullying or harassment they could be experiencing so we are able to take fast and decisive motion.
Our HR crew shall be conducting a extra thorough evaluation of the allegations, and once we are prepared, we’ll launch a extra full assertion. For now I might ask that we permit our crew the time they want be as thorough as attainable.
Linus Media Group CEO Terren Tong additionally responded by way of electronic mail, saying he was “shocked on the allegations and the corporate described” in Reeve’s posts. He went on to notice that “as a part of this course of, past an inner assessment we may even be hiring an outdoor investigator to look into the allegations and can decide to publish the findings and implementing any corrective actions that will come up due to this.”