Reading is Fundamental Recap Ep 9: Influencers and YouTube Discrimination feat. Pup Amp

September 6, 2023
JORDAN JAYRO

Do you hear that!? It’s the sound of a brand new episode of Reading Is Fundamental! This week Dextra and Blue are joined by Pup Amp! He’s a San Francisco-based YouTuber and Twitch streamer, and sex educator! Pup Amp is joining the girlies via Satellite! But first, it’s time to catch up with Dextra and Mr. Bailey. Blue is about to embark on a fantastic Vegas trip, and he will be seeing Kelly Clarkson, Katy Perry, and RuPaul’s Drag Race: Live! That’s the perfect way to experience Vegas! Dextra says she doesn’t know much about Kelly Clarkson beyond her talk show and winning American Idol. Kelly Clarkson is an American treasure! And I am willing to argue with two successful lawyers about it!

The first topic they talked about was the FTC’s Endorsement Guidelines for influencers! Apparently, there are laws dictating the details of influencer dealings with companies. This whole thing started when companies would tell people with huge followings to use their products and they would pay them. But then audiences would believe that the influencer really liked the product. The content was so seamless that consumers couldn’t tell it was an ad. The new guidelines primarily make sure that creators share that the content is labeled or hashtagged as an ad.

Dextra asked Pup Amp how these guidelines affect Twitch streamers. He talked about how many companies will reach out and part of the agreement will refer to how often the ad will happen. Since it’s harder to use a hashtag in a live stream, Pup Amp said that sometimes a QR code will pop up on the screen during the ad that will direct the viewers to the sponsor. Or every hour or so the host will mention the sponsor of that stream.

Blue Bailey asked about how the FTC can specify what’s an ad and what’s just a person using a product. The easy answer is that they don’t know. That explains why a lot of creators will say something is not sponsored. Dextra said that Nikkie Tutorials is really good about saying when things are sponsored and not. They also talked a lot about how platforms will deem certain content as not advertiser-friendly. And plot twist: a lot of queer content talking about sexual education would get flagged. That led Pup Amp to participate in litigation against social media platforms.

WATCH THE PODCAST!