He is one of the scummiest tech influencers around. He was great at the start, but as time went on, he became increasingly worse. As his channel grew, he started focusing far more on 'entertainment' while neglecting actual, useful information.
I'm sure everyone knows the controversies about him and his channel, but I'll still talk about them.
He and other massive YouTube channels sponsored Honey, a malicious extension. He knew that the extension was suspicious but said nothing for so many years; he just stopped sponsoring it. Massive thanks to MegaLag for talking about this extension, here's the link.
There are a lot of errors in their benchmarks. Gamers Nexus made an amazing video about this and other issues. They have so many errors because the testing is rushed. This is mainly Linus's fault, as he forces his team to produce a massive amount of content just to make more money.
The reviews are biased. It's clearly biased because the company that sent the product also sponsored them. Not only do they have to sign NDAs in order to review products before they hit the market, but they also have an incentive to speak positively so the company doesn't blacklist them in the future. I know that almost every big YouTuber does this, but I don't think they should, and it doesn't result in a fair review.
He didn't want to increase his old friends/employees pay or solve their complains, saying that's how capitalism works.
He bought a private jet. A lot of his employees are poorly paid, and some of them barely get by. On top of that, he tries to justify it by saying that he got the plane for '$0' and that it's actually cheaper using his 'girl math.' In reality, that plane costs an average of $6.6M to purchase, plus $1.5 million to $2.5 million annually in operating costs.
He has many more problems and controversies. I don't know how he has so many 'fans' and why people still watch and support him. He's a scummy, narcissistic, and greedy person, creating videos where he forces his underpaid employees to work on his home.
LINKS:
MegaLag - Exposing the Honey Influencer Scam
Gamers Nexus - The Problem with Linus Tech Tips: Accuracy, Ethics, & Responsibility
Head Pluck - A perfectly balanced mouse review. (Pwnage x Shortcircuit / LTT Edit)
Vex - Linus has a WEIRD Problem
Linnus Tech Tips - The Gamer Jet is Real! and it Cost $0*, The Highest PC Build EVER - World Record
Watched a few of his videos a few years ago, but watching him install tech on his house was beyond frustrating.
It was like he'd do things like make everything communicate over Bluetooth, and then whoops the 2.4ghz is overloaded. I felt like I kept seeing stuff a mile away that he hadn't considered. Gave me the impression he had no idea what he was talking about, or he was doing it on purpose. Either way, turned me right off.
I'll be devil's advocate and suggest that, if he fixed those problems later in the video, then he might have been doing it to be educational? Like "how do I rig my house with different types of tech from first principles" and teaching less tech savvy people (probably most of his audience) to identify those problems in the process
No these were problems that made a second video. Sure, hypothetically you could do that, but the format is asinine. I'm not looking for someone to tell me how to do a hundred things incorrectly.