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[Bobby Roberts]

...turns out, it was real.

(the url itself has the phrase "fake news blows up in trolls faces" in it, which is funny)

Ben Collins of the Daily Beast writes about not just Ethan Klein's video declaring war on the Wall Street Journal for doing its job and writing about YouTube placing ads on blatantly racist videos, but on the aftermath of his being shown almost immediately to get his accusations wrong (”Seems like some simple fact checks could've gone onto it" shows up in the 3rd paragraph), and the bevy of threats lobbed at the subject of Klein's video, Jack Nicas, by fans/viewers obviously still nursing a hurt from when the WSJ wrote about PewDiePie.

Sources familiar with YouTube's ad systems at the company confirmed to The Daily Beast that ads did, in fact, run on the video. So did several users who later debunked the video and forced Klein to pull it down on Sunday.

Ads ran on the racist video in question, but due to a copyright claim, the revenue went to a rights holder of an equally racist song, called ”Alabama N—er," that was edited into the background and flagged by YouTube's copyright claim algorithm.

Still, by now, the gloves were off. The video became the top video Sunday on Reddit, accruing more than 71,100 upvotes. The top comment: ”I hope Google takes WSJ to court." The one underneath it: ”Youtube has a very real case to sue for billions in lost income here if this is shown to be defamation."

Then one with 267 upvotes by the user DrapeRape: ”If WSJ is literally sued for fake news I'm going to be so happy."

Despite ”No witch-hunting" and ”No personal information" rules on the community's subreddit, the post remains live on Reddit. Nicas, whose face and Twitter account appear repeatedly on Klein's video, was inundated with threats.

”You are literally about to die because of H3H3 new video," wrote one Twitter user. ”Better stop this shit man."

”Die with @WSJ so we are happy again," wrote another.

The Beast pointed out that of the "new media" members coming to Klein's defense, two of the more prominent are Mike Cernovich and Paul Joseph Watson.

”Whoa! WSJ was caught photoshopping ads onto offensive videos to attack YouTube, but it's fake. ALL FAKE!" tweeted Mike Cernovich on Sunday. Cernovich spent Monday claiming he helped identify Susan Rice as an Obama administration official who requested intel ”unmasking" of Trump officials, a talking point that was repeated by President Trump's Twitter account Monday morning. His tweet about The Wall Street Journal has not been deleted or retracted.

InfoWars editor Paul Joseph Watson went on a tweetstorm Sunday night, tagging Nicas's Twitter account and asking for his response to the claim that ”you are faking screenshots to pressure advertisers on YouTube."

Gamergate was less than five years ago, by the way. I'm seeing a lot of the same mistakes being made and repeated here. If you're holding a position, and your position is being spotlighted and signal boosted by people like Cernovich and Watson, chances are you're holding a pretty terrible position. Not to say that the Wall Street Journal is a spotless organization, and its editorial bent is often conservative (and myopically so in some cases), but Mike Cernovich is the same guy who tweeted this

Anyway, there's been no response from Klein as of yet.

Klein's video explaining why he took down his initial video accrued about 25,000 upvotes—or about one-third of the amount received by the original post. Klein's initial tweet garnered over 19,000 retweets. His retraction received only 700.
Klein did not respond to a request for comment on this story.

 

[Wanda/Wander]

Gamergate was a crossroad and we went the wrong direction.

 

[BY2K]

Congratulations, Ethan.

You painted an even worse picture of YouTube and its community than it already had.

You fucked up.

 

[Gentleman Jack]

Ethan fucked up at least twice, even. Once by posting his stupid 'proof' and again in his non-apology where he leaves the door open to the idea that the WSJ is fabricating evidence. This isn't a case that he should know better anymore, it's that he's a coward and refuses to humble himself to keep his audience from going berserk like he knows they will.

 

[capitalCORN]

Oh God, the neo nazis calling others nazis...

 

[B-Dubs]

Gamergate was a crossroad and we went the wrong direction.

Youtube is going to result in a Gamergate 2.0. You can already see the seeds of it being sown, it's a powder-keg waiting to blow.

 

[Skellig Gra]

Man that Trayvon tweet. What the fuck.

 

[Glix]

Holy shit that tweet makes me fucking boil with rage.

How dare he. Thats a fucking dead kid, who was murdered in cold blood, that you are fucking talking about. Have some fucking respect.

 

[unpopularblargh]

Man that Trayvon tweet. What the fuck.

Mike Cernovich is an ass and one of the originators of the pizzagate conspiracy B.S.

 

[Skellig Gra]

Mike Cernovich is an ass and one of the originators of the pizzagate conspiracy B.S.

Pizzagate is one thing. I get the whole tin foil hat angle. Some people are crazy. But just spitting on some poor kids grave is beyond fucked.

 

[jack_package_200]

Man that Trayvon tweet. What the fuck.

Conservative "icons" tend to be absolute scum.

 

[Lambtron]

Cernovich is a massive piece of shit. I'd love for Twitter to ban him next.

 

[TheLostBigBoss]

How do you guys keep up with this insanity

 

[Jotaka]

I like it. Accountability is great

 

[Creamium]

How does this guy still have a Twitter account? This is beyond vile and disgusting, piece of human garbage

 

[VeeP]

Gamergate was a crossroad and we went the wrong direction.

Good news is, we came a long way. Bad news is, we went the wrong way.

How does this guy still have a Twitter account? This is beyond vile and disgusting

One day, something bad is gonna happen to him. And then someone's gonna post about it on GAF. One that happen's most of us will probably laugh. But there's gonna be a few people saying, "Wow, the lack of empathy in this thread is disturbing" "Wow, laughing at this guy's suffering? That's how we got into this mess"

 

[L Thammy]

So this is a legitimate instance of someone working themselves into a shoot, right?

 

[BatDan]

Oh God, the neo nazis calling others nazis...

Did you confuse The Daily Beast with The Daily Stormer?

 

[Frozenprince]

So this is a legitimate instance of someone working themselves into a shoot, right?

Indeed it is

 

[Anung]

Ethan should feel pretty ashamed of himself right but doubt he will and I reckon we won't hear from him for a little while until this blows over.

 

[TemplaerDude]

How do you guys keep up with this insanity

I don't even know what really happened. Wrestlemania was Sunday so when I parked my ass on the couch, H3H3 was still some internet darling. Now apparently he's an asshole. I'm really confused.

 

[ErichWK]

Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck Watson. This is the same chud who made this video


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyS3Ghevf2I

 

[LegendofJoe]

Create controversy and profit. And we all fall for it hook, line, and sinker.

 

[L Thammy]

Also

"Then one with 267 upvotes by the user DrapeRape: “If WSJ is literally sued for fake news I’m going to be so happy.”

I'm shocked that someone with that username is taking that side.

 

[capitalCORN]

Did you confuse The Daily Beast with The Daily Stormer?

This quote from the article:

Still, on Twitter, some users didn’t get the message.

“I'm not sure what's worse, you being aware of what you're doing or you being unaware,” one user wrote to Nicas’ account late Monday night. “Either way, you're not far from Goebbels.”

 

[BatDan]

This quote from the article:

Ah, that's messed up (as per usual)

 

[Slayven]

Youtube is going to result in a Gamergate 2.0. You can already see the seeds of it being sown, it's a powder-keg waiting to blow.

Hopefully with the money now talking, they can head this off.

 

[fastmower]

Shame on Ethan and also those loser conservative scumfucks.

 

[bangbang i'm a timpani]

can somebody bulletpoint this or something its like a freaking christopher nolan movie. who is the ahole here?

 

[Gordon Shumway]

Man that Trayvon tweet. What the fuck.

May he choke on a steak..

 

[Bobby Roberts]

can somebody bulletpoint this or something its like a freaking christopher nolan movie. who is the ahole here?

I'm unsure how there's confusion about this. The article itself spells the shit out pretty cleanly even if you believe the OP doesn't.

 

[collige]

I don't even know what really happened. Wrestlemania was Sunday so when I parked my ass on the couch, H3H3 was still some internet darling. Now apparently he's an asshole. I'm really confused.

The TL;DR was that Ethan got a "hot tip" from a dude that makes racist videos that a writer at WSJ photoshopped screenshots, made a video accusing WSJ of fake news without fact checking anything, then realized he was totally wrong and took the video down while writing your typical Youtube half-assed non-apology.

 

[Skellig Gra]

can somebody bulletpoint this or something its like a freaking christopher nolan movie. who is the ahole here?

Right now its you for not reading the OP.

 

[B-Dubs]

Hopefully with the money now talking, they can head this off.

Considering the response to the false claims this weekend (the harassment campaign) the time for that may have long passed.

The TL;DR was that Ethan got a "hot tip" from a dude that makes racist videos that a writer at WSJ photoshopped screenshots, made a video accusing them of fake news, then realized he was totally wrong and took the video down while writing your typical Youtube half-assed non-apology.

You're leaving out the harassment he kicked off against the journalist in question.

 

[The Lamonster]

Ethan pls stick to reaction videos.

 

[rekameohs]

YouTube community is pure junk

 

[What did he mean by this?]

Delete your account, Ethan

 

[Lovely Salsa]

Why is pewdiepie in the same pic as pepe? He's not alt right lol

 

[UCBooties]

Gamergate was a crossroad and we went the wrong direction.

GamerGate and Sad Puppies were the first overt signs that geek culture was not as inclusive as we liked to tell ourselves and they were bellwethers of the larger cultural shift. (Note: This is not claiming that people weren't calling shit out prior to GG, just that GG was the point where the movement coalesced and metastasized) Once those collective boils burst into a full blown movement the mainstreaming of the alt-right was pretty much inevitable.

 

[HStallion]

Why is pewdiepie in the same pic as pepe? He's not alt right lol

He himself isn't alt right but he didn't really seem to mind when they came out in droves to fight the SJW's and cucks in his name.

 

[SmackAttack]

How do you guys keep up with this insanity

For real. This whole thing has flown right by me.

 

[BY2K]

Who's Tayvon Martin?

 

[Mass Effect]

How do you guys keep up with this insanity

Seriouusly. When did Youtube become this bastion of bullshit and drama?

Who's Tayvon Martin?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trayvon_Martin

 

[Slayven]

Considering the response to the false claims this weekend (the harassment campaign) the time for that may have long passed.



You're leaving out the harassment he kicked off against the journalist in question.

Will they still do this foolishness for free?

 

[NateDrake]

Who's Tayvon Martin?

Murder victim of George Zimmerman.

 

[Tom Nook Sawyer]

Seriouusly. When did Youtube become this bastion of bullshit and drama?

It hasn't? The idiots we read don't even represent a fraction of a single percent of YouTube channels.

It's like any other largely unmoderated forum (Reddit, etc); if people can speak freely, they will, and the biggest idiots are ones who make the most noise

 

[Jotaka]

Seriouusly. When did Youtube become this bastion of bullshit and drama?

When money start flowing to youtubers

drama = views = ads = $$$

 

[BY2K]

Murder victim of George Zimmerman.

wait

so

... *check tweet again*

Oh my fucking God...

 

[Dude Abides]

Why is pewdiepie in the same pic as pepe? He's not alt right lol

Maybe not, but both Felix and people with Pepe avatars like to make edgy jokes about Jews.

 

[Tain]

The Beast pointed out that of the "new media" members coming to Klein's defense, two of the more prominent are Mike Cernovich and Paul Joseph Watson.

imagine my shock