YouTube channel Linus Tech Tips halts production to address content errors
This week, for the first time in over a decade, the Linus Tech Tips YouTube channel will not be uploading videos.
Linus Media Group, the 120-person company that produces content for Linus Tech Tips and its associated channels like ShortCircuit and TechQuickie, is pausing production for at least a week to “focus on long-term upload changes.”
The announcement comes after fellow tech review channel Gamers Nexus posted a 44-minute long video on Aug. 14 detailing errors in Linus Tech Tips videos, from lax data reporting to factual flubs.
Linus Media Group explained the shutdown in an Aug. 16 video in which the company’s CEO, CFO, COO, CTO and the heads of its lab, business development, production, and writing divisions assured viewers that they would be correcting errors in both processes and personal judgment moving forward.
CEO Terren Tong, who took over the company for founder Linus Sebastian in July, acknowledged “recent community outcry demanding change” but did not name Gamers Nexus.
Sebastian began uploading videos to Linus Tech Tips in 2008 and remains at the company as Chief Vision Officer for Linus Media Group. The business has more than 20 million subscribers across its channels and a devout following across its associated podcasts and annual conventions.
Data errors aren’t the only issue challenging the company’s integrity. On Aug. 16, before the company announced its production pause, former Linus Media Group employee Madison Reeve posted a thread on X outlining her experience there. She detailed sexist and sexual remarks made about and to her by coworkers and a toxic work environment that did not allow for time off.
Reeve also noted that the company’s public-facing promises were not kept behind closed doors. “The things said by Linus about talking to management, and HR, and promises about how things are handled internally, were a gross misrepresentation of what actually goes on,” she wrote.
Linus Tech Group has committed to hiring a third party to look into those allegations, with Tong telling The Verge “beyond an internal review we will also be hiring an outside investigator to look into the allegations and will commit to publish the findings and implementing any corrective actions that may arise because of this.”