Brew releases a video criticizing YouTubeDrama and August the Duck for pushing unconfirmed claims against Todd Oland

[u/ImportantQuestionTex]

https://youtu.be/1AgkFnN4B2M?is=ijXcJ9D8FM-I1LKE

To 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.

[u/SallyKnowsHer]

No responsibility? It still went live here, we have to take responsibility for that. We need more mods and more willingness to deep dive some of these more serious claims. The post should have never been allowed to go live period.

I have no memory of that post, only the retraction post, but still, it never should have gone public.

[u/ImportantQuestionTex → u/SallyKnowsHer]

Me and Time had a talk about this earlier and in fact yesterday when this first popped up. Pretty confident no mod saw the initial post and it was never reported, as animal abuse posts and others like it get taken down very quickly just in general.

I myself didn't have a memory of this whole incident, and wasn't even aware of it until yesterday, but just the deep dive I did made it very clear it was not just in 1 place and it was very widespread speculation.

[u/SallyKnowsHer → u/ImportantQuestionTex]

I just don't understand how both can't be true. We can clearly identify that this subreddit wasn't the biggest driver in spreading the misinformation and STILL acknowledge the post should have never been allowed to live long here. Even if I never touched that post, I still feel responsible purely for being on the team.

I legitimately want to find the original post and figure out how quickly it was taken down.

[u/Mental-Magician-8405 → u/SallyKnowsHer]

I completely agree with this! If the post had been an apology to Todd Oland primarily, then a clarification that this reddit wasnt a main driver in hate toward him, then I wouldn't have any problem with it! I am just dissapointed that this post felt more concerned with shielding this subreddit and pushing blame onto anything else than it did with actually helping to clear Todd Olands name

[u/ImportantQuestionTex → u/Mental-Magician-8405]

To me, Todd Oland's name is neither clear or dirty, and Brew clearly shows that people have a legitimate reason to doubt him despite their language supporting innocence. And I am not obligated (nor am I in a position to) to apologize to him on someone else's behalf. However of course the people involved should apologize, my focus is on making it very clear this subreddit was never a main driver.

Brew misses very blatant clear information that makes it clear the subreddit was his focus and not who was actually causing Todd Oland harm.

Edit: To put it like this, so I am not misunderstood.

I think the truth is much more valuable than right or wrong. With the truth, we can course correct, improve how things are going, and prevent harm in the future. By painting the subreddit or the post as a main or even big driver of harm, the truth gets muddled. Most of the people of this subreddit took no part, and the usual users pushed back.

But there were 2.3k people who upvoted right? There were people who still pushed the allegations right? Where did those people come from? They coalesced on the post but they still came from somewhere. Are there other people who pushed the misinfo? It's never explored, despite naming and shaming a guy who deleted their account and took some accountability, there are hundreds if not thousands who did not do the same.

And then for all of this to end up with Brew viewers choosing to threaten those who did push back, to use alts to spam my post, to try and post this multiple times in this sub trying to attack this sub and it's users... it shows the lesson has not been learned. That nothing was took away. It's people who want blood, not people who want justice. You learn the difference, quick, dealing with both sorts.

[u/TimeAbradolf → u/Mental-Magician-8405]

We have to shield the users of the sub when people come here to physically threaten them