Did He Go Too Far?
So, I’m sure many of you are familiar with Ben Parker, Spider-Man’s uncle, who famously said, “With great power comes great responsibility.” This all came to a head over on Twitter when a user criticized Marques Brownlee (MKBHD), one of the biggest YouTubers in tech, over his review of the Humane AI Pin.
Daniel Vaso tweeted that it was distasteful, almost unethical, for Marques to share his opinion with 18 million subscribers, saying, “With great reach comes great responsibility. Potentially killing someone else’s project reeks of carelessness. First, do no harm.” So, this AI Pin is a device you wear, clipped onto your shirt, and Marques reviewed it harshly.
I’m paraphrasing, but he basically called it hot garbage. Actually, that’s probably what he should have said instead of being a nicer human being. He just said it was the worst product he’s ever reviewed. In the video, he pointed out the pros, but ultimately found it useless and disappointing, which is no surprise considering it costs $700 plus a $20 monthly subscription. Apparently, someone on Twitter took offense, arguing that it was irresponsible and unethical for Marques to make such a strong statement, which led to a debate about the responsibility of influencers.
A critic said Marques should have been more considerate, especially since this wasn’t the first time he’d made such a bold review. A while back, Marques reviewed Fisker, an electric car maker, and didn’t hold back on all the bugs and problems he encountered. He fairly pointed out that the car’s software was buggy, incomplete, and unusable. His review caught the attention of Fisker executives and, more importantly, investors, causing the stock to plummet. Fisker didn’t directly respond, but the dealer who provided the car released a video with an engineer talking about how Marques got the car and that they were assigned to come in and fix the issues.
The whole conversation was a little shady, like, “Oh yeah, we see there are some problems and want to get some details on how Marques got the car. We just want to come and make things right, we just want to come in and fix things.” Imagine if you had an issue with your car, you would not be getting a custom service call to help make things right with only 300 followers on twitter.
Let’s not pretend influencers don’t carry weight, not just with their audience, but with companies too. People are arguing that influencers have too much power and should use it responsibly and do no harm. But what about companies? Aren’t they expected to carry that responsibility when they charge a premium for products that don’t deliver? Why is protecting a company in some way more important than protecting the consumer?
I think it’s stupid to think this way. Influencers like Marques Brownlee have platforms because of the trust they’ve built. If they started holding back or boosting things for no reason, the audience would figure it out, and their influence would vanish. As an influencer, or just as a human being, I’m reminded of a line from Scarface: “All I have in this world is my balls and my word, and I don’t break them for no one.”
Disparaging a product or slandering a service just for the sake of it isn’t right, and I’m sure the law and corporate lawyers would agree that it’s unwise to disparage a company or its products for views and clout. Slander and defamation laws exist for a reason, but releasing half-baked products is fair game for fair criticism. It’s not Marques’ fault that Fisker’s software was horrible or that its stock tanked. It’s not his fault that Humane made an AI Pin that sucks and takes twice as long to do what our phones can do. The companies and their management own that L.
Our tweeting friend here said he’s not against the review itself, but rather the title. But, to paraphrase Shakespeare, by any other name. Tech and product reviews aren’t new; they’ve just changed. We used to have Consumer Reports; now we have YouTube guys. There’s a level of trust we have with YouTube guys over corporate entities because of authenticity. I was recently looking for a new car, and I didn’t go to car magazines or big auto sites. I looked for relatable guys on YouTube and owner views on Reddit.
One of the nice things about the internet is it gave people a voice, and part of having that voice is building trust. As an influencer, you either stand for something or you stand for nothing, and your audience needs to hold you accountable. In gaming, successful game launches rely on content creators helping to advertise and boost a game, but we’ve also seen the reverse where people stop believing creators when they promote trash because of a sponsorship.
We’ve also seen what happens when creators break that trust by hyping up something that’s bad or trashing something that doesn’t deserve it. People argue that content creators have ruined spaces by pushing for things at the detriment of others. In competitive games, some argue that creators make the game focus more on competitive aspects at the cost of the casual experience, wielding their influence negatively or positively, depending on your perspective.
Influencers only have influence as long as they have trust, and that trust isn’t easy to earn, and it just takes a lapse in judgment to be seen as a shill and lose it all. So it’s hard to even be mad at that. At the end of the day, you have to be authentic, truthful, and you. Punching up is important, but don’t let the suits make you think you’re fighting the little guy when they’re just mad about their investments.
Anyway, those are my thoughts. Let me know what you think, especially if you think I’m wrong. Leave an emoji if you watched this far, hit that like button, and maybe consider subbing if you’re into these kinds of rants. Till the next one, peace!
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