TW Beginning a three part series covering the last three weeks of revelations and conversation regarding alleged abuse and abusers on YouTube.
two weeks of intense Conversation
about sexual abuse on YouTube.
And we’re nearing the end of week three.
which started off with the return of Alex Day.
And that got the soup boiling again.
I offered to make this video a week ago,
[QUOTE FROM PREVIOUS VIDEO]
And some of you took me up on that offer.
[SCREEN GRABS OF COMMENTS]
I said I had written a script—
The longer I put off recording that script
the the more I’ve had to add to it,
because every day there is
So I’m splitting it into three
Although there is some overlap,
I’ll call the three parts: Sam, Jason, and Alex
Each one covers approximately
a week of revelations and conversations.
You are currently watching Sam.
YouTube abuse is a rough topic for
There’s a lot of hurt involved.
Never lose sight of that.
It’s not just theory and jabbering.
It’s real people dealing with real injury.
I don’t think anyone can be
Or dismissive of the emotions people feel.
It’s toughest on the victims.
Or survivors, if you prefer.
BOTH those who have spoken out
I’m amazed at your courage
And I hope you find healing.
And the strength to ignore
people who want to shift blame to you
away from the people who hurt you.
It’s also tough on FRIENDS of the survivors.
Tough on everyone who’s heard rumors.
and doesn’t know what to do with the information.
tough on people who know the accused abusers.
who don’t have the option of becoming ex-parents.
And let’s not lose sight of the fact that
it’s also been tough on the accused abusers themselves.
You may take satisfaction in that.
You may look at that as justice.
But this is a new kind of justice.
Trial by Tumblr replaces Trial by Jury,
there’s a range of prescribed penalties
corresponding to various acts.
and degrees of sexual abuse and assault.
there is only one penalty
total and irrevocable shunning.
Exile from the company of decent folk.
You’ll never work in this town again.
But one-size fits-all doesn’t strike me as justice.
One of the things that Attorney General
Holder is rightly praised for is his
cutting back on mandatory minimum sentencing.
People I respect make strong arguments
for why it’s appropriate on YouTube.
Nobody is entitled to a youTube career.
These people abused their power of celebrity
There’s no assurance they won’t do it again.
So we need a channel death penalty
Let them live their lives elsewhere
The whole process of blogging and re-blogging
so as to make these guys virtually unemployable.
You’ll never work in this town again
But you’ll never work in any other town where employers might
As I said, people I respect think that’s all perfectly fine.
I think that world of Tumblr justice has some dark corners.
On the other hand, justice in the courts is very hard to come by especially in cases of
Especially in cases of rape between people who
[SCREEN GRAPHICS STATISTICS FROM
The conviction rate is abysmal.
In the courts, there’s just not a lot of justice to be had.
What there is, instead, is mainly,getting away with it.
RAINN estimates that for 100 rapes committed, only 3 people will serve a day in prison.
Mike Lombardo is in jail.
I think the topic of Trial by Tumblr vs Trial by Jury
There’s a lot more to say.
I will put that on the to-do list.
And I’d love to hear your point of view on it.
If you’re new to the topic of abuse on YouTube, (and I’m not sure that’s possible)
I’ll give you a “Previously…”
If you don’t need the “previously” … you can skip ahead
with this handy Skip The Previousy button.
[SCREEN GRAPHIC A BUTTON LABELED “SKIP THE PREVIOUSLY’
Two weeks ago, a YouTuber called Sam Pepper
exploded a subject that had been on a low
But, in fact, it goes back to late 2011 when FBI agents
came knocking at the door of a house in upstate new york.
They seized the cell phone computer and drives of YouTube
Actually, it goes back earlier than that.
to whenever it was that Lombardo first began
soliciting his fans to send him sexually explicit
Mike Lombardo is currently serving a five-year sentence
One of the rare cases where there WAS court justice
But that’s because the crime involved the
images themselves. And the conversations that solicited them
The evidence was there. It was irrefutable.
And because the victims were under age, the question
of consent was completely off the table.
“Well, she wanted it” “She didn’t have to sent it”
couldn’t even be raised as a defense.
It’s clear to me from talking to people who
were involved in one way or another with Mike Lombardo
that the injuries and damage he caused go well beyond
the incidents he was formally charged with.
But Prosecutors will only indict for what they are confident
Lombardo was sentenced in February of this year.
Then in March of this year, credible allegations were made
about a number of male YouTube stars having used, well abused,
the aura and power of their celebrity
as a weapon or a coin for getting sex from fans.
The accusations of predatory and abusive behavior
ranged from online harassment, to unwelcome, non-consensual physical contact,
all the way to rape and statutory rape.
Some of these cases also involved cheating—
and that adds the additional factor
of harming two victims with one act.
There were some YouTube videos about this at the time,
but Most of the conversation since March took place off YouTube—
And—I’m reasonably sure—on Skype, Messenger, FaceTime, email, and other private messaging
What Sam accomplished and the reason I thanked him
at the outset was to pull this conversation
He did that by uploading a video titled
“Fake Hand Ass Pinch Prank”
That was noticed by some people with large followings and wide influence and they
quickly launched a successful campaign to ask viewers to flag that video and a day later, YouTube took it down.
And that’s when the dam began to crack.
Cameras on three continents started rolling.
With YouTubers finally ready to talk about it publicly on camera.
That was the start of week one.
Then they got much worse.
Or if you believe that talking about this
is helpful, things got better.
In the middle of the week Sam posted an explanation:
he wasn’t pranking these women—
They were not victims; they were actors,
They all consented to having their bottoms pinched,
He was pranking his viewers.
It was all, he says, a “social experiment”
Aimed at raising our awareness of the evils of sexual assault.
Sam is one of the good guys.
was not very widely believed.
I think most people filed it under
I think Sam’s “explanation” is actually what finally
blew the dam and started the flood.
People realized that a lot had been left unsaid.
The conversation shifted from what Sam Pepper did onscreen to what he allegedly did offscreen.
By the end of week one, Sam stood accused not simply of committing
street assaults for our amusement or (for the gullible among you)
simulated street assaults for our moral enlightenment, but also of soliciting photos from a minor groping female fans, and rape. Actual rape.
Appallingly, If you look for it, you will find a shocking number of people
defending Sam Pepper. Still.
I was writing a script about all that two Saturdays back.
I had just written the following sentence:
“I expect more revelations next week.”
I”m not sure why I wrote that.
But at that exact moment, I saw
Twitter explode with more revelations.
[SCREEN: THREE TWEETS ABOUT VEEONEEYE]
Just slightly ahead of my prediction
A woman called Ania posted a video claiming
that a YouTuber called Jason got her drunk for the purpose of having sex.
I’ll talk about that next.
In my previous video about this topic,
I mentioned that all advertising had
disappeared from Sam’s Channel.
Looks like I had the scoop on that.
Yesterday MTV UK reported it.
The day vebore NewMediaRockstars had it.
There has been no official confirmation
from YouTube that they have blocked
Sam from monetizing his videos.
His networked has announced that they’ve
[*NOTE* subsequent to filming, YouTube
confirmed to Channel 4, UK, that they had
indeed blocked Sam Pepper from Monetizing
But it may be that the proposal I made
about hitting these guys on their
advertising income, is possibly underway.
We’ll see if it goes further than Sam.
Here’s my playlist of some of the
very smart and engaged people
talking about abuse and abusers
in the YOuTube Community.
I think what they have to say
is more important than what I have
Mainly cause I’m an old guy who
lives on the margin of this thing.
and watch as many as you can.
Here’s my playlist of my series on
titsay
janainaart
baratheonpilled
vaporwave
blakekathryn
turnnoffyourmind
ellievsbear
stormborns
