Topline
Linus Tech Tips—a technology product review YouTube channel with more than 15 million subscribers—said Wednesday night an investigation into allegations of bullying and sexual harassment made by a former employee last August were “not substantiated,” almost a year after allegations of factual inaccuracies and workplace complaints caused the popular channel to suspend new content for about two weeks.
Linus Tech Tips is known for technology product reviews and other gaming and computer-focused … [+]
Key Facts
Linus Tech Tips said on X it hired Roper Greyell, a large Vancouver law firm specializing in employment law, to conduct a third-party investigation into a series of allegations made by a former employee last year that she was sexually harassed in the workplace.
Allegations of sexual harassment, bullying, abuse of power and retaliation were “not substantiated,” the company said on X, adding allegations it ignored reports of sexual harassment were found to be false (the company did not release material from the law firm itself).
The company said allegations of process errors and miscommunication while onboarding the employee who made the allegations were “partially substantiated,” though it said the investigator found evidence of the company “working to rectify the errors.”
Linus Tech Tips said it would “provide further training to our team about how to raise concerns” and added it feels it has a “very strong” case for a defamation lawsuit, but declined to pursue legal action to “simply put all of this behind us.”
Former Linus Tech Tips social media manager Madison Reeve alleged in a tweet thread on Aug. 16 she was “inappropriately grabbed multiple times in the office,” had coworkers make sexual and demeaning comments toward her and had her mental health suffer to the point that she hurt herself to avoid going to work.
Linus Tech Tips CEO Terren Tong told PC Gamer he was “in a state of shock” after reading Reeve’s thread and pledged human resources and an outside investigator would conduct a review of the allegations.
The company had posted a statement on X (formerly known as Twitter) stating it was “taking Madison’s allegations seriously” and urging employees with similar experiences to come forward.
Forbes reached out to Reeve for comment.
Tangent
Linus Tech Tips also attracted controversy in August when Gamers Nexus, another technology review channel with 2.2 million subscribers, posted a video that has garnered 5.9 million views alleging inaccuracies in graphics processing unit and central processing unit review videos—some of which Linus Tech Tips has admitted to—as well as employee testimonials that Linus Tech Tips rushes content and prioritizes quantity over quality. Gamers Nexus’ Steve Burke alleged Linus Tech Tips failed its “responsibility to do due diligence on a product,” citing a water cooling block that the channel ostensibly tested using an incompatible GPU and then concluded is a “bad product”—a move Burke argued could harm manufacturer Billet Labs, a small company. In a written response, former Linus Tech Tips CEO Linus Sebastian stated the company has experienced “growing pains” and will focus on strengthening the quality of its work, but defended his decision not to re-test the Billet Labs product with a compatible GPU, claiming it would not have made a difference since the product would still be an “egregious waste of money”—a response Burke called “unhinged” and “unapologetic.” In a 20-minute video uploaded days later, which has 5.5 million views, Sebastian apologized for not retesting the product and for his written response, and the company pledged to pause YouTube uploads for one week and to reduce the amount of content created to improve quality and accuracy.
Key Background
Linus Tech Tips has uploaded more than 6,500 technology-focused videos to YouTube since November 2008. In addition to product reviews, many of the channel’s most popular videos include building computers and tips for gaming and technology use. The company was led by Sebastian, who founded the channel, until he stepped down as CEO in July 2023 to become the company’s chief vision officer. Tong took over as CEO last month.
Surprising Fact
In the August 14 Gamers Nexus video, Burke criticized Linus Tech Tips for auctioning off the Billet Labs water cooling block instead of returning it to the company as he claims it had promised to do. In his written response, Sebastian said the product was auctioned off because of a “miscommunication” and that the company had already pledged to compensate Billet Labs for the cost. But in Burke’s video Tuesday, he says Billet Labs told him Sebastian had not previously promised to reimburse the company for the product and that the company had not heard from Sebastian until after Burke had posted his August 14 video.
Chief Critics
Some social media users and Linus Tech Tips fans criticized the company for inserting jokes into and monetizing its apology video, which allows creators to profit from views through ads or donations from viewers. The company said it turned off monetization for the video following the backlash. Some fans voiced their anger over the controversy in the Linus Tech Tips subreddit, which has 316,000 members. One post, which demands a firmer “sorry” from the company, has been upvoted nearly 2,000 times. Another meme on Reddit mocking the company for including humor in its apology video, which states it cost the company “any remaining respect we had,” was upvoted more than 15,000 times.
Crucial Quote
“These allegations do not align with our company’s ethics or the values we preach internally. We aim to provide an inclusive work environment where everyone can feel comfortable and, more importantly, safe,” Linus Tech Tips said in a statement on X in response to Reeve’s allegations on Wednesday.
Big Number
7,795,034,731. That’s how many views Linus Tech Tips has across all of its YouTube videos. Linus Media Group’s Yvonne Ho said prior to the YouTube content pause, the channel had not missed a daily video upload in 12 years.
Further Reading
Linus Tech Tips pauses production as controversy swirls (The Verge)
What’s happening with Linus Tech Tips and why has it halted production? (NME)
