Hey Peretti,
I got your letter. Thanks! Having the Founder/CEO of BuzzFeed respond to this #StopBuzzThieves fiasco definitely adds a level of validity to the innumerable claims and the thousands of voices of those who signed the petition to your advertisers. While I’ve already responded to your tweet to me about your letter, I think that if we’re going to do this out in the open, we should keep it all on an easy-to-find record. I’m a big fan of transparency, as you’ve hopefully noticed.
I posted a response to your employee, Ella Mielniczencko’s tweet about my allegations in my previous Medium post. I would have hoped you’d read it before you wrote your letter. I tweeted you about it, you claim to have read it. Sadly if you did read it, and you don’t know why I’m bringing it up now, this reflects poorly on your so-called “internal investigation,” as attention to detail is of the utmost importance here.
Friends of mine know that if being a professional comedian, YouTuber, and writer weren’t my path, I would have happily pursued litigation as a career. In that vein, I’m going to go point-by-point to address your premature response:
1 . Your assertion that my problem is with a video about a girl who is crying at YouTube proposals under a blanket. I’d hate to be misunderstood again, so let me be crystal clear: my problem is not with the concept that someone might have a blanket over their head while watching something on a computer. My problem is with shot-for-shot passages of time in a video about introverts with the same thumbnail. Nuance is important here, so I made you some gifs:
You call your video producers talented, but you keep trying to convince people that you and they truly don’t believe in your sweet heart of hearts that the above is more similar to one another
— Than either of the above are to the video below:
2. The idea that you wrote an article or made a video about a *topic* means that you predate a parodical and/or nuanced take on a *topic*
I have repeatedly stated that I am not the owner of all introvert content, as you seem to believe BuzzFeed and BuzzFeed Motion Pictures is. Okay…
My video was actually making a satirical commentary on the never-ending pile of …content…BuzzFeed/Tumblr culture produces about introverts that is so vainglorious and basic that it subverts the idea that we should treat introverts with consideration and compassion. You all love making introverts into special snowflakes who can’t handle basic human interaction, but somehow are unequivocally extroverted about *just how introverted they are*. But you’d know that if you understood the nuance of my video/watched it all before responding defensively. Does BuzzFeed understand nuance as a concept?
Throwing a bunch of low-value listicles and listicle videos as proof that you came up with an original shot structure or thumbnail is patently missing the point.
3. Your employees don’t seem like their feelings are all that hurt… I’m not going to apologize for my language. “Mother fuckers” was the right phrase at the time and I stand by it. It really rolled off my keys after your company’s repeated transgressions reached a boiling point. Here are some of the creative ways your staff has expressed their very hurt feelings:
Screenshots are a mother fucker.
4. Your “thorough” investigation didn’t take into account the most egregious allegations for plagiarism. Take this exchange we just had on Twitter:
Here’s an instance of not only ideological theft, but shot structure and script theft that is unforgiveable. And I can give you many more examples — just scroll through my blog. I think that even one instance is one too many when your company is getting huge brand deals (think millions of dollars) to “create” content like this:
Script by LeendaDProductions:
INT. BEDROOM- a girl is abruptly awoken by strange noises under her cover.
GIRL: What the fuck?!
REVEAL — a woman wearing red (a menstrual period personified) is laying near her crotch
PERIOD: Hey girl, hey!!!
GIRL: Oh my god, you’re early!
PERIOD: Girl, that ain’t my problem!
GIRL: (lamenting) But I have a date this week!
PERIOD: Ooh girl! I’ll tag along!
Script by BuzzFeed Motion Pictures:
INT. BEDROOM- a girl is abruptly awoken by strange noises under her cover.
GIRL: What the fuck?!
REVEAL — a woman wearing red (a menstrual period personified) is laying near her crotch.
PERIOD: Hi!
GIRL: You were here 3 weeks ago!
PERIOD: YEAH! I thought I’d drop by early
GIRL: (lamenting) Oh fuck, I have a Tinder date tonight!
PERIOD: That’s what towels are used for, babe.
And this above, is the real root of my problem. Because an independent creator came up with a script that really resonated (8 million+ views), and then your billion dollar corporation hired someone who was then pressured to produce upwards of 6 videos per month, and produced a nearly identical piece of work that is truly indefensible. Yet, your employees have defended this practice by stating that “lol, we’re all independent creators,” and “other people copied that video too!” Neither of which are good reasons for your BILLION DOLLAR company to continue damaging, unethical practices that hurt independent creators.
If YouTuber X makes a video, and then CONGLOMO-FEED makes the same video that allots them a $5 million dollar-50 video deal with McDonald’s, Comcast, Honda, etc., that is not only intellectual theft, that’s a dishonest way to earn money.
BuzzFeed was at one time a community-driven site, but BuzzFeed continually mistakes the internet-at-large as their own community.
Just because your employees are working independently in your different channels does not mean that they are independent YouTubers — I think the backlash against your exclusivity contracts and the lack of payment for ideation that have recently come to light support this truth.
5. Super glad you’re addressing the plagiarism in your recipes. Having a James Beard Foundation award-winning chef call you out is changing policy at your company and I think that’s great. I can’t wait to see your seemingly endless sources of “inspiration” credited across all of BuzzFeed’s platforms. Other sites have figured out how to do it, so it shouldn’t be too hard.
Jonah, I really do appreciate you taking the time to write me. I think a grassroots movement of fed up entertainers and viewers deserves a response from the head of the company, and I’m grateful you took the time to pen one. I am, however, disappointed that your response is one of defensiveness and denial. An independent company launching their own investigation into the originality of the content on your many platforms is what’s needed to actually address the problems at hand. The public would certainly appreciate a non-biased look at the work you defend so vehemently. And (Ze)frankly, your lack of concern for this poor practice on the video side of your company reflects so negatively on the brilliant, groundbreaking journalism you all have been doing on the editorial side of your company. It’s really not fair to the true talent you’ve hired.
But honestly, this tweet in response to your letter sums up what I think your letter really is. And as much as I hope this isn’t the case, you haven’t seemed to prove otherwise:
