"I don't want to do that. Simple and plain." I told Leeroy who was on the other end of the phone call.

"You have to make a compromise, this is bigger than you and me. Imagine our platform being used for something good." Leeroy tried to convince me.

I wanted to laugh, but I held it in. This was hilarious in so many ways, but he was being serious.

"I believe in freedom, and people should be allowed to speak their mind without having to look over their shoulders. Why must we share our user data with the government? What will they do for us?"

Leeroy was silent. He knew all too well that they would not do anything for us. They just wanted a piece of the pie so they could control it.

"Look, we've been doing fine. We've signed various deals with music labels, we've expanded overseas, and our resource department is on a steady increase. The amount of streamers making content is high right now, and we are the second most visited site after Google. We can't afford to have interfere from the government." I said then paused. "How many news stations are on YouTube?"

"None." Leeroy replied.

"And why do you think that is? We've received offers from stations, and even the government wants us to do it. But I keep declining because they are in the mindset of spreading news that's half true and not always with concrete facts. Due to this lack of content for news, the people have started putting out their own news feeds. Researching what they can, even if it's not a hundred percent true it is better than the actual news. Giving rise to various discussions. So no, let's move on to the next topic."

"Fine. We need to determine the next step for YouTube. The investors suggest we divide YouTube and the streamers, giving the streamers their own platform. As for YouTube itself they suggested we do something special for Black History month next year." Leeroy said.

I was fine with the first part as it was something I wanted to do after seeing the way YouTube was right now. Content was not hard to find, but seeing streamers all the time also was not a good thing for those that just wanted to see a ten minute video. They would both still be linked to one another, but separate to find people that created videos that suited your taste easier.

"That's fine, we can call it YouTube Red, but Twitch has a bit more of a charm to it. Have them vote and see what they say, but the profiles need to be linked to one another. Also, what did they say about having people verify themselves?" I asked before I replied back to the second part that Leeroy said.

"It's in the air st the moment. Everyone is skeptical about having an identification process. It could spell a lot of trouble later. Are you positive this is a good idea?"

I did, because I was not a fan of social media. There were too many people posting too much unnecessary content without really thinking of what they were doing. Young teens look at all the famous people and aspire to be like them in many ways.

While many think that's a positive it could become a huge negative in the long run. And kids should not be able to watch or view content that is not made for them. So yes, having a way to identify who is a child and who is not will be beneficial.

I explained this to Leeroy. The investors were worried about the number of people visiting the site going down, but I did not think it would have an impact on too much. Adults would freely be able to navigate the site as they pleased, while children would only be shown the clean version of songs, and videos that are child friendly. 

"As for the Black Hsitory month idea, we don't need to. Why are we pushing forward a specific race once a year? Do we want to tell them they are only important one time a year and the rest of the time they aren't?" I asked him.

"When you put it that way, it sounds bad."

"Because it is. What do you know about Asians, or even Mexicans? They exist too along with the other races, but we never have anything to say special about them. And why is that?" I asked.

Leeroy was silent.

"Exactly my point. We just need to diversify the creators on the front page a lot more. That means more than just the color of their skin. Focus on different topics too."

I talked with him for over an hour, and he told me what was happening in the company. There was still a lot of work to do, but I hoped the steps we were taking would benefit the world as a whole.

As focused as I was on my two companies here in Michigan, I had to pay attention to what was going on in California as well. So I booked a flight for next week to head there.

After that I sent a message to Scarlett before calling Sandra.