"All the horrible things Honey did" - Marques Brownlee urges netizens to uninstall browser extension following alleged scam

Tech-YouTuber Marques Brownlee, aka "MKBHD," posted a 10-minute video on the recent Honey browser extension controversy. Earlier, YouTuber MegaLag posted an investigative video, alleging that the extension replaces creators' affiliate codes with its own — meaning that Honey gets the commission instead of the creator (affiliated).

On January 1, 2025, Brownlee spoke about the situation. Being one of the creators who the brand sponsored, he explained that they were quite easy to use. According to him, this led to many YouTubers being affiliated with Honey:

"I'm about to talk about all the horrible things Honey did in a second, but if you want to give them credit for anything, it's that they were very YouTube-forward."

Elaborating on MegaLag's research, Brownlee alleged:

"So if you went on to click on the link in the video, and click a creator's referral code, no matter what if you click "apply Honey" at check out, they would remove the creator's affiliate code and replace it with their own."

---

Marques Brownlee talks about another alleged issue with Honey

Honey is currently facing significant backlash after MegaLag released an investigative video accusing the extension of allegedly scamming creators out of their commissions. On top of this, Marques Brownlee highlighted a second supposed issue related to the platform.

Marques Brownlee explained that Honey's presence directly affects online retailers negatively by reducing their profit margins through its coupon application:

"If you are an online retailer, you actually don't like Honey, right? This is a web browser extension that people have and every time they buy something from your site, it goes through and makes sure they apply the coupon codes, which takes away from your bottom line and makes sure you make less money."

Brownlee also alleged that Honey partners up with retailers to choose which coupon codes appear in the database, leading to the controversy that the platform prioritizes lesser discounts to benefit from higher commission rates:

"So that means if there's a 20% coupon code and a 3% coupon code, you're definitely going to make sure only the 3% coupon code shows up for Honey users."

---

In other news, a resurfaced video of YouTuber Mark "Markiplier" expressing doubts about Honey and questioning the source of the discounts it provides has also gone viral.