Linus Tech Tips demonetizes apology video following community backlash

Linus Tech Tips has demonetized its latest video, which addresses the ethical concerns brought to light by Gamers Nexus earlier in the week.

Linus Tech Tips has halted all video production. The YouTube giant has paused production to improve internal workflows and processes. This comes after Gamers Nexus released a video, highlighting several issues with Linus Tech Tips’ reporting.

Following a hastily written rebuttal on their forums, which was met with significant backlash from Gamers Nexus and the Linus Tech Tips community, a 20-minute apology video was published on August 16. In its original form, the video contained a leak of the Billet Labs monoblock water cooler, in addition to being monetized. The video’s description was also filled with various links to their store, and other affiliate links.

Now, these have since been removed, Linus Tech Tips has demonetized the video and changed the video description.

In a statement made by Linus Media Group CEO Terren Tong to Dexerto, he said: “We didn’t include a sponsor for the video and we heard the feedback from our community and from our team internally and AdSense monetization has been turned off for this video.”

“The fun isn’t going away” LMG CEO states

Youtube: LinusTechTips

But, monetization is not the only thing that the community was disappointed with within the video. Several parts of the video also included running jokes, such as sponsor throws or asking viewers to check the Linus Tech Tips store. This wasn’t received well by the community, with one popular post creating a compilation video of all of the perceived “blunders”.

“Even when our content is serious, we have elements of fun in it.” Tong states. “This has always been our style and we wanted to send a message to our community that just because the suits are talking about workflows and processes, the fun isn’t going away.” The LMG CEO continues.

This is the first time in the company’s history that they are pausing video production, which Tong also addresses: “Jokes aside – we have a decade-long unbroken streak of daily videos. To pull back this dramatically I think shows how seriously we’re taking [the] community’s feedback.”

It’s possible that Linus Media Group will lose out on thousands in ad revenue, sponsored placements, and more.

While the seas might finally seem calm for the video production side of Linus Media Group, the company is also reckoning with ex-employee Madison Reeve alleging harassment, sexism, and bullying during the tenure of their employment at LMG.