"Dude is a fraud": Decoding the backlash to Linus' apology during the fallout of Gamer Nexus-Linus Tech Tips drama

The Gamer Nexus and LTT drama saw Linus Tech Tips come out with a 20-minute-long apology video featuring a number of high-ranking employees at LMG (Linus Media Group). They addressed the allegations of failing video quality and announced that they would be reviewing their content creation model following the massive backlash.

For those out of the loop, the main controversy surrounding the issue came after a scathing video from popular Tech YouTuber Gamer Nexus, who criticized Linus Tech Tips' (LTT) approach and handling of a recent hardware review.

He questioned the lack of accurate and ethical content by pointing out the flaws in a viral video titled The Problem with Linus Tech Tips: Accuracy, Ethics, & Responsibility.

Linus' written response to the criticism was unsatisfactory to many fans and only fueled the fire of criticism.

Backlash to Linus's apology to Gamer Nexus (Image via X)

---

Tracing the backlash to Linus Tech Tips' apology video: Why are people mad at LTT's response?

The whole controversy can be traced back to an incident in July when, during a studio tour, one of the employees at Linus Media Group appeared to take a shot at other Tech YouTubers, such as Hardware Unboxed and others, while boasting about how better they are at testing equipment.

Hardware Unboxed fired back on Twitter, but Gamers Nexus chose a different approach and recently released a 45-minute video pointing out flaws in the Linus Tech Tips' hardware review process. The long and short of it is that LTT has been compromising quality in favor of pumping out more videos.

While that is the main takeaway from Gamers Nexus' video, the case of the prototype from Billet Labs and how LMG allegedly auctioned off an expensive piece of prototype hardware that wasn't theirs to sell caught the attention of many viewers. This prompted the YouTuber to come out with an apology in a video titled What do we do now?

As mentioned before, the apology did not go down well with many viewers and currently has over 95K dislikes to 130K likes on YouTube. However, there were some key things that caused many to call out Linus Tech Tips, including the decision to monetize the video.

The online community called LTT out for releasing the video on Floatplane, a subscription-based platform where the Linus Media Group post their videos behind a paywall before eventually releasing them on YouTube.

On top of the early access response, many pointed out that the video, which was supposed to be an apology for their handling of content, had ads and sponsorships. Furthermore, it had a s*x joke, which was labeled highly insensitive, considering a former employee recently accused LMG of not doing anything to address s*xual harassment that she faced during her term with their staff.

Criticism of the apology video (Image via X)

Linus' partner Yvonne Ho, who is also the CFO of the Linus Media Group, has since announced that the Linus Tech Tips YouTube channel will be temporarily halting video production to address the allegations. CEO Terren Yong has also promised a new approach to reviews in the future.