Linus Tech Tips is pausing production as the controversy continues

Linus Sebastian’s YouTube empire Linus Media Group is currently in crisis, with accusations of theft, breaches of morality, and most recently, allegations of sexual harassment. The company is currently halting all production to improve auditing, says CEO Terren Tong the edge An external investigator will be appointed to examine allegations of harassment.

In a video posted this morning titled “What do we do now?” Linus Media Group CFO Yvonne Ho announce The entire channel is pausing production for the next week to address the issues it has raised Gamers Nexus YouTube channel About errors in the videos and related to ethical practices. In the video, Hu said: “I agree with the community, so I put my foot down. Effective immediately, all YouTube video productions are paused.”

The controversy began earlier this week, when Gamers Nexus posted a video demonstrating a number of factual errors and ethical concerns in recent Linus Tech Tips videos. Gamers Nexus host Steve Burke said, “We’ve seen an alarming amount of inconsistencies from Linus Tech Tips as it relates to the company’s connections, its money flow, and potential bias as a result of these things.”

Burke’s biggest concern was a GPU cooler made by Billet Labs. According to Gamers Nexus, Linus Tech Tips sold a copper cooling block from Billet Labs on a faulty GPU, then auctioned it off at a new fan event without the company’s permission.

This afternoon after Gamers Nexus posted their video, Sebastian has begun responding to concerned fans on the Linus Tech Tips forums. “We use this, like anything else, to keep pushing ourselves to do better,” said in one post. He also said that the refrigeration unit auction was an accident due to a misunderstanding and that the company is working with Billet Labs to resolve the issue.

The situation escalated on August 14 when Gamers Nexus posted the video In response to Sebastian’s comments on the forum, with a segment titled “Linus Tech Tips’ response is disappointing rubbish”. Meanwhile, fans have been expressing their frustration and anger on the Linus Tech Tips forums and subreddit, with Some fans are calling for a public apology to Billet.

led to Linus Tech Tips is posting this video this morning which features Sebastian and other Linus Media Group employees outlining their plans to address concerns raised by Gamers Nexus – including halting production for one week to focus on improving documentation and testing-related processes. “I’ve been a corporate boss for every wrong that our community has rightly brought to our attention,” Sebastian said in the video.

Linus Tech Tips posted their most recent video at around 7 AM ET. However, almost last night, at approximately 2 a.m. ET, a former employee, Madison Reeve, posted a thread on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, accusing Linus Media Group of cultivating a toxic work environment and encouraging a work culture that is detrimental to health as well as Sexual harassment directed at her by Linus Media Group employees.

“I chose to leave my role at LTT because, and the work environment I was facing, it was destroying my mental health,” Her statement begins. “My job was called ‘tacky,’ it was called ‘incompetent.’ When I was reaching out to managers and trying to get help in these situations, I was told to ‘push on my big pants’ and be more assertive.”

Reeve went on to accuse the company of blocking her from watching the videos after she reported that she “got grabbed a few times in the office” and is said to “Calm my tits” and “Stop being such a bitch.”

“It felt like a terrible teen drama,” She said.

We reached out to Sebastian about these latest accusations, and he responded via email, saying:

I was in shock when I read these claims plain and simple. It doesn’t match up with my memories. It does not align with our internal processes. It does not align with our company values.

We pride ourselves on maintaining a safe and inclusive environment. In addition to our existing reporting systems (anonymous and otherwise), we proactively reached out internally today to encourage our team members to report any bullying or harassment they may experience in the workplace so that we can take swift and decisive action.

Our HR team will conduct a more thorough assessment of the allegations and, when ready, will issue a more complete statement. For now, I request that we allow our team the time they need to be as inclusive as possible.

Linus Media Group CEO Terren Tong also responded via email, saying he was “shocked by the allegations and described by the company” in Reeve’s posts. He continued, “As part of this process, apart from the internal review, we will also appoint an external investigator to look into the allegations and will be committed to publishing the findings and implementing any corrective actions that may arise because of this.”