7mo ago

Linus Tech Tips (LTT) release investigation results on former accusations

There were a series of accusations about our company last August from a former employee. Immediately following these accusations, LMG hired Roper Greyell - a large Vancouver-based law firm specializing in labor and employment law, to conduct a third-party investigation. Their website describes them as “one of the largest employment and labour law firms in Western Canada.” They work with both private and public sector employers.

To ensure a fair investigation, LMG did not comment or publicly release any data and asked our team members to do the same. Now that the investigation is complete, we’re able to provide a summary of the findings.

The investigation found that:

Claims of bullying and harassment were not substantiated.
Allegations that sexual harassment were ignored or not addressed were false.
Any concerns that were raised were investigated. Furthermore, from reviewing our history, the investigator is confident that if any other concerns had been raised, we would have investigated them.
There was no evidence of “abuse of power” or retaliation. The individual involved may not have agreed with our decisions or performance feedback, but our actions were for legitimate work-related purposes, and our business reasons were valid.
Allegations of process errors and miscommunication while onboarding this individual were partially substantiated, but the investigator found ample documentary evidence of LMG working to rectify the errors and the individual being treated generously and respectfully. When they had questions, they were responded to and addressed.

In summary, as confirmed by the investigation, the allegations made against the team were largely unfounded, misleading, and unfair.

With all of that said, in the spirit of ongoing improvement, the investigator shared their general recommendation that fast-growing workplaces should invest in continuing professional development. The investigator encouraged us to provide further training to our team about how to raise concerns to reinforce our existing workplace policies.

Prior to receiving this report, LMG solicited anonymous feedback from the team in an effort to ensure there was no unreported bullying and harassment and hosted a training session which reiterated our workplace policies and reinforced our reporting structure. LMG will continue to assess ongoing continuing education for our team.

At this time, we feel our case for a defamation suit would be very strong; however, our deepest wish is to simply put all of this behind us. We hope that will be the case, given the investigator’s clear findings that the allegations made online were misrepresentations of what actually occurred. We will continue to assess if there is persistent reputational damage or further defamation.

This doesn’t mean our company is perfect and our journey is over. We are continuously learning and trying to do better. Thank you all for being part of our community.

Linus Tech Tips (Unofficial) @discuss.online

Linus Tech Tips (LTT) release investigation results on former accusations

x.com /LinusTech/status/1793428629378208057

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219 comments

It's unbelievable how much hate for LTT there is on this platform. I like them. No one is perfect. This investigation from a third party is a good thing and the findings are good as well. The statement about defamation, I feel, is warranted because the ex-employee made a ton of very damning claims and really hurt their image. The Fediverse is a great example of this damage.
The hate from this community towards LTT is extreme and unfounded.
- I'm glad this report showed their innocence but I unsubscribed after the GN/Billet Labs thing.
  I might check them out again later but that situation made me kind of uncomfortable with supporting them
  
  fwiw, they changed their process and output amount a lot after that
- The defamation statement was maybe a bit much, but also warranted. People need to know that just throwing accusations out there that are just plainly not true is actually legally problematic.
  I also don't get why people feel this is "threatening people who want to speak up in the future".
  If your "speaking up" has merit, it's not defarmation. Plain and simple.
  Companies make mistakes (and aparently some were made in this case, and dealt with).
  But I find it concerning that people also just blindly trust any and all claims that individuals make about these kind of situations. Believe that they are telling the truth, but also verify that this is actually true. The latter part is important. Blind trust is as damaging as not doing anything at all about a proble, There are people out there who get laid off for legitimate reasons, and try to retaliate for that. Even by claiming BS reasons.
  
  I wish you never have to find yourself facing a corporation. The power imbalance is so massive that you feel like an ant, it's the most disempowering experience anyone could face in legal terms. LTT could destroy people's lives and it would be decades if ever, for them to ever have to face consequences.
  This is why I always default to believing the individual over the corporation. The corporation has no soul, no heart, no conscience and no remorse. Imagine being a person who wants to speak up about something else you know for certain happened, but a million dollar law firm just put in writing that such kind of thing didn't happen. You have no recourse or power, it's your word against a literal army of lawyers. Regardless of whether the investigation was good or not. The result still has a silencing effect.
- I don't have LTT, I just find it worthless. Their content is frequently shallow, I dislike the presentation (clickbait-y titles and thumbnails, annoying segways, etc), and I find Linus himself annoying. Then again, I do watch their content from time to time, if they have something worth watching. That's not very often, but they do make some decent content occasionally. I rarely care about PC shenanigans, but sometimes I'll watch Jays2Cents if I want some of that (he's perhaps more annoying than Linus, but it is what it is, I guess).
  I mostly watch Gamers Nexus for reviews, news, and benchmarks. I find the delivery much more in-line with what I'd like, though I find Steve a bit long-winded so I tend to skip a bunch in the videos. But the content is high quality.
  To each their own though. My coworker really like LTT and went to LTX recently, so I'll watch a video here and there for water-cooler discussions.
- It's unbelievable how much hate for LTT there is on this platform.
  They have a huge reach and tremendous influence, but are not always conscientious, careful, and thorough as they should be given their sway. Still, that doesn't justify the vitriol.
- I just don't like Linus because he's annoying and abuses clickbait thumbnails and titles.
  Some of their videos (from other people than himself) are good, but usually I'll avoid LTT content all together.
  For that reason I'm not really sure what happened, and I don't really care.
  
  He said previously that he also dislikes the clickbait thumbnails, but they do it because it works. If they adhered to what the enthusiasts wanted their view counts would drop and they wouldn't be able to have so many employees on payroll.
  
  He said previously that he also dislikes the clickbait thumbnails, but they do it because it works. If they adhered to what the enthusiasts wanted their view counts would drop and they wouldn't be able to have so many employees on payroll.
  
  Have you ever looked at the DeArrow extension?
- I watch almost all of the LTT videos as well as most of the videos across all the other LMG channels. While I think I'd probably get along really well with Linus as a friend or acquaintance, and I don't necessarily have any issue with him as a person, he has had some pretty irritating takes and used his bully pit to essentially swat away or mock legitimate criticism on his takes. Usually about things that are outside of his core competencies. The ones that come to mind are some of the things he has said about unions (he's not anti Union to be clear), the backpack, car dependency in North America, and worker cooperatives.
  I personally think it would be pretty interesting if he had experts in those areas come on the WAN show to talk about those things. Instead he does the super ADHD thing (something he has admitted he has, and something I have definitely recognized him doing having had a partner with severe ADHD exhibit similar behaviors) where he spends seconds finding an article, skims it not noting much nuance, and then somehow simultaneously says something confidently while also saying he doesn't know what he's talking about. He often wants the best of both worlds. He wants to be taken seriously while also being given the latitude to joke around and just make hot takes.
  Even with all that said, as stated above, I will still watch most of his videos and wish him well. Recognizing the flaws in something I enjoy doesn't mean I hate something, especially if I take the time to voice it. It usually means I care and I want to see something I like or that is good improve and get better.
- The hate from this community towards LTT is extreme and unfounded.
  Are you just going to ignore Linus and the companies abhorrent response to the situation? That alone should make anyone lose any respect they had for them.
  
  Yeah, same for me. Linus' response was so stereotypicaly defensive, dismissive and shitty, I lost all trust. Couple that with GN's fact checking of LMGs sloppyness, and I was done ever watching their channel.
  
  I agree, I don’t think it’s unfounded, their immediate response was really tone deaf and I’ve yet to see them own up to that.
  I’m a bit uncertain as to how I feel about the overall response. I don’t exactly fault people for getting publicly upset, and I don’t hate anyone for still watching. I personally don’t feel the need to broadcast my thoughts. I canceled my floatplane subscription and stopped watching LMG videos on YouTube, but I haven’t tried to get anyone else to stop- or really even talked about them much at all, save for this post
  
  No, you're right. That was shitty, but this report sorta puts a different light on it. I would hope that Linus was caught off guard by the allegations and responded poorly. I'm clearly giving him the benefit of the doubt though and I hope I'm not wrong.
  Time may tell. Idk.
- I have no issue with LTT as a whole, I just really don't like Linus. He portrays an almost weaponized incompetence in a lot of computing topics and doesn't accurately represent his own lack of understanding to the audience that couldn't tell on their own. By all accounts there is one hell of a team working there, they just chose a really bad face to represent the actual content.
  Just my personal take for what it's worth.
- there are a lot of reasons to dislike LTT outside of this incident. I don't have anything against them, but I can understand why others would.
- It's one of those things you just have to accept about this kind of social media and, in a sense, Lemmy users specifically. I'm not too surprised that parts of this community are in the camp of disliking things because they are popular and don't fit their specific wants/needs. Many people are here because they dislike the more popular Reddit, after all.
  In a more general sense, most people when they don't like something are neutral about it, and those people won't show up in the comment section, so all we see are these more "extreme" opinions.
  I enjoy watching LTT videos, but you won't find me jumping into comment sections saying I'm a huge fan and there's no way they could have done something bad because I like their channel, for example. Getting the independent audit was a good idea, and I'm glad they went through it. I don't think the defamation comment was necessary, but that doesn't mean the rest of the message is worth ignoring.
- An investigation from a neutral third party is a good thing, but in this case LTT hired the third party investigator so the investigators obviously have an incentive to find LTT innocent of all charges since LTT is paying them through Linus Media Group (LMG). It's better than nothing, but it's like when there's an internal affairs investigation into police misconduct... by the police... Nobody believes it and for good reason.
  
  Of course LTT hired the investigator, who else would hire an investigator?
  
  The law firm would be putting themselves on the line for LTT if there was any further legal action, or if the subject of the investigation brought forth more evidence.
  I doubt LTT is big enough to give them the incentive to do that.
  Hiring a third party investigator is not the same as internal affairs. Internal affairs have only one client and little incentive to bite the hand that feeds them.
  If LTT goes down after this and it comes out that the law firm missed something major or outright lied, it would call into question every investigation they've done (at least recently) and destroy their reputation.
  
  If the law firm bungled the investigation, it would affect their reputation and future business. Wouldn't that mean they have a monetary incentive not to favor LMG in their investigation?
  
  Who would be paying for an investigation if not LMG? Firms don’t hire auditors/investigators to give them a rosy report. They want the truth so they can adjust their processes so they don’t spend more money on regulatory actions/fines.
  If the report is bad they just don’t release it to the public. But a third party audit lying to a firm to make them look good does not provide value. The company isn’t biased just because they are being paid by LMG, that’s just not how it works. LMG could just say they investigated themselves and found no wrong doing if that was their objective.
  Saying that you don’t believe the report because the company investigating it was paid for by PMG shows that you are biased more than they are.
  
  Withholding payment based on results with a negative outlook is illegal.
  
  The law firm will gloss over as much as it can do safely, but if there was clear evidence of wrongdoing, they would have to report it or risk severe consequences. I am not familiar with Canadian regulations so I cannot comment on what those consequences would exactly be, but there would definitely be some.
  
  That's not how this works. Maybe if you get some business consultants, but this ain't it. Just because you hire them yourself, doesn't mean that they'll fall in line with your wishes.
  
  There's a big difference, it's not like Linus did the investigation himself like the police do
- It's important to remember that the people who are okay with this report probably won't speak up. Those who find reasons to not be okay will speak loudly. Personally, I take reports like this with a grain of salt and an assumption we are told only the good or neutral bits. I then decide if those bits are enough to constitute good will. In this I feel they are.
  So good job: LTT.
  
  Yeah, I definitely see that now. The loud ones are apparently all I saw.

As with corporate mediators though, wouldn't such investigation companies have a financial incentive to favor their clients, so as to improve the odds of being rehired?
- Yes and no. The reason companies are hiring them is for the image of impartiality they bring. If your firm gets a reputation for just always siding with the company, regardless of what actually happened, that image gets destroyed.
  Plus, I'm willing to bet that there's not a whole lot of recurring business from individual companies for this type of service. That would kind of defeat the purpose of being the "neutral third party".
  
  As someone who used to work in a job that involved giving companies reports they paid for, I gotta say while large auditing firms will likely defend their reputation before the company that hired them, mid and small companies will just follow the paycheck. Doesn't look that big to me.
  
  Haven't you seen The Big Short?
  https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vE8E7_PNm98
- It's a business completely built on reputation for impartiality and thruthfullness. The second they take money to tilt their findings and it's discovered, their whole business it dead.
  Having worked at a company that had to hire a similar firm, I can tell you they had a huge contract up front that stipulates that they will find everything, they will be impartial, and if you, as their customer try and obfuscate or hinder their findings, they'll terminate the contract, and report any actions they're legally required to report.
  
  That's niave. You don't think words are spoken behind closed doors. All the paperwork is to cover their ass so they can point to it later when questions. Everything gets swept under the rug when you are hired to investigate the people who hired you.

I think part of it was the stress of the grindset that Linus running the show was getting all the staff into. Pushing out content at a regular schedule, getting sponsorships and all of that.
The whole GN saga with data accuracy and the donated cooler that made LMG look inward for a bit and improve their process was for the best I think.
The investigation to me is just one element making sure LMG weren't getting off on the wrong foot.
I think the complainant wasn't wrong or defamatory at all to bring up concerns because even in LTT's channel there was a video where the front and center stars of the team comment on how stressful things can be. When there's an implicit hierarchy imbalance (Linus can say "we're all equals here" all he wants) but fact is there's a leadership structure in one way or another, which can cause one to take certain treatment in different ways.
- It was a necessary "drama" imo. You mentioned the stress the team was put through but also I think Linus' ego needed to be brought down a lot. The way he talked on wan show about the cooler is like someone who thinks he is a tech god, saying something is bad is expected but outright claiming the product is worthless and will never amount to anything is just bad taste specially when you got it for free AND didn't bother testing it properly.
  One can hope this situation will bring positive lasting change to the way the company is run but also the image Linus has of himself.
  
  specially when you got it for free
  This is irrelevant IMO, getting a product for free shouldn't impact your review at all. The issue is they didn't test it properly, which is what people watch the video for.
  That said, I like GN's policy here: no free stuff.

I feel like the fact they paid the same party that investigated them is an obvious enough conflict of interest to dismiss this out of hand. Whether the report is actually trustworthy or not, there is an incentive to come to a conclusion that aligns with whomever paid them and that alone should make people question the conclusions being made.
- At my work we pay auditors to assess our security controls and I would chose a different company if I thought they were being anything less than honest with us on their findings. The agreements and SOW are set up at the beginning of the engagement, so the investigators get paid regardless of their findings. It's not like the bond rating agencies on Wall Street.
  
  There's a difference in stakes and impact and intent: the client firm is actively interested in finding security holes and the outcome of a negative security report does not (usually) directly affect the continuing operations of the business or impact on the personal reputations of the business owners their ability to conduct business, or how moral they're perceived by society.
  A negative report here would be a devastating blow on Linus himself, his business is built around him and relies on audiences trusting him, it would also open up the door for legal action that could result in massive monetary damages and fines.
  I've had "independent" valuations and audits. I've seen how these firms work - and it's not independent. They obey the people that pay them or they don't get any work in the future from anyone else "that firm destroyed my business".
  The most suspect aspect of the report is that they found nothing negative, everything was perfect. This on its face doesn't ring true for any business I've ever seen, as well as how they responded to the accusations and how many people came out to accuse them.
- Who else should pay them?
- Okay. So what should LTT have done?
  Ignore it completely and not respond?
  
  Invite a third party to do it. The funds could have come from crowd-sourcing.
- So they just have to sit around and hope that another company does the investigation then for free? I really don't know what you want, I understand your point, but there's literally no solution to that problem.
  
  They sue for defamation or don't
- Yeah, but who pays for it then?
- The point of these firms are to be an imperial 3rd party. You pay your notary to confirm that you signed a document. But if they just lied for whoever paid them they wouldn't be trusted to provide that service.
- These firms get paid before they release their findings. They have no incentive to make their clients look good, and it would tarnish their reputation as a neutral third party
  
  ROFL, their incentive is the next job. Companies aren't going to higher a company that finds against its clients....

So basically they hired a law firm that gets paid by corporations to dissolve evidence and destroy lawsuits and they "didn't find anything"
Right, another day in capitalist heaven
- Though that is fruit for thought I can not find any information to back op that claim. I did however found articles about them defending remote working. It's a bit too easy to me to throw out claims such as this without backing it up with facts. But if you do have any other examples I would love to read them.
  
  I did not do any research but to me the comment you replied to made me pause and think for a bit.
  If someone immediately assumes that a third party investigator is just being paid off by the firm they're investigating, how is that firm supposed to prove their "innocence" to someone like that? A second investigator could just get a paycheck aswell, so that doesn't change anything. They obviously can't just publish the relevant information for privacy reasons.
  What else are they supposed to do? I think that a certain amount of mistrust is good, especially when it comes to things where money and/or reputation is on the line, but the closer you get to personal relationships the more harmful unwarranted mistrust can be. Idk why I'm writing this reply to you, its more directed at the original comment poster, but ig I'm continuing on a tangent
  
  Oh no lol I don't have anything against this particular law firm, but IME law firms "specializing in labor" are a right cunt

I mean I guess its slightly reassuring. Truth is, its hard to trust a "moderator" that you paid for. Its just the nature of how shit works.
- The thing is that it's the best they can do, which is about all we can ask for. No one is going to do a good job at the investigation for free.
  
  The summary could've been an official statement from the lawfirm in formal letterhead, without unnecessary legal threats. But I'm not PR on LTT, so what do I know. They just keep fumbling and bumbling about like the idiots they collectively are.
- That's pretty much my thinking too. I mean, what's the less biased alternative to get to the truth here? The law firm has an incentive to satisfy the people paying them, but they also have their own reputation to maintain.
  So I guess I'd be inclined to skeptically believe their findings. Although, it would be better if the firm released their own summary (or endorsed this one).
- That's kinda where I'm sitting

I really key in on the language of these types of releases. First is,
To ensure a fair investigation, LMG did not comment or publicly release any data and asked our team members to do the same.
So.. keeping yo mouth shut is not ensuring a “fair investigation.” It’s protecting yourself.
Next, phrases like,
Claims of bullying and harassment were not substantiated.
Is not proof of anything- other than there was no proof. That’s why you hire a third party to speak for you. Instead of you saying, “I didn’t do it,” (which of course almost anyone would - true or not) the “independent” investigator can say, “I didn’t find any proof.”
The strongest language here,
Allegations that sexual harassment were ignored or not addressed were false.
..is interesting. I guess it depends on what they mean by “addressed.” If I slapped a colleague on the back and said, “That was hilarious!”, I hardly ignored it. You could even say I addressed it.
I’m not saying I believe I’ve way or the other. All I’m pointing out is this means basically nothing.
- Is not proof of anything
  You'll be waiting a while then. You can't prove a negative. If LMG says they didn't do a thing, and an investigation concluded that there was no substantial evidence that they did that thing, what more do you want?
  
  LMG says they didn’t do a thing
  Yes, please show me this language.
  And I never said I was waiting for proof, thanks. Feel free to read the whole thing.
- Yup. The weasel words are very telling (for those with eyes to see).

That changes my perspective on them a lot. Well, another lesson taken - don't jump too quickly onto conclusions.
- It's SOOOO easy to jump on the mob hate bandwagon. Especially for content creators that have so much content going back so long. People can pull all the worst bits from a decade up and draw all sorts of conclusions that seem totally plausible if you consider that information in a vacuum. Also it's just cathartic, Linus can be really annoying sometimes. His videos are everywhere. He's making tons of money. It feels GOOD to shit on him. Then when the dust clears you realize you were the one being the asshole off the basis of shakey hear-say and anonymous opinions online. Feels bad man. Those are the times in life we really have to remind ourselves of our morals and ethics and only act on what we really know. But it's hard.
  
  Thats well said. In a climate where we not only get our information dramatized we also get our reactions performed to us from media outlets as well. And it did feel good to think about the downfall. But that is because of my opinion of Linus. I learned that I just don't like his personality. That is separate from the accusations against his company and even after the dust settles and no wrongdoing was found, I still think the guy is a dick. And that is ok, but worth recognizing and separating fact from my own opinion.

I don't understand why LTT wouldn't negotiate a settlement first with the accuser in exchange for a nondisclosure and non-disparagement agreement before releasing any statement. You could view their posturing as defiance.
- that's probably what the accuser wanted and i respect the refusal
- And that's of course they actually didn't do anything and the accusations are entirely false in which case why would they settle with someone trying to just get money out of them?
  
  Because it's simpler than dealing with the courts/media
- Yes. Correct. A person made accusations and those accusations were exaggerated by cowboy journalism in part by gamer Nexus and various other YouTube channels.
  They are most definitely being definite. And if they were to agree to some kind of out of court settlement with a nondisclosure agreement it wouldn't be made public.
  
  I don't think GamersNexus covered Madison's case? I know they covered Billet Labs and the performance metrics being off though
- The problem is the repuational damage, and subsequently financial damage to the brand. A not ingsificant number of people unsubscribed and stoped watch watching their videos. More importantly sponsors could stop sponsoring them because they don't the association - just as we've seen LMG drop sponsors over the years.
  If they just settled this quietly, the assumption would be the settlement was an admittion of guilt.
  Assuming the allagations are false, the defimation suit is a legimate response - for a business model that relys on sponsors and reputation, having that damaged is a big deal financially.
  In realty, there is nothing to gain to from pursing the case - a business going after an individual is a horrible idea for PR and the individual isn't going to have the money to make up the cost anyways.

If you're one of the people in this thread insisting this does nothing to exonerate LTT, what would you accept as evidence that they're innocent? I don't follow YouTube drama much at all, I just think it's wild when people form an opinion based on on set of statements and then are never open to learning more facts about the case ever again.
- Nothing will. They want to see LTT fail because they made a few bad mistakes. These are the same people on the relationship forms who say "break up" at the slightest negative.
- I asked myself the same thing bc i read this and I'm still skeptical.
  I don't think they could present anything that would exonerate them except literal recordings proving the accuaations false. Which sucks if they're innocent, but like i said im skeptical.
  What sits wrong with me here is that one of the underlying complaints was on the basis of there being few or no other women in the workplace and it allowing for the existence of a hostile work environment. Thats not a problem that gets fixed by suing the woman speaking out on these potential issues.
  I'd start watching them again if they prove consistently that they are trying to resolve the underlying issues that were brought up. Having more female representation etc. That and time.
- Welcome to the Internet. You must be new here.
  
  Just because we're still astonished by people's stupidity doesn't mean we're not veterans of it. People/humanity still disappoint(s) me, even though I've watched them/it fail each other/itself for decades now.
- Receipts. The actual data used to come to these conclusions. I have worked with attorneys in corporate law firms in some capacity for almost 20 years and while I am not a lawyer I can confidently say they don't take these engagements to find the truth. They do it to prep for a case and to build a chain of events that show they are acting in good faith increasing their chances filing a motion to dismiss while identifying liability and building a defense. The one point they conceded regarding her claims that they lied in onboarding the attorneys are basically saying if that case gets filed there is a high chance a judge will find it has merit and move it forward. Idk of Canada court system is the same but in America thats corporate lawyer for youd probably pay a settlement or damages on this point.
  
  What if that standard were to be applied to the people making the assertions? Shouldn't the burden of proof be on the accuser, not the accused? Seems kinda backwards the way you described it, someone can just say some things about you and now you are obligated to release internal documents/chat logs/emails or whatever else to prove their assertions wrong?

Yea idk.
After having dealt with some audits (although not this exact topic), in general they followed the same format. "Assert that we do the thing we claim to be doing". So if the thing they claim to be doing is a low bar, the audit means nothing. If they dont release any evidence, or a report of what they were ascertaining it means very little IMO.
I can't remember if the employee released any evidence with her claims either though, but in general I'd prefer my odds with assuming her story is closer to the truth against a company which has had other mishaps recently, underpinned by evidence. All of which they tried to brush under the carpet.
So yeah. I'm pressing X for doubt.
- I'm pressing X for doubt.
  I see what you did there!

Could someone just give us a quick summary of what LTT is accused of?
Do we know if there is a court case about it? As this would be more interesting than just a release from the company auditing them?
Personally, I clearly don’t know so much about LTT, but I love their videos.
- Here's an overview by The Verge
  But basically it started when Gamers Nexus called out some issues LTT had with testing methodology and also an incident where LTT accidentally auctioned off another companies products that they had reviewed poorly.
  Then Linus responded pretty poorly (and ended up stepping down as CEO and is now a chief creative something or other iirc)
  Then a former employee tweeted about why she left LTT and accused LTT of having a toxic workplace environment. And specifically said she had been sexually harassed by a coworker but not taken seriously.
  There's no court case, LTT just did this to clear their name basically.
  
  Then Linus responded pretty poorly (and ended up stepping down as CEO and is now a chief creative something or other iirc)
  Linus didn't step down in response to this. I don't remember the exact timelines, but he either stepped down before this, or was in already in the process of transitioning to the new CEO when this happened.
  
  Ok thanks for the explanation.
- Here is a good writeup how it started: https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/events/gamers-nexus-vs-linus-tech-tips-billet-labs-review-controversy
  Relevant part is this:
  On August 16th, 2023, ex-LTT employee Madison Suop posted a thread on X explaining her reasons for leaving Linus Tech Tips and the kind of workplace misconduct she purportedly experienced during her time there: https://x.com/suuuoppp/status/1691693740254228741
  
  It's important to talk about the timing. This person waited until there was already drama with Linus tech tips and they're very unfavorable review of the liquid cooler they put on the wrong device. Which is a f***** up review.
  The dogpiled on, did not involve the labor board, made the accusations and then said I don't want to be involved and walk away. So the investigation is not about the water cooler review, which was the initial trigger for all the media, but about the accusations that were basically dropped drive-by-style

Assume for a moment the investigators were acting in good faith and knew what they were doing. They are still only able to find what they are given access to, and evidence that wasn't destroyed. LTT is not the most technically competent staff in the world, but I bet if those guys know how to do anything technical, covering their tracks is probably high on that list.
I'm not skeptical of the firm that was hired. I'm skeptical that LTT and gang didn't scrub everything before handing over the keys. We know LTT aren't dumb, and we know they are unethical.
I understand my argument falls into "can't prove a negative" territory. I'm going on instincts. The main dude has techbro-creep energy. Reminds me of a Blizzard executive. The whole thing stinks of a South Park apology episode to me.
I understand you can't put someone in jail over instincts. I wouldn't want that, either. That's not how the system should work.
But it's 100% OK to stop following some dumbass YouTuber because you trust your instincts.
I'd rather get my tech infotainment elsewhere. It's a big wide world out there on the internet. LTT isn't the only game in town. And honestly, they were never that great to begin with. Their methodologies are lousy.
- Fair, but you used a of words to just say...
  Guilty or not, I don't like them.

Okay, they've found themselves to have do nothing wrong and are threatening a defamation suit. Another great, "Trust me Bro." moment here.
Maybe they should focus more on doing reviews and testing methodologies that don't suck.
- What part about “third party” do you not understand?
  
  There's a million different ways "third party" can go. Sometimes they take the job seriously and have enough mandate to get it done, sometimes they don't. The latter is especially risky and problematic when they're hired by the party accused.
  The only way to ensure you get the former is to let somebody not involved in the accusations make the choice of which auditors to hire
  
  What part of "we paid these guys and they said we're fine" do you not? Why would they choose and pay and release the results from a company they didn't trust to clear them?
  I'm not saying it's rotten, but the fact that the third party was unilaterally chosen by and paid for LMG makes all the results pretty questionable.
  
  What part of I don't have any trust in that company don't you understand. I bet you're a huge fan of "third party" arbitration too.
  
  To be fair, there were lots of words to read

"We've thoroughly investigated ourselves and found we did nothing wrong"
Is anyone shocked?
e: imagine being so pathetic you get your rocks off by being a ltt boot licker. Oh wait at least 50 of you don't need to imagine that do you.
- We’ve thoroughly investigated ourselves
  but that's the point... they didn't
  
  They paid someone with incentive not to find anything, to investigate what LTT decided to share. Yeah, no, I'm not resubscribing. But I guess consultants recommended more trainings so at least there's some competition for the least surprising outcome.
- How would you suggest a firm to investigate wrongdoings other than asking a third party to do it?
  
  Release an actual report of the investigation by the third party rather than a statement.
  What claim was investigated, what proof did they find if any, what evidence did they have access to etc.
  Finding no proof of wrongdoing or proof of no wrongdoing is a big difference.
- I get it's fun to dunk on them with a meme comment, but that's literally the exact opposite of what they did.
- We’ve thoroughly investigated ourselves
  They didn't though?
  
  We paid for someone to investigate ourselves and coincidentally they found nothing?

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