Hi,

Co-founder from LocalMonero here, our sponsorship of the Techlore channel was prominently featured in your latest video, /u/The_HatedOne.

I understand your take on the situation, and the example you give with the journalist taking money from big oil is, of course, a clear example of how money can influence content.

However, does this necessarily have to be the case? For example, in our relationship with Techlore and all the other sponsorships that we do we retain zero editorial control. We are, in fact, actively against it.

If a content creator, say, a reviewer of gardening tools, believes that a certain company makes reliable and high quality gardening tools, then why would it be harmful for either the content creator or their audience if the company sponsored their videos? If the company starts demanding that the content creator lie, or if the company stops making good tools, then the content creator can simply drop the sponsorship and inform the audience why. If anything, this would only increase the audience's loyalty and any future sponsorship with another company would hold even more credibility, thus increasing the value both for the sponsoring company and the audience.

The integrity of the content is, in the end, under the control of the content creator, is it not?