Author Archives: Karissa Bell

YouTube created the creator economy

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Nineteen years after Jawed Karim uploaded the very first YouTube video, the awkward, 19-second clip in front of San Diego Zoo’s elephant enclosure is memorable today only because of what it represents: the start of a multibillion-dollar juggernaut that defines so much of what it means to be an online creator.

Today, YouTube is the most dominant social media platform by a sizable margin, especially among teenagers. Its influence is so vast it feels almost impossible to define. The service has birthed thousands of memes and internet personalities. Its recommendation algorithm has been credited with supercharging bizarre trends and viral misinformation.

But one of the most powerful ways YouTube has wielded its influence is through its Partner Program. The revenue sharing arrangement has generated billions of dollars for its most popular users and helped define the multibillion-dollar industry we now call the creator economy. Today, there are dozens of platforms and business models for making money via content creation, but it’s difficult to imagine any of them existing without YouTube’s Partner Program.

While YouTube is hardly the only platform that has made becoming an online creator feel like a viable career path, it has played an outsized role in creating and fueling the industry. When Google first introduced the Partner Program in 2007, there weren’t many ways to make a living from online content. The blogging industry was well established, but online media dynamics were already shifting away from independently run operations in favor of established platforms and brands.

YouTube, on the other hand, was a rising upstart in online media. Google had acquired the video service in 2006, before it had ads or even a mobile app. And when it announced it would make some of its most popular creators “partners“ in its business, it promised some of Google’s ad money could flow directly to the people making content.

It would take several more years for the Partner Program to grow into the money-printing machine it is now. But the Partner Program arrived, in 2007, when there was a growing demand for online video. Between 2006 and 2009, the audience for online video doubled, according to Pew Research, and YouTube was the biggest beneficiary. By the fall of 2009, YouTube was seeing more than one billion views a day.

That same year, YouTube made another important change to its monetization policies. It decided to spread the wealth so any single viral video could be eligible for revenue sharing, even if the creator wasn’t a partner, affirming that YouTube was the place to make money from viral content. In 2012, the Partner Program officially opened to everyone, and by 2014 there were one million creators making money from YouTube, according to The New York Times.

The flood of creators looking for a payout (and the sometimes scammy tactics that drove them) eventually led YouTube to again tighten its requirement for partner status in 2017. But YouTube had already cemented itself as the platform for amateur creators to turn their videos into a steady income. Today, there are more than three million channels with partner status, and the company has paid creators more than $70 billion in the last three years alone.

Of course, creators starting out now have many options available besides YouTube. Nearly every social media app offers some kind of monetization opportunity, though few have generated anything close to the eye-popping eight-figure sums made by YouTube’s top talent.

Other companies' creator funds, in which all creators draw payouts from the same pool of money fronted by the platform, have been underwhelming. YouTube star Jimmy Donaldson, better known as Mr. Beast, regularly tops the lists of YouTube’s highest earners. In 2022, he shared that he was making less than $10,000 a year from TikTok’s creator fund. And other apps’ monetization features, like tipping, subscriptions and virtual gifts, are difficult to scale.

Unsurprisingly, the number of YouTube-made multimillionaires has drastically changed teens’ ideas for career paths. In 2005, the year YouTube came online, teens said their top career aspirations were to become teachers or doctors, according to a poll conducted by Gallup. By 2021, YouGov found becoming a YouTuber or streamer was the top aspiration for Gen Z. In 2023, Morning Consult reported that 57% of Gen Z would like to pursue a career as an online creator “if given the opportunity.”

Polls like this often prompt a lot of eye rolls and snarky headlines. But it’s never been easier or more lucrative to be an online creator. At least one university offers a major in content creation and social media. Whether we like the idea of influencing as a career path, the industry of independent streamers, vloggers, newsletter writers, podcast producers, VTubers and others is worth hundreds of billions of dollars.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/youtube-created-the-creator-economy-130028016.html?src=rss

Meta previews ‘fediverse sharing’ for Threads

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Meta is continuing its slow march toward compatibility with the fediverse. The company has been experimenting with making posts from a handful of accounts available on Mastodon since the end of last year. Now, it’s offered a brief preview of how the integration works and what it might look like once more people have the ability to share from Threads directly to the fediverse.

Instagram engineer Peter Cottle gave a short presentation on “Threads in the Fediverse” at FediForum, a virtual event for decentralized social media enthusiasts. In the demo, Cottle explains how Threads users will be able to opt-in to fediverse sharing and offered some insight into how Meta is thinking about its role in the fediverse.

In a short video demo, first spotted by The Verge, Cottle shows off a new account setting called “fediverse sharing.” As the name suggests, the menu will enable users to make their posts viewable from Mastodon and other platforms that use ActivityPub. Notably, it appears to also come with lengthy disclaimers explaining exactly what that will mean for their content.

“I think it's actually kind of tricky for Threads because we have like 130 million people using it monthly, but a lot of people haven't heard of the fediverse,” Cottle said. “But we want to give them the ability to enter that kind of experience. So we have to both explain the fediverse and explain all the disclaimers and then make sure they feel good about the outcome.”

Visually, the fediverse will be represented on Threads by an icon that looks a bit like a planet (the symbol has previously been spotted in code in the app). Cottle explained that users who have enabled fediverse sharing will have the symbol viewable on their profiles and that they’ll see an indication in the app’s composer if a post will be visible in the fediverse. Cottle also confirmed that only public-facing accounts will have the ability to share to the fediverse. He also noted that users will have a 5-minute window before posts go live in order to make any changes or edits as Threads can’t guarantee a deleted Threads post is also deleted from the fediverse.

The demo comes as Meta has started to add a few more accounts to its fediverse sharing experiment. Right now, Mastodon users can follow Instagram chief Adam Mosseri and a handful of other Threads users, but the company hasn’t provided an update on when the functionality will be more widely available. Cottle’s demo also didn’t delve into how sharing from Mastoodn and other ActivityPub-enabled services intoThreads might work. (Right now, if a Mastodon user replies to a Threads post, the reply is only visible on Mastodon, not on Threads.)

But Cottle’s demo is another sign that Meta is taking the growing momentum for decentralized social media seriously. “I know there's a ton of skepticism about threads entering the fediverse, it's completely understandable,” Cottle said. “But I do want to make a plea that I think everyone on the team has really good intentions. We really want to be a really good member of the community and give people the ability to experience what the fediverse is and the power of a protocol.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/meta-previews-fediverse-sharing-for-threads-001632698.html?src=rss

Meta previews ‘fediverse sharing’ for Threads

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Meta is continuing its slow march toward compatibility with the fediverse. The company has been experimenting with making posts from a handful of accounts available on Mastodon since the end of last year. Now, it’s offered a brief preview of how the integration works and what it might look like once more people have the ability to share from Threads directly to the fediverse.

Instagram engineer Peter Cottle gave a short presentation on “Threads in the Fediverse” at FediForum, a virtual event for decentralized social media enthusiasts. In the demo, Cottle explains how Threads users will be able to opt-in to fediverse sharing and offered some insight into how Meta is thinking about its role in the fediverse.

In a short video demo, first spotted by The Verge, Cottle shows off a new account setting called “fediverse sharing.” As the name suggests, the menu will enable users to make their posts viewable from Mastodon and other platforms that use ActivityPub. Notably, it appears to also come with lengthy disclaimers explaining exactly what that will mean for their content.

“I think it's actually kind of tricky for Threads because we have like 130 million people using it monthly, but a lot of people haven't heard of the fediverse,” Cottle said. “But we want to give them the ability to enter that kind of experience. So we have to both explain the fediverse and explain all the disclaimers and then make sure they feel good about the outcome.”

Visually, the fediverse will be represented on Threads by an icon that looks a bit like a planet (the symbol has previously been spotted in code in the app). Cottle explained that users who have enabled fediverse sharing will have the symbol viewable on their profiles and that they’ll see an indication in the app’s composer if a post will be visible in the fediverse. Cottle also confirmed that only public-facing accounts will have the ability to share to the fediverse. He also noted that users will have a 5-minute window before posts go live in order to make any changes or edits as Threads can’t guarantee a deleted Threads post is also deleted from the fediverse.

The demo comes as Meta has started to add a few more accounts to its fediverse sharing experiment. Right now, Mastodon users can follow Instagram chief Adam Mosseri and a handful of other Threads users, but the company hasn’t provided an update on when the functionality will be more widely available. Cottle’s demo also didn’t delve into how sharing from Mastoodn and other ActivityPub-enabled services intoThreads might work. (Right now, if a Mastodon user replies to a Threads post, the reply is only visible on Mastodon, not on Threads.)

But Cottle’s demo is another sign that Meta is taking the growing momentum for decentralized social media seriously. “I know there's a ton of skepticism about threads entering the fediverse, it's completely understandable,” Cottle said. “But I do want to make a plea that I think everyone on the team has really good intentions. We really want to be a really good member of the community and give people the ability to experience what the fediverse is and the power of a protocol.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/meta-previews-fediverse-sharing-for-threads-001632698.html?src=rss

Meta is finally rolling out trending topics on Threads

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Meta is finally providing a bit of visibility into what kinds of conversations are happening on its Twitter competitor, Threads. The service is rolling out its “trending now” feature to all US users, Mark Zuckerberg said in a post.

The feature, which the company began testing in February, uses AI to surface a handful of topics “based on what people are engaging with right now.” Trends will appear in Threads’ search page and will also appear in between posts in users’ For You feeds.

For now, the feature is still fairly limited. Threads only shows five trending topics at any one time, which is likely an attempt to keep the list relatively curated and avoid some of the issues that have plagued the feature on Twitter and now X. Meta has said it employs human “content specialists” to review topics and ensure that trends comply with the company’s safety rules.

Still, the official arrival of trends brings a much-requested feature to the app. Up until now, users had very few ways to get insight into what others are talking about outside of what they can see in their own feeds. Trends also gives users a way to keep up with some news and current events on the platform, despite Meta’s reluctance to “encourage” news content on Threads.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/meta-is-finally-rolling-out-trending-topics-on-threads-184311138.html?src=rss

Meta is finally rolling out trending topics on Threads

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Meta is finally providing a bit of visibility into what kinds of conversations are happening on its Twitter competitor, Threads. The service is rolling out its “trending now” feature to all US users, Mark Zuckerberg said in a post.

The feature, which the company began testing in February, uses AI to surface a handful of topics “based on what people are engaging with right now.” Trends will appear in Threads’ search page and will also appear in between posts in users’ For You feeds.

For now, the feature is still fairly limited. Threads only shows five trending topics at any one time, which is likely an attempt to keep the list relatively curated and avoid some of the issues that have plagued the feature on Twitter and now X. Meta has said it employs human “content specialists” to review topics and ensure that trends comply with the company’s safety rules.

Still, the official arrival of trends brings a much-requested feature to the app. Up until now, users had very few ways to get insight into what others are talking about outside of what they can see in their own feeds. Trends also gives users a way to keep up with some news and current events on the platform, despite Meta’s reluctance to “encourage” news content on Threads.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/meta-is-finally-rolling-out-trending-topics-on-threads-184311138.html?src=rss

The FTC is probing Reddit’s AI licensing deals

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The Federal Trade Commission is looking into Reddit’s AI licensing deals, the company disclosed in paperwork filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company, which is in the midst of its Initial Public Offering, said that the regulator notified Reddit officials that it “intended to request information and documents” about the company’s AI deals.

It’s not clear why the FTC is probing Reddit’s relatively new licensing business, but it seems to be in the early stages of its inquiry. “On March 14, 2024, we received a letter from the FTC advising us that the FTC’s staff is conducting a non-public inquiry focused on our sale, licensing, or sharing of user-generated content with third parties to train AI models,” Reddit wrote in a filing. “Given the novel nature of these technologies and commercial arrangements, we are not surprised that the FTC has expressed interest in this area. We do not believe that we have engaged in any unfair or deceptive trade practice.”

Reddit’s deals to license its catalog of user-generated content are a key part of the company’s strategy to grow its revenue as it gets ready to go public. On the day the company filed for IPO, the company announced it had reached a deal with Google, which will use Reddit data to train its AI models. That arrangement was reportedly worth around $60 million. The company said it was in the early stages of “exploring” these types of deals.

According to Axios, other companies have received similar letters from the FTC. The regulator has previously shown an interest in the current wave of generative AI upstarts and their relationships with large tech companies, The FTC is currently investigating Microsoft, Alphabet and Amazon over their investments into prominent AI startups.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-ftc-is-probing-reddits-ai-licensing-deals-212902998.html?src=rss

TikTok is now asking users to call their Senators to prevent a US ban

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One day after a bill that could lead to a ban of TikTok in the United States passed the House of Representatives, the company is doubling down on its strategy of urging users to call lawmakers. The app began pushing new in-app messages to users asking them to "tell your Senator how important TikTok is to you” and to “ask them to vote not on the TikTok ban.”

The new alerts are the second such message TikTok has pushed to users about the bill. Prior to the House vote, the company prompted users to call their representatives in the House. The step may have backfired as lawmakers accused the company of trying to “interfere” with the legislative process as Congressional offices were reportedly overwhelmed with calls, many of which came from somewhat confused teenagers.

The latest notifications are even more direct. “The House of Representatives just voted to ban TikTok, which impacts 170 million Americans just like you,” it says. “Now, if the Senate votes, the future of creativity and communities you love on TikTok could be shut down.” Like the previous alerts, users can choose to “call now,” and the app will find phone numbers if a zip code is provided.

TikTok is pushing new in-app messages urging users to call lawmakers.
Screenshot via TikTok

TikTok didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. But the message underscores just how big a threat the “Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act” is to the company. If passed, TikTok would have about six months to sell itself or face a ban in the US. Though there have been several previous attempts to ban the app or force a sale, no measure has received as much bipartisan support so quickly. If passed by the Senate, President Joe Biden has said he would sign it into law.

TikTok CEO Shou Chew has also appealed directly to users, telling them to “protect your constitutional rights” and promising that the company would “do all we can including exercising our legal rights to protect this amazing platform.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/tiktok-is-now-asking-users-to-call-their-senators-to-prevent-a-us-ban-213935787.html?src=rss

The SEC accuses Elon Musk of trying to ‘distort’ its investigation into his takeover of Twitter

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The SEC officials investigating Elon Musk over his handling of the Twitter takeover seem to be growing more and more impatient with his legal antics. The two sides have been locked in a dispute over Musk’s refusal to testify in the investigation.Now, in a new filing, the SEC accuses Musk of trying to “misrepresent” the regulator’s investigation. “Musk continues to distort the true scope of this investigation – his only hope for establishing that the SEC is not seeking relevant evidence,” the SEC writes in a court document.

The SEC has been investigating Musk since 2022 over his delayed disclosure of his stake in Twitter, which was then a publicly-traded company. The regulator sued Musk last year in an effort to force him to testify in the investigation. The SEC said at the time it was investigating “among other things, potential violations of various provisions of the federal securities laws in connection with” his purchase of Twitter stock and “SEC filings relating to Twitter.” A federal judge ordered Musk to comply with the subpoena and schedule an interview last month.

That testimony has apparently still not taken place, with the SEC accusing Musk of using “gamesmanship” to stall the investigation. The regulator goes on to note that while Musk’s legal team has claimed the probe is an “unbounded investigation into an allegedly days-late SEC filing,” that “the SEC staff has repeatedly informed Musk that it is false.” 

Musk, according to the SEC, is also being investigated for securities fraud. “This investigation also examines potential securities fraud in violation of Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act … related to, among other things, Musk’s public statements about his acquisition of Twitter,” the SEC says.

Notably, the filing also references the recently-released biography of Musk written by Walter Isaacson, which contains “newly released evidence,” according to the SEC. “Three days before he was to appear for the testimony he failed to attend, his September 2023 biography was published,” the SEC writes. “This book provides important new information relevant to the SEC’s investigation.”

It’s also not the first time Isaacson’s account of the Twitter takeover has landed Musk in hot water. A group of former execs suing Musk over unpaid severance also referenced a passage from the book in their lawsuit.

X didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-sec-accuses-elon-musk-of-trying-to-distort-its-investigation-into-his-takeover-of-twitter-001429205.html?src=rss

The SEC accuses Elon Musk of trying to ‘distort’ its investigation into his takeover of Twitter

Posted on by

The SEC officials investigating Elon Musk over his handling of the Twitter takeover seem to be growing more and more impatient with his legal antics. The two sides have been locked in a dispute over Musk’s refusal to testify in the investigation.Now, in a new filing, the SEC accuses Musk of trying to “misrepresent” the regulator’s investigation. “Musk continues to distort the true scope of this investigation – his only hope for establishing that the SEC is not seeking relevant evidence,” the SEC writes in a court document.

The SEC has been investigating Musk since 2022 over his delayed disclosure of his stake in Twitter, which was then a publicly-traded company. The regulator sued Musk last year in an effort to force him to testify in the investigation. The SEC said at the time it was investigating “among other things, potential violations of various provisions of the federal securities laws in connection with” his purchase of Twitter stock and “SEC filings relating to Twitter.” A federal judge ordered Musk to comply with the subpoena and schedule an interview last month.

That testimony has apparently still not taken place, with the SEC accusing Musk of using “gamesmanship” to stall the investigation. The regulator goes on to note that while Musk’s legal team has claimed the probe is an “unbounded investigation into an allegedly days-late SEC filing,” that “the SEC staff has repeatedly informed Musk that it is false.” 

Musk, according to the SEC, is also being investigated for securities fraud. “This investigation also examines potential securities fraud in violation of Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act … related to, among other things, Musk’s public statements about his acquisition of Twitter,” the SEC says.

Notably, the filing also references the recently-released biography of Musk written by Walter Isaacson, which contains “newly released evidence,” according to the SEC. “Three days before he was to appear for the testimony he failed to attend, his September 2023 biography was published,” the SEC writes. “This book provides important new information relevant to the SEC’s investigation.”

It’s also not the first time Isaacson’s account of the Twitter takeover has landed Musk in hot water. A group of former execs suing Musk over unpaid severance also referenced a passage from the book in their lawsuit.

X didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-sec-accuses-elon-musk-of-trying-to-distort-its-investigation-into-his-takeover-of-twitter-001429205.html?src=rss

House passes bill that could ban TikTok

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A bill that could force a sale or outright ban on TikTok passed the House just days after it was first introduced. The House of Representatives approved the measure Wednesday, in a vote of 352 - 65, in a rare showing of bipartisan support. It now goes to the Senate.

If passed into law, the legislation would give parent company ByteDance a six-month window to sell TikTok or face a ban from US app stores and web hosting services. While the “Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act” is far from the first effort to force a ban or sale of TikTok, it’s been able to draw more support far more quickly than previous bills.

The measure cleared its first procedural vote in the House last week, just two days after it was introduced. The bill will now move onto the Senate, where its future is less certain. Senator Rand Paul has said he would block the bill, while other lawmakers have also been hesitant to publicly back the bill.

TikTok has called the bill unconstitutional and said it would hurt creators and businesses that rely on the service. "This process was secret and the bill was jammed through for one reason: it's a ban," a TikTok spokesperson said in a statement following the House vote. "We are hopeful that the Senate will consider the facts, listen to their constituents, and realize the impact on the economy, 7 million small businesses, and the 170 million Americans who use our service."

Last week, the company sent a wave of push notifications to users, urging them to ask their representatives to oppose the bill. Congressional staffers reported that offices were overwhelmed with calls, many of which came from confused teenagers. Lawmakers later accused the company of trying to “interfere” with the legislative process.

Free speech and digital rights groups also oppose the bill, with many noting that comprehensive privacy laws would be more effective at protecting Americans’ user data rather than a measure that primarily targets one app. Former President Donald Trump, who once also tried to force ByteDance to sell TikTok, has also said he is against the bill, claiming it would strengthen Meta.

In a letter to lawmakers, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Fight for the Future and the Center for Democracy and Technology argued that the bill would “set an alarming global precedent for excessive government control over social media platforms” and would likely “invite copycat measures by other countries … with significant consequences for free expression globally.”

If the bill were to muster enough votes to pass the Senate, President Joe Biden says he would sign the bill into law. His administration has previously pressured ByteDance to sell TikTok. Officials maintain the app poses a national security risk due to its ties to ByteDance, a Chinese company. TikTok has repeatedly refuted these claims.

If the law was passed, the company would likely mount a legal challenge like it did in Montana, which passed a statewide ban last year. A federal judge temporarily blocked the ban in November before it could go into effect.

Update March 13, 2024, 12:32PM ET: This story has been updated to add a statement from a TikTok spokesperson.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/house-passes-bill-that-could-ban-tiktok-144805114.html?src=rss