YouTube, Instagram, SoundCloud, and other online platforms are changing the way people create and consume media. The Verge’s Creators section covers the people using these platforms, what they’re making, and how those platforms are changing (for better and worse) in response to the vloggers, influencers, podcasters, photographers, musicians, educators, designers, and more who are using them.
The Verge’s Creators section also looks at the way creators are able to turn their projects into careers — from Patreons and merch sales, to ads and Kickstarters — and the ways they’re forced to adapt to changing circumstances as platforms crack down on bad actors and respond to pressure from users and advertisers. New platforms are constantly emerging, and existing ones are ever-changing — what creators have to do to succeed is always going to look different from one year to the next.
Netflix and Druski announced a multiyear deal, including a Druski series hitting Netflix on December 1st.
To close out spooky season, I shared some of my favorite creepy clips from YouTube. I tried to avoid series that spanned multiple videos or had the backing of bigger corporate sponsors, like Adult Swim’s infomercials. But let’s toss all qualifiers out the window: What YouTube clip or clips have unsettled you the most?
Mosseri opens the video by saying he’s “suspicious anyone actually is interested in” his roughly 6-minute day-in-the-life video. I can’t say anything that follows would lead me to disagree with him. But at least we know he won’t be making any extra money from it.
Meta settled the latest set of claims about how its design affected a teen’s mental health, the parties confirm. YouTube and TikTok previously settled, leaving Snap the last defendant standing. Meta spokesperson Liza Crenshaw says settlements like this are common in this process. There’s plenty more left to be tried.
[The New York Times]
The fanworks platform announced yesterday that it could be down for four weeks, and now we know why. Details about the security incident itself haven’t been shared, but no AO3 data has been deleted, and the site runners currently don’t believe that user account information was stolen, but are “unable to rule it out.”
“Earlier today, we detected evidence of a security incident on AO3. We are still in the early stages of response to this security incident and determining its scope. AO3 will remain down while we continue investigating and addressing what has been found so far.”
Developer Maxon is teasing a new AI tool generating a model based on an uploaded image, alongside options to reference text and sketches. It’s not clear how the image and sketch options will differ, but 3D creatives are reacting in the comments with other questions: Will it let you turn anyone’s art into a model?
Both newsletter platforms have helped host podcasts for a while, and now they’re getting into the money side. Last week Substack announced an early access program for dynamic sponsorship placements, with programmatic ads coming “soon.” Smaller rival Beehiiv followed up yesterday, though has both types of audio ad ready to use right now.
[Beehiiv]
A sport historically averse to internet culture is finding success embracing fandom, trends, and influencers.
Want a recap of all the abuses of Flock? A look at its failures to properly secure its system? An examination of its efficacy? Well, it’s all here, along with possible solutions to the problems of warrantless AI surveillance — including a prototype secure dumb camera.
With the new profile links feature, you can make buttons for links that sit above your posts. Links to payment platforms will be green.
Here’s what a couple of the buttons look like on my profile.
At Alza, the entertainment industry is trying to reinvent itself.
Twitch describes the recaps as a “highlight reel.” By default, they include clips made by a streamer and their editors, but Twitch says streamers can add, remove, or edit clips.
Creator life involves using a lot of software. Bad software. Stephen Robles is one of the creators who decided to build something better, for himself and for his community. He tells David how he thinks about his responsibility as a developer, how he makes apps, and how AI is changing the way he builds things for his audience.
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AI photos and videos of celebrities are racking up millions of views on social media.
Druski, a comedian and actor, will host on November 7th, according to Puck and Variety. He has more than 6 million subscribers on YouTube, 13.6 million followers on Instagram, and 15.6 million followers on TikTok.
Despite multiple Ukrainian strikes hitting Yandex servers in Russia, a thread by antibot4navalny, which has long tracked state-sponsored social media campaigns and troll farms, explains that the Cloudflare “Bot Traffic” chart many people have cited is really about automated web crawlers operated by Yandex accessing the web.
It’s not connected to “bots” posting on social media, and Russian bot/crawler traffic overall continues to be about the same as normal. Still, are you noticing any difference in the posts and comments you’ve seen online?
Yuanyuan Sun, aka Abeeeer, was photographed on the bike during the race and wrote a statement later admitting that she “did indeed violate race rules,” The Athletic reports. Sun wore Brooks China gear during the event, and the sponsor has terminated its relationship with her.
It’s just another incident of sportsy influencers dropping the ball with brands they represent, following a disastrous golf ad and the shenanigans at the US Open.
The app gives you a bunch of tools to tinker and tweak your carousel if you want to spruce it up. Check out how the editor works in the below video from Meta.
The carousel-editing tool is launching first on iOS with Android “coming soon.”
Users will soon be able to shop from other retailers without leaving TikTok, as well as use an AI chatbot to find and purchase products.
TikTok is often associated with short form video, but it has also reshaped the online shopping landscape. As I wrote last year, scrolling has become synonymous with shopping, and perhaps more than any other platform, TikTok has figured out how to bridge the gap.
Soon, YouTubers will be able to A/B test multiple cuts of the same video to see which hook, script, or edit performs best with their audiences. The company told me the different versions will only be shown to a very small segment of people — but as Marques Brownlee explains, it could get weird. Will people argue in comments while watching two different videos? What happens to timestamps? And who’s the feature really for?
The company says it will “reduce the reach” of Shorts content that’s re-uploaded without significant changes in an effort to prioritize “original content.” Instagram has made similar promises — but that hasn’t stopped swarms of anonymous accounts from taking over social media feeds through a practice known as clipping. I wrote about the ecosystem in May.
