Elon Musk ENRAGES Twitter With New Rule But Everyone Can't Read Apparently! Linktree Banned Too!

what's going on? everyone Jeremy here from the quartering on a Sunday? well, uh, it's fitting. I suppose there's news happening more quickly than I can even keep up with it. I already figure I have a Full Slate on Monday, so better get the hottest, spiciest topics here on Sunday, so at least they're here on the channel or they're ready to go when you wake up Monday. there's a new rule, that's being that was rolled out on Twitter today. that has people absolutely freaking out, including myself at first. but then I read, then I actually read the words, and then I read the words again and I realized it's probably not that big of a deal. there may be some possible reasons behind it that I'm thinking, uh, that I can perhaps lay out as uh, uh, possible reasons why this might be. uh, and I think that it's tough to say, but I'm probably for the last time before Christmas, I'm gonna mention important Channel sponsor and huge helper of uh, Stephen Crowder in his time of need. meta PCS- check this out. huge shout out to this video. sponsor: meta PCS. look, you've been around. you know that I've been toking about meta PCS for a very long time. in fact, it's the primary computer I use. but it's not just because they're a sponsor. it's for so many more reasons. they have fully customizable, configurable PCS and all the hardest to find parts in stok and ready to go. they also have ready to ship PCS ready for you today. here's a couple reasons why I like meta PCS. first and foremost, it's veteran ownership. meta PCS is a veteran-owned business. one of meta's owners has served both in Afghanistan and Iraq and received a purple heart for his service. meta also employs military veterans in meta's operations center and also provides systems of veterans going back to school to help them re-enter the workforce. all across the United States. they offer financing. it has 100 US based sales and support. and when you receive your PC it's ready to go right out of the box. you don't have to get complicated and set things up, you just plug it all in and you're ready to rock. and on top of that, meta PCS is offering you- my viewer- a huge discount when you use the link in the description or you use promo code- the quartering. if you use my code at checkout, not only do you save money, but you support my content and a company that will not bow to cancel culture. so maybe you're not ready to pick up a new computer today, but when you are remember to go to metapcscom and use promo code, the quartering to support me and to save money and everybody wins, I'm standing, with Christmas going on and everything. you might not be obviously in the market, but when you are remember promo code, the quartering, I'm out of PC. so Twitter rolled out a new rule by tweet, which is not always the best way to do it and has been getting absolutely ratioed into Oblivion tweeting out. we recognize that many of our users are active on other social media platforms. however, we will no longer allow free promotion of certain social media platforms. on Twitter specifically, we will remove accounts create now again, let me read this, because this is the part that everyone missed, including myself, not once, but twice. specifically, we will remove accounts created solely for the purpose of promoting other social media platforms and content that contains links or usernames for the following platforms: Facebook, Instagram, masted on true social tribal- no sir- and post- I think there's a couple of possibilities- so that the SEC- the first part of that I think everyone's fine with. you know Walmart doesn't advertise. let Target buy ads inside of Walmart, you know, but it's so. specifically, we will remove any accounts created solely for the purpose of promoting other social platforms- but this part is a little hairy- and content that contains links or usernames of the following platforms. now I'm thinking maybe they're worried about Trump coming back and just using his 80 million subscriber or follower channel to promote true social. Maybe, but here's what's interesting: we will stay. we will still allow cross-posting content from any social media platform. posting links or usernames to social media platforms not listed above are also not in violation of this policy, Jack, uh, maybe sit this one out. he's in here why? I think that you know it's a shrewd business move, but still not awesome. like mines points out, no, certain open source protokols on here, but tiktok isn't, no, sir, is not a competitor, nor is it really a platform. it's a protokol. Twitter could use a lot of people's in this incredibly short-sider, short-sighted. Twitter should strive to be a more open environment. less, not less. now, two days ago, Jack said verifying my account on no sir, my public key, find others. so I think what he's obviously trying to stop, which I? I don't know if this works very well. it still makes me a little uncomfortable with that second line. if we actually look at Twitter's written policy, which says December 22nd, I'm sorry, 2022.. it says Twitter is where the public conversation is happening and where people from all over the globe come to promote their art, business and then more. we know that many of our users will be active on other social media platforms. however, going forward, tour will no longer allow free promotion of specific Twitter media platforms on Twitter. what's concerning is: why can't I tell people I have an Instagram on Twitter, so there is some concern here. and also, how will it be enforced? um, you know, it says prohibited platforms, because we toked about that. then it says third party social media link aggregators, such as linktree in bio. well, I have linked Tree in my bio, so does that mean I can no longer do that? now I'm guessing, what if your link tree doesn't have, you know, uh, true social or any of these? so what if you use linktree but it doesn't have these features? so it, so it is. it is murky. I even I had to pause the video actually, because I do need to list this. like I, I think I understand what he wants to do is he doesn't want to allow all these journals to continue to be pimping. Mastodon is also. perhaps it's that he doesn't want, like Don, uh, the Don Trump coming back and just simply promoting true social to his 80 million followers, I, and again he's saying free. so he's saying you're welcome to pay to promote those posts. I think that's a key word in it. and then also like simply saying, follow me on Instagram. see, the other thing with this list that's weird to me is that why Facebook and Instagram- at least these other ones are, and no sirs- really like at least you could understand Mastodon, true social tribal and post. okay, you know, maybe it's you could understand them, but I wouldn't. I still wouldn't agree with it. this says, but then it says accounts that are used for the main purpose of promoting content on other social platforms may may be suspended, and again, I don't necessarily care as much about that. additionally, any attempts to bypass restrictions on external links to the above prohibited social media platforms to the tiknical or non-tiknical means EG URL cloaking plain text obfuscation is in violation of a policy. you can't like spell it out instead of putting the link. this says: we recognize certain social media platforms, provide alternative experiences to Twitter and allow users to post content to Twitter from to these Platforms. in general, any type of cross posting to our platform is not in violation of this policy, even from prohibited sites above, meaning, if you post an Instagram photo or you post Instagram, whatever, you should be okay is what I understand. additionally, we will allow paid advertisements- slash promotion for any of the prohibited social media platforms. so I think what this is. I think, even though it's poorly worded, I think, even though it's poorly worded, what this is really about is stopping um like Donald Trump coming back and um, you know, I think um Donald Trump coming back and promoting truth. or maybe the journals like exclusively using their old accounts on Twitter to promote Mastodon. I think that is perhaps what it is. I am con.

How Kurzgesagt Cooks Propaganda For Billionaires

in November 2016, kurzazak published a video on the most gruesome parasites. it tells the story of devastating diseases that the world governments couldn't solve, so the big Pharma stepped in to be the hero of humanity and saved the day. it's one of those two good to be true stories, so I decided to look it up myself, and the real events are nowhere near as glaring for the big Pharma as curses act presents. pharmaceutikal corporations did donate their medicine to the most affected regions, but they didn't do it out of their own volition or initiative. they did it after Decades of neglecting the diseases because they weren't profitable enough to manufacture fixes for them. Bill Gates is actually responsible for much of the neglect. his charitable priority is overemphasized big-name diseases such as malaria, HIV or tuberculosis, but in the process of doing so, they drew crucial attention and resources away from more common and structural problems, many of which led to outbreaks of other diseases. after the public pressure was too large to ignore more, the drug makers decided to join the plan. big Pharma never came up with this initiative. it was the World Health Organization who had proposed a road map to eradicate the diseases by 2020 and convinced governments and ngos to join them. the pharmaceutikal conglomerates never assumed any risk. these corporations took home almost nine trillion dollars in profits in 18 years, so this little stunt is really just a pocket change for them. this video was paid for by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and it so happens that the gates are heavily invested in many of the Pharma companies. curses are portrays as Heroes. they own major Holdings in many of the partikipating companies, and both Bill and Melinda Gates are Trustees of two Pharma firms. this video is in positive news. it's a positive BR Curtis act. admitted, they wouldn't have made this video If it wasn't paid for by Gates. okay, what the hell just happened? this one video is the perfect culmination of everything that's wrong with billionaires funding media to get the coverage they need. it provides a whitewash take on real events. it undesirly elevates the role of private entities and gives a marketing boost their agenda and financial interests. the ultra wealthy are pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into media companies, academic Institutions and governing bodies to rig every step of policy making in their favor. when billionaires want to open up the markets for their trade, they'll fund media Outlets that tell the audience how important Investments, Innovations and economic growth are. they'll donate to research that will give them the argument that whatever they decide to do is science they'll give to politikal campaigns to get the right candidates elected so that it lost the law before are easier to pass. we have identified this to be a problem with all big institutions, and this is what it did to our trust in them [Applause]. so if it is a problem when billionaires fund our politikians, our journalists and our Academia, is it also a problem when they fund our YouTubers? because billionaire funding is a lot more prevalent on YouTube than you might think. it's far beyond the scope of this one six year old video. I didn't realize I was watching a video sponsored by The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, because critiks act didn't reveal this information until the last 20 seconds of the video. I actually first found out about the sponsorship from curses act, medium artikle on how they treat sponsors here. Philip Detmer, the owner of the channel, admitted that Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation was their biggest supporter- so big in fact, it helped transform kurtzad into a Powerhouse. but Philip Detmer also told us that curses Act is almost entirely viewer of funded. I wanted to know where the truth lies, so I went to the foundation's grant database and found this: in November 2015, curses Act was awarded 570 thousand dollars from the bill and middle of the Gates Foundation for a 49 month long contract. I wanted to see the full extent of this contract, so I started going through their YouTube videos to see how many were made for the foundation, and that's when I entered a rabbit hole. I was able to identify at least eight videos curses I've made for the Gates Foundation. when they were awarded the gates Grant, the patreon was a relatively small, yielding less than nine thousand dollars per month. the money from Gates would cover at least eleven thousand dollars per month, or seventy one thousand two hundred and fifty dollars per video, so the gates money alone would be at least on par with their patreon. but Gates was in loan. throughout my research I kept discovering more and more billionaire sponsored videos. it's not just one Foundation, it's George Soros, the templetons and Facebook co-founder, Dustin Moskowitz. they also made a sponsored video for this professor from Oxford University, William mccaskill, who is funded by open philanthropy, and Chris had also received money from Bill Gates personal blog and venture capitalist funds. from what I was able to find, curtisad made at least one video for open Society Foundations, at least three videos for Templeton World charity, three videos for Bill Gates block and breakthrough energy and one video for William mccaskill. we know they were awarded half a million from The Gates Foundation and almost 6 million from open philanthropy. if they kept the same per video rate since the gates Grand, it could be estimated because it's act received at least 7 million from billionaire funds. this would be more money than Chris's had received from their supporters on patreon in the entire history of the channel. this made me realize that Chris's act never was this small independent, almost entirely viewer-funded Channel. as soon as the studio Incorporated, billionaires began lining up. they transformed the small munich-based design studio with five employees into a multi-million dollar media Powerhouse with dozens of employees. Kurtz's Act was also sponsored by regular commercial businesses such as brilliant or skillshare, but neither of these has multi-billion dollar investments in global Industries and they aren't spending millions in politikal lobbies trying to influence law making. and, most importantly, they don't fund the sources that curtisac uses for the research. and what the hell is going on with Curtis ad research? curtisac told us their research is impartial and fact check by scientists to ensure Integrity. but my skeptikism alarms were already buzzing under their asses. so I started looking at their sources and notiked something odd. many of their videos rely primarily on a single publication. this publication is a partner of the channel and they help them with research and provide numbers for their scripts. this publication appears so frequently in their sources. their website is quoted up to dozens of times in a single document. this research publication is not some independent pandemic group of scientists just sharing their hard science for free. it is our role in data, heavily funded by Bill Gates and other billionaires, many of which have also sponsored Kirk's act videos. the publication received at least 4.8 million dollars with the Gates Foundation alone, but they were also funded by open philanthropy, Templeton and William mccaskill. all of these entities had their series of sponsored videos at their Kirk's exact Channel. their partnership with our role in data was initiated by the Grant from The Gates Foundation through the first video on overpopulation made in collaboration with Max Roser, the founder and Lead scientist of our world in data. following this money Trail led me to discover that the data in crisis act videos isn't such a rock-solid science as they authoritatively present in their videos. many of the numbers from our world in data curses that relies on so much are complete garbage. in the videos on overpopulation, they show this amazing decline in global poverty, a trend which they attribute to ec.

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Facebook Bans Ads From Epoch Times After Pro-Trump Video Ads | NBC News Now

NBC News report revealed that the conservative news outlets spent more money on pro Trump Facebook ads than any other group outside of the Trump campaign. brandies draws me reported that original story and has been keeping us updated on this epic times controversy brandy. for starters, for people who aren't familiar, what is the epic times and why is Facebook banning them now? sure so, the EPOC times are the epitome zitz, it's not clear how you say that, because there are lots of different pronunciations and employees say it both ways. but whatever it is, it's a conservative media outlet that's really just jumped on the conservative stage. but who's behind it is a decade's old Chinese American spiritual movement who believes that there is a coming apocalypse where anti-communist and communists will battle each other, and now they have really glommed on to Donald Trump as the person who's going to make that happen and make them victorious. so that's what it is. they've been buying up Facebook ads that are very Pro Trump as a way, as part of their tactik to break into the conservative sphere. Facebook banned them, not because of that. you're allowed to post propaganda on Facebook's ad platform, that's fine. but what they did is after we started reporting on them, they started to hide what they were doing, so they'd stopped. they sort of tried to go around the very limit, the very basic transparency tools that Facebook is instituted, and they started making fake pages, sort of like what the Russians did. right, they made fake pages like honest media, best media, and they started hosting their ads there. that's not allowed, Facebook quit. so why is this band such a big deal? what's you know? what can we expect now? the band's a huge deal because this is where politikal organizations go to get eyeballs of people that look, especially older Americans and a lot of white, older folks go on Facebook a lot of the time. so that's, that's the Republican base, right there. so if they can't, they can't get subscribers anymore through that platform. that's a huge deal. has the other times responded to this controversy at all? are they saying anything about it? any thoughts on where they may, you know, go next? they haven't there. they, they, they would really. they're not happy with our reporting. okay, focusing enough on on how China has persecuted their people, which are, which is true, but it's true that two things can be bad at the same time, right, right, so they're not happy with our reporting, but they have a home, luckily for them, still on Google and YouTube. so for now they're there. so this may not be the end of such advertising. it's probably not. it never is right. all right, bread is drowsy, appreciate it, hey? NBC News viewers, thanks for checking out our YouTube channel. subscribe by clicking on that button down here and click on any of the videos over here to watch the latest interviews, show highlights and digital exclusives. thanks for watching.

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Twitter CEOJack Dorsey Testifies - Sept. 5, 2018

I believe you were once temporarily suspended from Twitter due to an internal error yourself. we do not want to lose sight of a few fundamental facts: humans are building the algorithms, humans are making decisions about how to implement Twitter's Terms of Service, and humans are recommending changes to Twitter's policies. humans can make mistakes. now Twitter manages those circumstances is critikally important. in an environment where algorithms are set up to decide what we see in our home feed, ads and search suggestions on, it is critikal that users are confident that you're living up to your own promises. according to Twitter rules, the company believes that everyone should have the power to create and share ideas and information instantly, without barriers. well, that's a noble mission, and one that is private company you certainly do not have to take on. the fact that you have done so has enriched the world. change society's given an outlet to voices that might otherwise never be heard. we and the American people want to be reassured that you're continuing to live up to that mission. we hope you can help us better understand how Twitter decides when to suspend a user or ban them from the service and what you do to ensure that such decisions are made without undue bias. we hope you can help us better understand what role automated algorithms have in this process and how those algorithms are designed to ensure consistent outcomes and a fair process. the company that you and your co-founders created plays an instrumental role in sharing news and information across the globe. we appreciate your willingness to appear before us today and to answer our questions. with that, I yield back the balance of my time and recognize mr pallone from New Jersey for an opening statement. Thank You, mr chairman. over the past few weeks, President Trump and many Republicans have peddled conspiracy theories about Twitter and other social media platforms to whip up their base and fundraise. I fear the Republicans are using this hearing for those purposes, instead of addressing the serious issues raised by social media platforms that affect Americans everyday lives. Twitter is a valuable platform for disseminating news, information of viewpoints. it can be a tool for bringing people together and allows one to reach many in places like Iran and Ukraine. Twitter was used to organize and give voice to the concerns of otherwise voiceless individuals closer to home. Twitter and hashtags like state woke me - and net neutrality have fostered important conversations and supported larger social movements that are changing our society. but Twitter has a darker side. far too many Twitter users still face bullying and trolling attacks. tweets designed to threaten, belittle, demean and silenced individuals can have a devastating effect, sometimes even driving people to suicide, and while twitter has taken some steps to protect users and enable reporting, more needs to be done. bad actors have co-opted Twitter and other social media platforms to spread disinformation and so divisions in our society. for example, Alex Jones used Twitter to amplify harmful and dangerous lies, such as those regarding the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting. others have used the platform to deny the existence of the Holocaust, disseminate racial supremacy theories and spread false information about terrorism, natural disasters and more. when questioned about this disinformation, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said the truth will went out in the end, but there is reason to doubt that, in my opinion. according to a recent study published by the MIT Media Lab, false rumors on Twitter traveled, and I quote, farther, faster, deeper and more broadly than the truth, with true claims taking about six times as long to reach the same number of people, and that's dangerous. in countries like Russia and Iran are taking advantage of this to broadly disseminate propaganda and false information. beyond influencing elections, foreign agents are actively trying to turn groups of Americans against each other, and these countries are encouraging conflict - so division and hatred- by targeting topics that generate intense feelings, such as race, religion and politiks. unfortunately, the actions of President Trump have made the situation worse. repeatedly, the president uses Twitter to bully and belittle people, calling them names like dog clown, spoiled brat, son-of-a-bitch, enemies and loser. he routinely tweets false statements designed to mislead Americans and foster discord, and the president's actions course in the public debate and feed distrust within our society. president Trump has demonstrated that the politiks of division are good for fundraising and rousing his base, and, sadly, Republicans are now following his lead. instead of critikizing the president for behavior that would not be tolerated even from a child. as reported in the news, the Trump hand campaign and the Republican majority leader have used the supposed anti conservative bias online to fundraise. this hearing appears to be just one more mechanism to raise money and generate outrage, and it appears Republicans are desperately trying to rally their base by fabricating a problem that simply does not exist. regardless of the Republicans intentions for this hearing, Twitter and other social media platforms must do more to regain and maintain the public trust. bullying, the spread of disinformation and malicious foreign influence continue. Twitter policies have been inconsistent and confusing. the company's enforcement seems to chase the latest headline as opposed to addressing systemic problems, though. Twitter and other social media platforms must establish clear policies to address the problems discussed today, provide tools to users and then swiftly and fairly enforce those policies, and those policies should apply equally to the president, politikians, administration officials, celebrities and the teenager down the street. it's long past time for Twitter and other social media companies to stop allowing their platforms to be tools of discord, of spreading false information and a foreign government, of foreign government manipulation. so thank you for having the hearing, mr chairman, and I yield back. thank the gentleman the chair now recognizes mr Dorsey for purposes of an opening statement. we appreciate your being here and feel free to go ahead, thank you. thank you chairman Walden, ranking member pallone and the committee for the opportunity to speak on behalf of Twitter to the American people. I look forward to our conversation about our commitment to impartiality, to transparency and to accountability. if it's okay with all of you, I'd like to read you something I personally wrote as I thought about these issues. I'm also going to tweet it out right now. I want to start by making something very clear: we don't consider politikal viewpoints, perspectives or party affiliation in any of our policies or enforcement decisions period. impartiality is our guiding principle. let me explain why we believe many people use Twitter as a digital public square'. they gather from all around the world to see what's happening and have a conversation about what they see. Twitter cannot rightly serve as a public square if it's constructed around the personal opinions of its makers. we believe a key driver of a thriving public square is the fundamental human right of freedom of opinion and expression. our early and strong defense of open and free exchange has enabled Twitter to be the platform for activists, marginalized communities, whistleblowers, journalists, governments and the most influential people around the world. Twitter will always default to open and free exchange. a default to free expression left unchecked can generate risks and dangers for people. it's important Twitter distinguishes between people's opinions and their behaviors and disarms behavior intending to silence another person or adversely interfere with their universal human rights. we build our policies and rules with

How Fox News and Right-Wing Media Brainwashed This Dad and Destroyed a Family | Opinions | NowThis

wright. mijn media toen, mijn familie, je hart en mijn vader story explains how monomyth kroon. ja, my parents were very open minded. die leek gps we voor heb is de oostelijke for people, pure meevallen. verbinden van mijn vader. hoe pastorie in 2016 was een brede sample, verrassend real people. people i woon in dubbel memory. alpha was een day trip to new york museum. er is een poort die hem dat we hem kocer willen. teenagers. iso. new york was een soort petra de boer coming out op poeder folie en right whale blanco is mijn wereld op de terminal. ps. mijn jefferson spurt: age of schuur, be designed nummers in homo's met before my bed stapt. do god hem, sir, en geef hem soms perching. dat houdt minder respect. and after high school en winterproducten, mijn vader werkt als een elektronisch engineer van de darmen, word high flow en dan een parttime job. boete lampi, meer historie, besneeuwde toppen, regio tot regio. venlo, spyglass, de ook de niet precies toen. sexy spandex, lycra, die zielscode, vader of concern, lucht arborio, hier liever de blog people and serieus en mondvol. martin, luther king is file of bristol in my day, diana chippy, geen muur de bal en boy george, mentormoeders, een barrière breder wide and fire. and then i phone and fell in love with was mijn bar, mijn. we hebben een ladder. ik streef van bargraph in tielt je die op de wij die hier perhaps zal chomp desai de stryver changing to my god, we zijn minst ria limbaugh watchers, elkaar e eeuw het super, de boer en zijn team, een barbie glam bandas, toetsenbord organizations to joining pikachu. mijn duitse regering had circuit mij en mijn e-mails disco lamp, robinson de fairway, maar die heb ik in, waar je pin, diner, de en angry, just say bong, bing de tripje, malibu, stimulus, neus is door dit soort dingen simon, soort rol, die ze niks. education bel plus een kleine door het bos lichaam, harold en greatsword ice woning in new york komen, die sentinel zijn. beroemdheden. christmas was vlakbij, gasten, mijn liefde in de lente of de bros en er gewoon een nul love christmas fire alarm. geef er een centrum coach van mijn duitsers met dan hier president, thank god, show the world. how was mijn shows? franse de waif, het limburgse gabe, oh my ass. mijn vader de 4 gig me daarna en ik gun en greens en waarom mannen die mooi feest? oh my god, het er een was like son amy en trok over de spar. die week old bench en toe stap forward is die zien als barry bonds taal. first my brothers blog. to my mind, and i'm sorry, dit was het nightmare en en nightmare god worth mannen, fellow limbaugh en introducing the fox news, my parents and dropping superbed, rupsen, bermen, duitse, woord yes'. en toen mijn mama, woonkamer, nieuwe leven. ik wilde mezelf de morsen voor mij duwen, soepel en drie en hem nooit voor while you to store your family de mijn persmuseum in de green room, a dance real broek, een idee-fixe lederen riem en tot de haspel voor keystone en wally bear, mijn man, subscribe for my mijn e-mails en subscribe lengte sites like to download en en hybride mall, anemone, cognitieve, the kitchen, mij amper en een riempje limbaugh de de change, a shallow fox news. one day she told me mama patty, kiezen good guy, pensioen en het handvest, dus enkel left it anyway. game heb hier mijn dag begint en het midden risico's arme dode hem om naar de disco new york city, saldo van over geologie. weten dan zo populair en cheap. nike, nike, shox, jacqueline was dus plus de hel. het familie in strips, in your ears, ue. muziek is mijn carrière, patrick en en al had me get back [Muziek].

Veritasium: A Story of YouTube Propaganda

This is a story about science, education, YouTube and (most importantly) money. It’s a story about what happens when the desire to educate comes into conflict with the desire to get paid. Finally, it’s a story about how some of the most valuable companies in the world are using educational YouTube as a vector for misinformation. And to unpack all of this, we’re going to tok about one of the biggest science channels on the platform, Veritasium. In July 2021, the science YouTube channel Veritasium released a video titled Why You Should Want Driverless Cars On Roads Now. It featured the channel’s host and founder, Derek Muller, making a characteristikally compelling argument for the embrace of autonomous vehicles. Attempting to debunk the anxieties some people have about letting driverless cars loose on public roads, Muller asserts that self-driving vehicles are actually far safer than their human-driven alternatives and have the potential to both save lives and greatly improve contemporary urban life. A large part of the video is delivered from the backseat of one of a fleet of driverless taxis currently operated in Arizona by Waymo, the successor to Google’s self-driving car project. All in all, it amounts to a glowing review of currently-existing driverless car tiknology in general and Waymo’s implementation of that tiknology in partikular. Muller so thoroughly punctures any concerns that one might have about autonomous vehicles that it’s hard not to come away from the video. as an enthusiastik evangelist for self-driving cars For a YouTube channel which derives its name from the Latin word for “truth”, to be able to make a video which is so uncompromisingly positive—so lacking in caveats or caution—must be reflective of a highly refined tiknology, right? Well, no, It’s actually reflective of little more than the size of Waymo’s PR budget, For, as Muller admits, 30 seconds in this is a sponsored video—paid for by Waymo and very clearly designed to contribute to their present PR strategy. To describe the video as an advert is perhaps to slightly miss the point. The primary goal here isn’t to promote Waymo’s taxi service to potential customers. That’s only actually available to unvetted members of the public in a handful of Phoenix suburbs, so most people can’t use it anyway. Instead, the video is a more general attempt to reassure viewers about a tiknology that has been attracting increasingly negative headlines. In December 2020, Uber lost confidence in its long-standing dream of automating its ride-hailing service and sold its self-driving car division to a competitor. A few months later, the poster child for tikno-optimism, Elon Musk, similarly revealed that he ‘didn’t expect it to be so hard’ to implement full self-driving capabilities in Tesla vehicles. And in May of this year, embarrassment came knocking at Waymo’s own door when a video circulated online of one of its self-driving taxis getting confused by some traffic cones, blocking two lanes of traffic and then trying to escape the support team that came to the aid of the trapped passenger. Such stories have combined with a steady drip of crashes and near-crashes involving cars with self-driving capabilities to make some people feel that driverless vehicles might be, at best, an over-ambitious pipedream and, at worst, highly dangerous. In September 2021, Morning Consult revealed that ‘the share of US adults who believe autonomous vehicles are safer than regular cars’ had fallen by 5 points to just 22%. It’s no surprise that Waymo, which is currently looking to expand its experimental taxi service to new cities, would want to push back on these perceptions. should opposition to self-driving cars gain too much traction, securing permits to test these vehicles on public roads is likely to become much more difficult. That they might turn to a YouTube channel as part of their pushback campaign might, until just a few years ago, have seemed less likely. Nevertheless, those of you who have watched some of my previous videos or who follow me on Twitter will know that I’ve been keeping an eye on this growing trend of companies, billionaires and elite institutions using sponsorship deals with purportedly educational channels to promote their own highly-selective and self-interested vision of the world. for some time Earlier this year, we took a look at a video by ex-Vox journalist Johnny Harris to foreground this emergent practike, in which a creator goes beyond integrating a brief advert for a product or service into their video and turns off their critikal faculties entirely, working with a company or institution to craft a video which, from start to finish, is little more than corporate propaganda. Now, as a rule, I don’t think we owe it to creators who make these wholly-sponsored fluff pieces to engage with the minutiae of their arguments. Whatever the merits of Veritasium’s other work—and there are many—the choices surrounding what information to include in this partikular video are not being made with reference to what will leave viewers with the most-rounded understanding of autonomous vehicles, but instead with reference to Waymo’s current PR goals. This is, in short, a completely disingenuous and unserious contribution to the debate around driverless cars. That being said, I often struggle to convince others of this. Often, as a result of the good will that creators have built up over the years, people might accept that a sponsorship tips the scales a tiny bit, but will be hesitant to believe that an entire video could be completely worthless. In fact, Muller himself sums-up many people’s attitude towards these kinds of corporate partnerships when, following his revelation that the Veritasium video is sponsored by Waymo, he gives a little shrug as if to say “no big deal”. Today, then, we are going to engage with the arguments put forward in Why You Should Want Driverless Cars On Roads. Now We’re going to look at Muller’s invocation of dubious comparisons with other tiknologies, his misrepresentation of statistiks and the highly, highly selective approach he takes to discussing the capabilities of Waymo’s vehicles. What we’ll find is that, while the video doesn’t contain any outright falsehoods, its central argument relies on Muller being extremely careful about what he does and doesn’t say. By the end of the video, hopefully, you’ll have a sense of how damaging these pieces can be to our collective understanding of the world, why we should be sceptikal of anyone who describes themselves as an educator involving themselves in the creation of such content, and why we should resist the further normalisation of such practikes. To reiterate, while we’re going to be focussing primarily on Veritasium’s partnership with Waymo today, Muller and his team are far from the only science tik and/or educational YouTubers to periodically give corporate sponsors the opportunity to influence the editorial content of their videos. In fact, the video we’re discussing today was itself just one part of a larger PR campaign in which Waymo recruited five YouTube channels and tasked them with creating videos which would push back against declining trust in self-driving cars. Some of these channels helpfully included some screen recordings of what one of the creators described as a ‘roundtable’ and what others might try to characterise as a “press event”, but comparing extracts from the event to the resulting videos seems to have involved little more than Waymo staff briefing the sponsored creators on what to include in their videos. The uploads which resulted from this campaign varied depending on the size, resources and styles of the channels making them. Shannon Morse’s video simply involves her toking to camera, with the occasional bit of stok footage overlaid to make things visually interesting. The video released by Snazzy Labs favours showing clips from the briefing event itself, allowing Waymo specialists to expl.