Oh, since we lost spoke, everyone is turning on each other on X right now after they released a new feature showing the real location an account [music] is based in. Germany announced plans to build the strongest army in Europe again. Oh, no. Two men from Texas were caught literally trying to raise an army and invade an island in Haiti. [music] Mark Zuckerberg's Meta is facing some of the most serious allegations they've ever faced and is Mr. Beast jealous of streamers? All of that and so much more. Keep Alex in your thoughts and prayers. This is the reason the Tuesday video [music] is late. Go look at the community post if you want more context, but let's stop the yapping AND LET'S GO. >> [music] >> OKAY, WE GOT TO START TODAY WITH this because Mark Zuckerberg could be in big trouble. You see, Meta has just been slammed with a range of very serious allegations, including things like being aware of millions of adults communicating with minors on Instagram and Facebook, but Zuck and the squad didn't intervene because it would harm engagement. If I let me just tell you before we run through them, these are probably some of the worst allegations that the company has faced to date and it really shows you just how dark some of these social companies can be. Even Elon Musk commented on the actual Times article about this whole topic saying, "Terrible." Now, to be clear, these are still just allegations and they're according to massive multi-district litigation, which is basically a collection of a bunch of lawsuits. In fact, the total is around 1,700 lawsuits against Meta from various plaintiffs. Allegation one, Meta did not protect children knowing the dangers. So, the lawsuit alleges that in 2019 company researchers recommended that they make all Instagram teen accounts private by default in order to prevent adults from messaging minors. However, Meta reportedly rejected this because it would quote, "Harm engagement and lead to a loss of around 1.5 million monthly users on IG." Now, instead, the inappropriate interactions between kids and adults on Instagram reportedly skyrocketed 38 times than that on Facebook Messenger. And the situation was only exacerbated when Reels was introduced because that obviously boosted people's reach massively, including teenagers. According to the documents, Meta only made teen accounts private years later when a lot of the damage had already been done. Allegation two, Meta were far too lenient on accounts linked to sex trafficking and other serious crimes. In fact, listen to this, Instagram's former head of safety and well-being testified that when she joined Meta in 2020, she was shocked to learn that the company had a 17-time strike policy for accounts that reportedly engaged in the trafficking of humans for sex. 17 times you can get a strike. Allegation three, internal research at Meta, meaning done by them, indicated that heavy social media use is linked to higher levels of depression, anxiety, stress, loneliness, but they alleged that the company deliberately covered this up and misled the public and Congress on the true consequences of social media. To Meta's disappointment, the internal documents stated, "People who stopped using Facebook for a week reported lower feelings of depression, anxiety, loneliness, and social comparison." In fact, Meta reportedly even shut down on more internal research into this issue because of the results they were getting. They said, "We We We don't even want to know." Allegation four and beyond because there are so many allegations that I'll be Alex's age by the time I finish covering the allegations. Careful now, girl. I enjoy you, but be careful. Meta are also accused of deliberately designing their platforms to be addictive similar to tobacco or gambling companies as well as reintroducing features which impacted body image like beauty filters, again, because it impacted engagement. It also said that they deliberately targeted children in getting them hooked on these apps. It says that they delayed and blocked safety features and even failing to remove self-harm content. Now, defense for Zuck because we must defend everyone. Now, Meta have responded to this by saying that the lawsuits have cherry-picked quotes from their company's documents and that they do not fairly represent their approach to these issues. However, these documents that have been cherry-picked apparently, they're not public, so we can't say whether that's true or false yet. But, let me know what you guys think about this situation. Were you shocked to find out some of these sort of things or did your jaw remain firmly in place? Moving on. Okay, this next one might be one of the wildest stories of 2025. Two Texas men have been arrested for planning to invade a Haiti island, wipe out all of the men and enslave the women to do stuff which I can't even say on here, but I think you get the point. Everything you're about to hear is 100% serious. And let me tell you, this wasn't just, you know, maybe something that these two guys were discussing on a Discord chat. They were actively preparing to carry this out. In fact, they even tried to recruit homeless men in Washington for their army. You see, over the past year, 20 and 21-year-old Gavin and Tanner, they enrolled for military and firearm training. They planned to learn how to sail. They took classes in the local language of the island that they were trying to take over and even intended to purchase an arsenal of weapons and ammunition. Guys, but that's not even the craziest part because the island that they were planning to take over of Gonave has a population of 87,000 people. That is why, okay, the the court documents revealed that the pair intended to recruit more people online because it's two versus 87,000 at this point. And when that, you know, delivered mixed results, they also tried to recruit homeless people in Washington for their army. They then planned to put all of those people that they recruited on a boat, sail over to the island for a surprise attack. Why did they think this would work? Now, not only was there 13 months of planning this whole thing, I don't even What would you call it? A thing? Not only was it discovered by authorities, but they now face a maximum of life in prison because they were indicted on a whole long list of charges, including conspiracy to murder, mayhem, or kidnap persons to any foreign country. I don't think that that's The word is mayhem, to be honest with you. I don't m a i m e mayhem? And on top of all of that, the two guys from Texas are also accused of the production of child, you know what. So, yeah, these guys are cooked. What's going on in Texas? Moving on. Okay, also this week, one of the scariest things on social media was just revealed on X. You see, over the past couple of days, X has been rolling out this new account location feature. And they say this is essentially to help viewers make more informed decisions about the content that these accounts are posting. But, the shocking part is, I don't think many people could have expected this, but dozens of accounts with hundreds [snorts] of thousands of followers posting about American politics were not based in America. Let me check this out. Magascope, Nigeria. America First, Bangladesh. Eric Trump Fan, Eastern Europe. Baron Trump News, also Eastern Europe. Cautious Philosopher who constantly talks about American politics, including tweets like, "In the American Civil War, Confederates were the good guys." Account based in Serbia. And the problem is not talking about American politics if you're not from America, that's what international news is. It's the posting of extreme political opinions while appearing to be American. And it's not just American politics, by the way. There were many accounts that were not located in the country that you would assume based on the nature of their content. And in saying whether this is true or not true, X does note that the location may not be accurate. And a good example for it not being accurate is a Gaza-based journalist and he was called out for his location being in Poland, which would be very awkward if he's, you know, trying to pretend being Gaza, but he's actually not. But, he responded this by literally posting a video of him in Gaza saying, "Is this what Poland looks like?" So, very clearly, this feature is not always to be trusted. There could be some problems with it. But, it does raise a serious question. How much of America's, but also other countries' extreme political opinions online actually come from the people in that country? I mean, the United Nations, their 2024 global risk report not only ranked miss- and disinformation, disinformation being the deliberate spreading of information like, you know, to separate the people, divide them, gaslight them. They not only ranked it as a top global threat, but also the one that countries feel the least prepared to address. And it's true because how do you fix or address the problem of it being so profitable to post stuff that divides another country without having to necessarily deal with the consequences of that division. And no, this doesn't only affect the United States, but for all of the accounts, you know, looking for something to post that's going to get traction and earn them views, therefore money, I mean, I'm sure you heard, "America is the whole world's favorite TV show." No one really pays attention to politics like they do America politics. I work in news, I know. So, as long as anonymous accounts on the internet can make money by gaslighting, which unfortunately just does better for views for a lot of these accounts than regular impartial news, while also appearing to be from that country like American, English, German, etc., then the situation only gets worse. Um Don't know how to address that. It It's a rough one. Because you crack down on this and then you've got a whole bunch of privacy problems as well. But yeah, let me know what you guys think. Do you have any solutions, ideas about the problem? Let me know in the comments. But for now, moving on. Okay, we got to talk about this one, guys, because Germany has just announced plans to build the strongest army in all of Europe again. But to achieve that, young Germans could now see their lives disrupted overnight. Starting next year, all 18-year-olds in Germany will receive a government questionnaire asking things like "Would you voluntarily join the military? Uh would you be willing to serve?" And "What kind of skills do you have?" You know, "What kind of good at throwing grenades?" Now, for men, the response to this questionnaire is mandatory. For women, it's optional. At least for now, you your days are numbered. Then, the following year in 2027, that's when things really start heating up. Every 18-year-old male in the country will face mandatory medical exams to assess whether they're fit to serve or not. That is 3 to 400,000 people in Germany turning 18 every year. This is essentially because Germany wants to create a list of people that they know are healthy so that if the time comes, all right, these people have two legs, they're good, they so they can call up in the event of a war. But hearing that's pretty crazy. So, you got to be asking, "Why now?" Well, put very simply, Germany and all other NATO countries are preparing for a possible Russian attack by at least as soon as the year 2029. That is 4 years. Staggering. Now, the significance of the year 2029, it's a much longer story. We can go into that if you want one day. But Germany specifically, they want to recruit an additional 90,000 active soldiers and another 200,000 reservists by the year 2035. That's a lot. And written into the bill, which was approved last week, if they don't get these numbers by voluntary sign-ups, mandatory conscription is on the table. And so, they're really trying to sweeten up the voluntary side of things. They've raised the amount that people would get paid by going into the military. They've got different career paths that you can do in the military. They're just sweetening the deal. But in the case that that all fails and they have to bring in mandatory conscription, well, the university plans, the careers, the personal decisions, all of that might have to be put on hold for the young Germans that get you know, they have to do service. I don't think that the rest of Europe is completely safe because France, the UK, Nordic countries, and many more, they've all hinted at other They they're having their own debates about conscription as well. So, it's just the world that we're living in right now. But I guess the question is for any Germans that are watching, what do you think? Does a strong German military prevent war through deterrence? Or are we heading down a worrying path? Let me know your thoughts in the comments. Moving on. Also this week, an old man put up a flyer in New York just inviting people to come share a cigarette with him. Little did he know it would end up like this. So yeah, a few days ago, a man named Bob, he handed out some flyers. But one of the people he handed out to posted it online only for it to go viral. And we're talking 36 million views kind of viral. And you know, with New York being as crazy as it is, according to the online event listing, 2,500 people showed up. That is staggering. Videos online show them chanting Bob's name, turning up on freaking pogo sticks, holding balloons of "It's a boy." They were climbing lamp posts and traffic lights just to get a glimpse of Bob. And this was all for an event that was from 2:00 p.m. to 2:05 p.m. >> [laughter] >> 5 minutes attracted that many people. But that was 5 minutes where New Yorkers put aside agenda, politics, race, religion to unite themselves around one common interest. Even if that interest is, you know, killing you. No, I will not allow the negativity on this. This is a feel-good story. And in Bob's defense, he did say this. If you don't smoke, don't start. If you currently smoke and you have the willpower, quit. If you can't don't have the willpower, at least cut back a little bit. >> I want to say is New York, stay the way you are. Moving on. Also since we last spoke, something happened that has never happened before in recorded history. That's pretty crazy. A whole ass country woke up this morning to news I don't think they were ever expecting to hear. For the first time in roughly 10,000 years, a volcano has come back from the dead. Not only did it send up explosions of ash up to 15 km in the sky. That is significantly higher than when you fly on a commercial plane. Imagine that you're in a plane and freaking ash shoots up beside you. But also this plume is so big, it could be seen from space. Now, fortunately for any of the, you know, casualties and stuff like that, this volcano is located in northeast Ethiopia, which is one of the hottest and least inhabitable regions on Earth. So, at least it's by itself. But the emissions are so intense from this explosion uh that they are now drifting towards neighboring countries as well. And they could be seen spotted from villages like hundreds of kilometers away. So, jeez. Happy Monday, Ethiopia. Good start to the week. Moving on. And lastly, is Mr. Beast jealous of streamers? Well, yesterday he posted this. "How do we get the YouTube community more tight-knit like the Twitch streaming community? They're always collabing, hosting award shows, etc. Uh and it feels like YouTubers are on separate planets." >> [singing] >> I mean, the big thing is that YouTube is so much bigger than Twitch. I think it's like 100 plus million active creators on YouTube versus Twitch is what, 7 million? And then you're only seeing a tiny portion of that at the top. And we've also seen this exact thing with other platforms before. Remember TikTok when that was still small? Bro, you had entire squads of people making TikToks. They had people people living together, just running dozens of videos all together. It was just That was what it was at the beginning. But then, you know, TikTok blew up. Everyone started jumping on there, making content. It niched down. And TikTok kind of feels the same way. You don't You don't have that anymore. I think that community feeling when they're all kind of together only exists when something is small. And you know, that's what the small-town feeling is. You are a community. You go to the big city, everyone's niched down. And you know, streaming is really having that cultural moment right now. So, you know, every platform has had that moment. And maybe maybe YouTubers like Mr. Beast, just let just let them have it. You don't have to win every battle. But what do you guys think? Let me know your thoughts in the comments. And I think that is about a wrap. There is no Wednesday video, only Friday. And then from Friday, I'm going on an Asia tour. A whole list of countries in Asia to get some insane content, which I'll be telling you all about. Just think Vegas video, but in Asia. [music] And these stories are way better than the Vegas video. Vegas video style is the new era of the News Daddy Empire. So, make sure you subscribe today. Put your hype points in the chat. Um and I'll see you on Friday. as well as reintroducing features which impact body image and filters. What the [ __ ]