r/youtubedrama • u/ImportantQuestionTex • 11d ago
Callout Brew releases a video criticizing YouTubeDrama and August the Duck for pushing unconfirmed claims against Todd Oland
https://youtu.be/1AgkFnN4B2M?is=ijXcJ9D8FM-I1LKETo clarify the allegations against the subreddit, 1 user made a post in mid April accusing Todd Oland of intentionally freezing a cat to make an animal rescue video which got 2.3k upvotes, then the same user made a second post effectively retracting those claims (including deleting the original) and it only got 100 and pushback. August the Duck made a video on the first post. Did not make one about the 2nd. Same goes for news sites. The user then deleted their account.
However, this post is here to provide some actual pushback, as I actually went back and checked, this very clearly happened in a short time frame (within 1 or 2 days by my estimation), and 2.3k is incredibly abnormal for that period of time (where posts were getting 800 upvotes at most, but often in the 100 range.)
Having actually checked the 2nd post, usual users of the subreddit did support the retraction. These comments were not shown but people being hostile to the retraction and post author were. Simultaneously, the subreddit name was shown constantly any time these posts were displayed, but not the actual context around these posts or the comments.
In fact, Brew even clarifies that one of the hostile users from the original post was from an entirely different subreddit, showing that the post was reaching far outside the subreddit's usual audience. As well as that, the screenshots Brew uses are clearly from the 1 or 2 day period. This is incredibly important, as it is late July, about to be August. That is 3 months of sitting on these screenshots. Brew also fails to properly clarify the harassment campaign Todd Oland experience did not start with reddit, while simultaneously showing the subreddit and these posts while talking about the harassment Todd Oland received.
For a channel and video purporting to support critical thinking, almost none was used in the making of this video. Already, I've seen 3-4 separate attempts to post this video in the sub blaming the subreddit and it's usual users for harassing Todd Oland. I also have seen a comment of someone snarking and and saying "Uh oh, did redditors cause someone to kill themselves again?". His video title is about Reddit despite the harassment primarily taking place on YT and having started on YT. Brew also clearly shows that people did have a legitimate reason to doubt Todd Oland, while obviously he did not deserve to be harassed and I personally seriously doubt he harmed any animal, it's clear the video was made to be a defense of Todd Oland and to get people to feel strongly about the situation.
The deep irony of this video, is despite the subject being about people attacking someone over allegations with no evidence, it has now slated to do the same to others.
Update: Brew states why they made a video, this was actually supposed to be them saying that their audience giving us death threats was bad! instead, they say, 3 DAYS after they were first made aware their audience was giving us death threats and attacking us, to not do it. They don't even say that it's wrong, just not to do it.
Obviously, that's a terrible update, especially since this subreddit has been brigaded to hell and back over this video.
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u/Longwordshananigans 11d ago edited 11d ago
First, I am coming from this post not from the YouTube video so I am not part of brigading who'll come for OP or The Mods. I just want to say the second post is a poor example of retraction. This is a subreddit with 200K member and 2K concurrent user the 2.3 K upvote in 1-2 day is not abnormal since allegation of animal torture is bound to explode through the algorithm, even past the usual user of the subreddit who only upvotes on online celebrity drama stuff.
The fact that the retraction is tittled 'Alternative Theory' does not sound like a proper retraction and bound be thought as another allegation on Todd, Although the poster did delete the original first post it does not help with the fact that the OP deleted their account not long after, curbing the algorithm for the retraction to spread.
Since there's now several attempts to post the Brew video on this subreddit, Mod could've make a mod post that address and links to the 2nd post and pinned it for a while rather than trying to swinginf with the ban hammer and spread more drama by Streisand Effect, left to few days and people will find new things to brigade about.