More accurately, he's accepting bribes to silence his freedom of speech. He's entirely in his right to have negative reviews as long as they're truthful.
See this page[1] for a detailed explanation, which explains that under most extortion laws, the threatened act may be perfectly legal (like leaking photos of someone in a compromised position). It becomes illegal if the threatened act would "harm" the victim and you demand money in exchange for not doing it.
(Legally, harm has a very broad scope, and can include loss of reputation.)
[edit] Note that what this YTer is doing would probably not be extortion under California law as long as his claims are truthful, as he has already posted the videos, and is only demanding money to take them down.
The guy posted an opinion. The company weighed the costs of refuting his opinion or paying him to shut up. I don’t think this is blackmail or extortion. How an opinion can be construed as defamatory I fail to see.
Since you are arguing the difference between bribery & extortion:
"Extortion could occur between two businessmen and still be a criminal offense, whereas bribery is primarily focused on the bribing of Government employees or bribing by Government employees. But the most important difference is the difference between a threat to do harm in extortion and an offer to do good in bribery."
I wasn’t arguing bribery vs extortion. I was questioning whether defaming someone is an illegal act.
Since you’ve brought it up, is it extortion to offer up a negative opinion and then to offer to take down a negative opinion?
The public space is as much yours as mine to say what we will about whatever subject under the sun including each other.
E.g., “I believe zebnyc eats donkey meat for breakfast. I don’t think he should be allowed to do this.” Now, if you were applying for a PETA contract, this opinion of mine could hurt you financially. So if I offered to take down this opinion for money, what illegal act have I committed? My opinion of your eating habits is valuable to you because of your external circumstances namely your PETA contract.
Is this any different from this guy stating that he doesn’t understand why a piece of equipment should cost in the thousands when to make it should cost in the low hundreds. The company could have argued the actual cost teardown or said that they attach their QA and reputation to each piece of equipment sold so that boosts the price or given him money to shut him up. The chose the last option.
That's it. You can legally threaten to tell the truth, and you can legally ask for money. But combining those two acts is what's illegal.
Note that I may be wrong about this case being blackmail, since the youtube videos are already posted (thanks to gamblor956 for pointing this out). Whereas "Pay me money or I will make a bad youtube video about you" would be blackmail.
