Popular YouTube channel clears itself in harassment claim—but its response isn’t sitting well with fans
Linus Tech Tips, one of YouTube’s largest technology channels, posted a tweet on Wednesday evening announcing that a third-party investigation it commissioned into itself over allegations of bullying, harassment, and ignoring or not addressing claims of sexual abuse found the accusations were either false or not substantiated.
The channel, which has over 15 million followers on YouTube, said that it had hired Roper Greyell, a Vancouver employment and labor law firm, to launch the investigation after allegations last August from a former employee.
Last August Madison Reeve, who detailed her experiences working there in a since-deleted thread on X, documented what she characterized as a heavy workload in a social media role with the company, as well as sexist remarks, bullying, and harassment.
After Reeve went public with her allegations, the company announced that it would bring in a third-party investigator to look at the allegations.
According to the Linus Tech Tips post about the results of the investigation, the only allegations that were partially substantiated were those of process errors and miscommunication in onboarding. All the other allegations, it said, were “largely unfounded, misleading, and unfair.”
The investigator nevertheless recommended that the company provide further training to employees on how to raise concerns and reinforce workplace policies.
Linus Tech Tips added in its post that based on the findings of the investigation it feels it has a strong case for a defamation lawsuit against the person who made the accusations against it.
“However, our deepest wish is to simply put all of this behind us,” it wrote. “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.”
That comment about a possible defamation suit didn’t sit well with everybody.
“While I believe the investigation was thorough and have no reason to doubt that the results of the investigation are correct, I really don't think it was good optics to make any mention of a ‘very strong case’ for a defamation suit,” posted @lumi_cx on X. “Might've been better to post this on the law firm's letterhead *without the mention of defamation* rather than as a direct text post from LTT.”
Others thought mentioning a possible defamation case would chill the atmosphere for other employees to raise complaints.
“Why did there need to be a threat in this?” posted @EposVox. “How does that cultivate an environment where employees feel safe to voice future concerns?”
Still, some thought it was the right thing to do and an example of a responsible way of handling the situation.
“It also makes a ton of sense to say the last line ‘We will continue to assess if there is persistent reputational damage or further defamation’ - that’s basically saying we’re not giving up our right to sue, it’s just not the plan… that said, don’t think you can just keep defaming us and we won’t do anything about it,’” posted u/Z3ppelinDude93 on an r/LinusTechTips subreddit discussing the news. “They said exactly what they mean, and it’s totally reasonable. Take it at face and move on.”
But not everybody thought a summary of the investigation was enough to settle it, proposing that the report be released so people could judge the results of the investigation themselves.
“My personal feelings on the post: I think the publication of an actual report and/or findings would do a lot to put some weight behind this 1st party summary by [Linus] themselves,” posted denco101 on a Linus Tech Tips forum thread discussing the update. “The entire paragraph dedicated to making a threat, at the conclusion of the investigation led by a corporate law firm, hired by the company, also feels a bit out of place, in the context of a public statement aimed at appeasing the public at large, too.”
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