this post was submitted on 31 Oct 2023
362 points (91.3% liked)

Technology

72320 readers
4329 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related news or articles.
  3. Be excellent to each other!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
  10. Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.

Approved Bots


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

The Kensington neighborhood in Philadelphia is one of the most brutally obvious signs of America’s public health crisis. The so-called “open air drug market” in the middle of the country’s sixth most populous city is where hundreds of people use drugs, some of whom are unhoused, usually without being arrested by the police. It is a failure of our health care system, our cities, and our drug enforcement policies on public display.

For some, it’s also a content farm, where they turn other people’s misery into engagement and profit.

As I am writing this, 675 people are watching a YouTube livestream from a channel called USALIVESTREAM of a camera that is panning back and forth over the corner of Kensington Avenue and East Allegheny, where there’s a SEPTA train station that people congregate around. As is normal on YouTube, to the right of the video is a chat where viewers can talk to each other, and pay to post stickers and “super chats,” highlighted messages that cost as much as $500. The revenue generated from this chat is split between YouTube and the YouTube channel owner. YouTube and the channel owner also make money via pre-roll ads viewers have to watch before the video starts. It is a live version of a growing trend, mostly on YouTube and TikTok, where people make videos of people in distress, specifically in Kensington.

The dire situation at Kensington is such that the live feed is always capturing multiple people who are clearly in distress, slumped over while they’re standing, asleep in camping chairs, or using drugs. None appear to be aware they are being filmed and exploited as a form of entertainment.

read more: https://www.404media.co/youtube-is-monetizing-the-suffering-of-an-open-air-drug-market/

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] SeedyOne@lemm.ee 98 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Someone making money off this is MAYBE fourth or fifth down the line of issues with the entire situation. It's a slap in the face for humanity that our focus is more about the people filming and hosting it. What a world.

[–] clearleaf@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago

Nothing is ever a problem until there's an accessible way to make money from it.

[–] VikingHippie@lemmy.wtf 61 points 2 years ago (15 children)

usually without being arrested by the police

That's the good part, though. Problematic drug use is a health problem and should be treated as such rather than a criminal and moral one.

And that's not even mentioning what often happens when cops interact with members of any marginalized group..

load more comments (15 replies)
[–] HorseWithNoName@lemm.ee 44 points 2 years ago

Finally someone is noticing this.

I report this garbage every time it gets recommended to me on YT, which is way too often. These are real human beings going through the most difficult and humiliating experiences of their lives.

One thing that's always overlooked about homelessness is the complete, total, utter lack of any privacy whatsoever. It seems obvious when you say it out loud, but no one seems to acknowledge it. Imagine every bad day you have, you have an audience. When you wake up in the morning after a shit night of sleep, everyone gets to walk by you, judge you, and gawk at how shitty you look. I'm sure not everyone in these videos is homeless (likely fewer than people would automatically assume), but probably a significant enough number.

The fact that there is anyone out there who believes treating people like they're in a zoo and then profiting off of their suffering for "entertainment" is an actual, unfeeling psychopath.

The worst part is that there are a bunch of channels like this and even more videos. They're not limited to addiction but exploit any marginalized people they can. I blame Vice for having constant drug/addiction content with no real message besides "watch this person shoot up for some reason. No, we're not blurring their face." Wtf.

[–] Jay@sh.itjust.works 32 points 2 years ago

Here in Germany there is a television station that likes to produce similar trash formats. Whole seasons show people on the streets struggling with addiction and the problems of homelessness.

Even though I think it's important that we don't forget this part of society, it always had a strange aftertaste to me. What is described here sounds like the next stage in this display of human tragedy for the purpose of entertainment.

[–] echodot@feddit.uk 26 points 2 years ago (1 children)

How is this YouTube's fault. The person who set up the stream is the one picking the content YouTube don't officially know anything about it.

There's many reasons to go after YouTube, but this isn't one of them, this is stupid. What idiot wrote this, and do they not understand how the internet works?

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] jet@hackertalks.com 21 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Exposure brings attention, attention brings solution. To be ignored is to never be fixed

[–] Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world 33 points 2 years ago (7 children)

People don’t have a problem with the exposure, the have a problem with someone making money off it.

load more comments (7 replies)
[–] Jay@sh.itjust.works 29 points 2 years ago (3 children)

Even though I agree with you that you shouldn't look away, there are two things that bother me:

If I understand correctly, this is completely unmoderated. This means it is up to the viewer how they interpret what they see.

In addition, the income should be made available to solve the problem. But it seems like someone is just putting it in their pocket.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] lloram239@feddit.de 16 points 2 years ago

I am sure the problem will magically fix itself when we switch the cameras off.

[–] DontTreadOnBigfoot@lemmy.world 16 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Who gives a fuck about the people suffering on the street; The real travesty here is that someone is getting paid for their work in reporting it!

What an absolute stupid ass take...

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] vsis@feddit.cl 12 points 2 years ago

I thought its purpose was anti-usa propaganda rather than profit. Now I see it can serve both purposes.

[–] PR_freak@programming.dev 9 points 2 years ago (6 children)

This might be a stupid question but how can drug addicts of this sort (the ones who tumble across sidewalks semi-unconscious all day) afford to buy drugs?

They live in an open air drug market and I can't imagine any charitable middle aged lady walking past giving them money. They for sure can't work.

How do they afford drugs?

[–] Fisk400@feddit.nu 22 points 2 years ago

Crimes. Massive amounts of crimes. I think at this point most burglaries and muggings are due to drug addiction. Grab the stuff, sell it to a fence and buy drugs from a dealer. Often the fence and dealer is the same dude.

[–] Fedop@slrpnk.net 10 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I think that many people in this situation may work or have things to sell. This position is sometimes like a rapid decline, not a permanent state of being. Plus drugs are cheap, $20 could get you high all day.

[–] White_Flight@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago

Correct,. hopefully, they don't die before they get help

I feel many think "these people" have zero value, but they are all redeemable, every single one of them

[–] boatsnhos931@lemmy.world 7 points 2 years ago

My brother in Christ, it's the oldest profession in the world...(a mouth is a mouth amirite LOL)

[–] Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)

My guesses:
Panhandling (Thanks @Breezy@lemmy.world) on better streets without the associated stigma
Stealing
Recycling bottles found in the trash (at least where a deposit system exists)
Doing odd jobs for small change.
Skipping lunch for drugs.

[–] Breezy@lemmy.world 7 points 2 years ago (1 children)

The word you're looking for is panhandling.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] LesserAbe@lemmy.world 5 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Don't forget selling dubiously acquired metal for scrap

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] nohamsandwich@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Short answer: fentanyl is cheap. Wholesale price of fentanyl is around $50,000/kg which is about 400,000 doses, or 12.5 cents per dose. Street value is around $2/dose (~2.5mg). There are a lot of users within that distribution chain who can profit enough to sustain their own addictions.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] tory@lemmy.world 9 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Maybe instead of censoring the internet more we can get the people in these situations some help?

No? We're gonna ignore it and force you to ignore it as well?

Okay then...

[–] White_Flight@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago

I can't believe people actually are in favor of censorship, it just blows my mind. I'm an addict myself and I believe in showing the world the problems with drugs and the negative effects drugs do to your neighborhood and country.

I've been clean from drugs for over a decade, and shame is a good thing IMHO

[–] serial_crusher@lemmy.basedcount.com 8 points 2 years ago (1 children)

It’s good to bring exposure to these types of issues, even if the only way to do that is through a commercial platform. There’s nothing wrong with monetizing this.

[–] skulblaka@kbin.social 12 points 2 years ago (2 children)

There's nothing wrong with monetizing the filming of vulnerable people without their consent?

Okay

[–] rifugee@lemmy.world 10 points 2 years ago

And not even giving them a cut of the profits or helping them in any tangible way? Sure, sure, nothing wrong with that. If they didn't want to be filmed, they should have stayed home...oh, right.

Sometimes I think that instead of antacid's, I'm taking crazy pills.

Is it wrong to monetize newspapers or documentaries? This is journalism too, and the people who document it deserve compensation for the work they do.

[–] Fisk400@feddit.nu 8 points 2 years ago (2 children)

The $500 donations must be money laundering. I can't see a normal user on YouTube donating to a unmanned livestream and definitely not that amount of money.

[–] figaro@lemdro.id 10 points 2 years ago (3 children)

Ever watch a vtuber stream? There's apparently people out there with cash to just burn.

[–] Fisk400@feddit.nu 7 points 2 years ago

Vtubers do things. They talk to the audience, play games, draw, cook and a bunch of other things. A lot of it is para-social which explains why some people donate a lot. This is a generic livestream of a street.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] Meowoem@sh.itjust.works 6 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

I think it's just the journalist being silly, there is a tier on YouTube for a $500 donation because that's part of the YouTube system but has anyone ever used it for this stream? Incredibly doubtful.

I imagine like most webcam streams it makes very little money.

Edit - I've watched some and looked through the vods, no adverts so it's probably not monetized - likely due to showing drug use, also no one has donated in any of the sections I've looked at.

[–] elias_griffin@lemmy.world 8 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Google, destroyer of the human pysche.

[–] FartsWithAnAccent@lemmy.world 7 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I thought that was Meta.

Shit, guess it can be both.

[–] ashe@lemmy.starless.one 2 points 2 years ago

Most modern international corps (can we just start calling them megacorps now?) would fit in there

[–] Waluigis_Talking_Buttplug@lemmy.world 7 points 2 years ago (4 children)

None appear to be aware they are being filmed and exploited as a form of entertainment.

So someone is making money off of these people's darkest moments and the comments here so fsr just breeze right fucking past that.

[–] Meowoem@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 years ago

Are they though? Presenting this as some excess of capitalism is emotive but in reality they're likely to be making almost nothing from it. Their motivations might well be to draw attention to a bad situation, they might even donate money to drug addicts for all we know or be one themselves (or possibly drug addiction charities).

Seems like lazy journalism to write a whole story based on 'i watched ten minutes of a live stream' so I'm not willing to make judgements based on it.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] Kusimulkku@lemm.ee 3 points 2 years ago

That does sound like a fascinating stream

load more comments
view more: next ›