ExclusiveIs California Trying to SILENCE This YouTuber? The Nick Shirley Law Explained

Why would you stop that if he's exposing fraud? Those against it are calling it the Stop Nick Shirley Act. And Nick Shirley came out and he says, you know, he believes this is targeting journalists like him from going out in the field investigating because they could get penalized. There's no language in the document, in the law, whether those people that are being exposed are actually criminals or committing fraud. I don't think I saw anything that stated whether there was related to illegal activities or not. Welcome to another episode of Silicon Valley Front Row. We're in the studio this time. David and I, we're going to be talking about Nick Shirley. Nick Shirley is a YouTuber. I think he has 1.7, almost 1.8 million subscribers. He has a lot of subscribers and he's an independent citizen journalist. OK. Yeah. Yeah. So he's, you know, he's got a lot of followers. And I think what he's been doing is he's been exposing fraud. Oh, I think he's exposing the hospice. Some of the fraud related to the hospice where I guess people make money left and right or whatever. Right. For services that might seem, might not be delivered. Apparently, that's what he's on the field investigating. Is he undercover the way he's doing it? No, no. He just comes up. So in this recent video, he just comes up and says, hey, I want to check in my grandma to this hospice. How do I sign up? And then he goes from there, you know, and he asked him questions. And there was this one video where people were there's the people at the desk, right? They're saying, oh, we don't do walk ins. We only get to hospital referrals. And I guess that was the end of that. OK, so he just goes from place to place. And he already had exposed some of these things as fraud. Pretty much he's alleging that there's fraud because he would look at the addresses of these dozens or so places. And I think some were even at the same address. And he would go in and I would see he would show what it looks like. And sometimes there's just like a small playground that looks deserted or places that aren't fit for, I guess, the services that they're talking about. Like if it's supposed to be for kids or daycare, he's shown that it's it wouldn't look like place he would put his kids, you know. So now the big question is he said that there's some kind of law that's being right going on the ballot. Yes. Stop him from doing this. So this to me is like a no brainer. Why would you stop that if he's exposing fraud? So I think you looked into this. Well, yeah, yeah. I did a story on this. So it's actually very interesting. So this law is advancing. Currently, it's not exactly on the ballot yet, but it's making making ways. So recently, there's this California State Assembly member, Carl DeMaio. He's against this law. It's called AB 2624. The official name is, I believe it's the protecting the privacy of immigration service providers. But what some Republicans and those against it are calling it the Stop Nick Shirley Act. And Nick Shirley came out and he says he believes this is targeting journalists like him from going out and going on the field investigating because they could get penalized. You know, so what this law is trying to do, right, is authored by Mia Bonta, the wife of Rob Bonta, the attorney general attorney general. Yes. So yes. So she's a state assembly member, Democrat. So Cal, right? I'm not sure exactly. Sorry, but yeah, it must be because we East Bay East Bay. Oh, really? Yeah, East Bay. So this she says this would protect people that would work in like immigration support services and those related fields so that if they don't want their personal information, their name or their photo posted online, then they could they would have legal tools take legal action. So whoever violates this law, they could take they could face like a minimum of four thousand dollar penalty, at least. And this is supposed to, you know, protect them. And the the catch. No, not the catch. But the idea is if that person feels that they're being harassed or they would face imminent bodily harm, violence, then they could sue, take legal action. Right. So on the other hand, Nick Shirley and some Republicans, they think this is pretty general. It could be a chilling could start like a chilling effect where it's a blanket effect where people would just it's just too general. Now, whatever Nick Shirley's is doing investigating, it's not dark. Is it targeted to immigrants or is just targeted to trying to find fraud anywhere? So he has shown videos investigating Somali based organizations and daycare centers, I believe, in Minnesota. And then here in California, it's the hospice for senior support for elderly folks here. As far as like specific race, I don't think so. I mean, in California, I think it's just, oh, there's a hospice. Let's check it out. He has like a list that he goes through. OK, so whether or not that's targeted a race, I feel like maybe it's just based on the address or whoever he feels maybe they're doing fraud. So the proponents of the law are saying if you target someone who could be an is it illegal immigrants they're trying to protect or just immigrants? It's maybe both or anyone that helps with providing service to immigrants. Right. So this doesn't necessarily affect like hospice unless the hospice is just for immigrants. Right. You know, so, yeah, Mia Bonta says this has nothing to do with journalism. It's just about privacy. Right. But yeah, but he believes it's it's not the case. Right. That's a very interesting case. We'll see how it is. Well, it's not a case. I guess it's going to be a law. It's going to go on the ballot. That's that's the plan. You know, if if the law advances far enough. So recently, so called the mile, the others, the assembly member, he says that he was trying to actually stop this law from going forward. But his like his blockage didn't go through. It got dropped, voted down by Democratic colleagues. So, you know, he's not happy about that. Please explain one more time if you could. So if the law passes and then Nick Shirley or someone who works with him goes to hospice trying to investigate, how is the law going to stop him? I mean, he does the same thing. He says, I want to bring in my grandma. And then he realizes that that place, it's fake. And then I guess if normally he would film. Right. Yeah. So how would it be different this time if he films those people? He may get in trouble. Potentially. So I look through the legislative text for the story. And it it seems like if that person that's being filmed, they feel like threatened in some way. Yeah. If they feel like by the posting of their footage image or even a sketch, the law says even if it's a sketch of the person or a computer generated image that resembles a person. Yeah. And they feel threatened or receive death threats, then that could be a violation of the law. So I think from my understanding from it, it's it's if the intent by his posting these things like revealing the person's name or workplace or the purpose to expose him or to catch him or whatever. Yeah. If it's incites violence, then I think it seems like that's where the trouble is. Right. And this is currently as how the text is currently. The language is currently stated as of now or if the person feels harassed. Yeah, it's kind of a I don't want to say a gray area, but it's the argument is how do you measure that? Yes. Yes. But there's no language in the document, in the law, whether those people that are being exposed are actually criminals or committing fraud. It doesn't seem to matter. Oh, you know, that's a good point. I don't think I saw anything that stated whether there was related to illegal activities or not. I think it's just if the person has written consent or written written demand saying they don't want to be posted online, then that would need to be abided by or respected. Very interesting. Yeah, it is, you know, especially as you know, in the being in the journalism field, this is something interesting to look at. We'll see if your subscribers go up or down after this news comes out or this whole law progresses. Yeah. For Nick Shirlita. Yeah. We'll see. Well, hope you like this episode. Please give us your comments on what you think this law is about. Then how would you vote for it? And do you think there is a boundary or line between investigative journalism and harassment? And let us know what that line is.