Linus Tech Tips and Gamers Nexus lock horns over ethical concerns
If you're a tech fan and watch enough YouTube, it's almost guaranteed that you've heard of Linus Tech Tips or have watched one of their videos.
Beginning as a single channel started by Linus Sebastian, the brand quickly garnered popularity, and has since become an entertainment company.
Instead of uploading onto a single platform, Linus Media Group uploads on multiple channels and even includes a tech podcast. As a result, the brand produces multiple videos a week and employs a large number of staff.
Well, fellow tech YouTube channel Gamers Nexus has taken issue with the Linus Media Group's content - arguing the information isn't always accurate and could raise ethical concerns.
Gamers Nexus call out Linus Tech Tips over accuracy concerns
On August 14, Gamers Nexus released a 44-minute video outlining their "problem" with Linus Tech Tips' content, including accuracy and ethical concerns.
Editor-in-Chief Steve Burke accused Linus Media Group of publishing wrong information about tech products on multiple occasions. In their opinion, this has resulted in viewers being potentially misled and may have affected their purchasing decisions when it comes to the tech they buy.
Providing a set of examples where errors have occurred, Burke argued that Linus Media Group needs a better process for ironing out misinformation. For them, the entertainment group is making videos with a "quantity over quality" mindset, which is leading to a lack of accuracy in the data being shared.
On top of that, Gamers Nexus has questioned Linus Media Group's ethics when it comes to their partnerships, arguing that certain reviews seem to ignore glaring issues with the product that the viewer deserves to know about.
Linus Sebastian responds to Gamers Nexus criticism
Shortly after Gamers Nexus' video, Linus provided a written response to the criticism, admitting that a level of "slopiness" had slipped into the Linus Media Group's work lately. However, according to them, they've now outlined a set of "KPIs for our writing/labs team around accuracy," in the hopes of ironing out any errors in the future.
Despite admitting to some problems in their videos, Linus did make it clear that they were disappointed Burke "didn't go through proper journalistic practices in creating" the video. For them, Burke could have reached out beforehand for "context that may have proven to be valuable."
Linus ended the response by stating that "we are trying our best, and if what we were doing was easy, everyone would do it."
We'll have to wait and see whether Gamers Nexus decides to respond to this statement, but with no video on the matter coming from Linus, it'll be interesting to see the perspective of viewers and which side they decide to take.