this post was submitted on 17 Aug 2023
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I believe some of his early videos were basically undisclosed advertisements. They were so over the top positive, it just didn't feel right. I've had his channels blocked on YouTube for a while now. I simply don't trust anything coming from him.
That was their early model. They took money for a product and produced a positive video on it. That was the channel its how it got started and grew. They always used weasel words (still do) like a company "hooked them up" which meant they received a free product and payment to produce this video. They were actually caught properly on this on a series of AMD sponsored videos which were so incredibly positive and glossing over the issues and AMD explained the videos had been paid for. It turned out that was how the channel worked, they got paid for positive reviews.
Nowadays sponsorship is better declared (because the ASA required that of them) but conflicts of interests aren't. There is also the appearance of a lot of fraud too where free products are being placed into their homes. The Intel extreme series is a prime example of something that looks super dodgy and maybe a tax dodge. Right now its hard to prove something criminal is happening, based on their history however its not unreasonable to suspect it is.
I think they are using workarounds, for instance they get paid for worthless advertisement, and then incidentally review your products nicely, which is the real advertisement.
They fooled me once, which is how I found out the review must have been fake. After that it became pretty easy to see other examples.
It's seems obvious to me that Linus reviews are according to what he is paid above all else.
Even if its not so direct there is a still a problem. Intel is giving each of the employees one after the other $5000 worth of whatever upgrade they want to their gaming gear. Almost everyone there is reaching the benefits of this Intel sponsorship personally. Sure looks like a bribe. If you start doing such a sponsorship deal the only way to remove the conflict of the interest and ethical problems is to never review anything involving Intel, because the entire staff is receiving significant bribes from that company.
It doesn't have to be as direct as getting paid for a sponsored video to bias a review more positively, they are so unethical in the deals they make they will happily maintain the appearance of taking bribes and review products from that company. Its by no means the only example of this given the amount of free tech that has gone into Linus' personal house that received a nice thumbs up only to be replaced 6 months later often on the quiet. Its everywhere in everything they are doing, companies are throwing goods and money at them and they are all taking it home and then the next week doing a review on products from that company.