Welcome to Millionaires, where we profile creators who have recently crossed the one million follower mark on platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Twitch. There are creators crossing this threshold every week, and each of them has a story to tell about their success. Read previous installments here.

For years, Avalanche wanted to be a pro gamer.

“I was super interested in Call of Duty,” he tells Tubefilter. “That was my scene.”

He followed all the pros. He wanted to be like them. He teamed up with his friends and ground his way through the game’s competitive ranked mode, “trying to get the top ranks and be as close to professional scrim level as possible.”

But now, ten years later, he’s not a pro gamer. Instead, he’s focused on the exact opposite as one of the members of Full Squad Gaming, esports org NRG‘s casual gamer content group.

NRG launched Full Squad Gaming in late 2020 as a way to reach the everyperson who’s out there playing games after a long work day. Avalanche–a former 100 Thieves member–joined with longtime friend Classify (also a former 100 Thieves member; they were both part of the org’s four-man group The Mob) last September. At the same time, industry vet Hung Tran, who did six years of marketing for the NHL’s Philadelphia Flyers before moving into esports with Philadelphia Fusion, Ultimate Media Ventures, Playfly Esports, and Zoned Gaming, joined as Full Squad’s president.

Together with Full Squad’s previous members Nick Dallas and Mikeoofs, Avalanche, Classify, and Tran set out to supercharge the group’s social media presence.

And they succeeded: over the past eight months, they’ve grown Full Squad’s YouTube channel to 1.2 million subscribers and its TikTok account to 4.2 million followers, and have gone from 20 million views per month on YouTube to more than 80 million. Much of that growth came from the group’s “imposter” series, which takes its inspiration from Among Us and in each installment has the guys guessing which of them might be an insidious traitor. That series alone generated 240 million views with 70 short-form videos across YouTube and TikTok.

So, what’s next?

“We’re still flying high off of [the imposter] trend,” Avalanche says. “I’m very thankful for that. That’s easily my favorite memory with how quickly everything took off. I know the guys are too.”

“We’ve built the short form subscribers on YouTube via short-form content, and we’ve only posted what? Eight videos, long-form videos on YouTube,” Tran says. “Very, very excited about the future and very appreciative of just the subscribers and the audience who’ve supported us along the way.”

Check out our chat with them below.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Tubefilter: Nice to meet you both! I’d love to start with some background about Full Squad. How did this whole thing come together?

Avalanche: I feel like Hung, you should start that one off. I’ll dive into the rest of the things, but that’s a Hung question.

Hung Tran: Yes, for sure. Full Squad’s been around for a few years now, and Full Squad is the brother-sister company to NRG, which is under Hard Carry Gaming. NRG is the competitive side. I think a couple of years ago, the team thought there needed to be a casual gaming side as well. The total addressable market for casual gamers is a lot bigger than competitive gaming. That is the foundation of where it started. Fast forward to today, it’s been what? Three-ish years since it started. I joined in August. We brought Avalanche and Classy in September to join Mike and Nick, who were some of the members who’ve been around for a little while.

The core of this group now has only been together really since September, and we got off to a really hot start. September, as soon as these guys joined, we filmed the announcement video and then we headed off to TwitchCon for a Ford activation that lasted about three weeks. It was pretty hot and heavy once we started, but it’s been a wild ride over what? The six or so months since Classy and Ava have joined Mike and Nick.

Tubefilter: Perfect. Yes, I’d love to hear about you joining, Avalanche.

Avalanche: Okay. Hung, the other guy on this call, I’ve known that man for five or six years. I randomly met him at TwitchCon. I’ve been in this space for about over a decade, I’d say 11, 12 years. I’m only 26. I’d like to think I’m still young. I might be getting old, who knows? I’ve been on Twitter online since I was 13, 14 years old. Very interested in gaming, passionate about it. It was the first thing I loved and I’m very passionate about a lot of things, but it was my first true love. I met Hung at TwitchCon, and Classy was with me too. He’s not on this call, but he’s in our group. We immediately, sparks were flying. Conversation was natural. Hung was a great guy. We were just hyped to be there. We were at his booth and we traded information. He gave us some merch for whoever he was working with at the time.

Fast forward to today, Classy and I have been through a lot of stuff in the gaming community. We’ve been through multiple organizations. We worked with MrBeast for a little bit, and then Hung needed two more pieces of talent. As he mentioned, Mike and Nick have been a part of the organization for a little bit, and he needed the second half of this new version of Full Squad to come about and move to California. He knew us already from years prior, and we started having some meetings. We started talking face to face on Zoom calls and Google Meets with Nick and Mike, but the chemistry was there. We all felt like this was right.

We joined, had the big move back to California. I had already lived in LA for like two and a half, three years. I lived here through COVID. I may not be born and raised here, but I lived through the worst times in the city. I can claim it. I’ve been here for four or five years now. Then, yes, we moved over, started doing trend type of content that we knew would have a shot at working, while also trying to find our own lane on the side and trying to find our own pace.

I’m speaking ahead here. I know you have more questions, but that rolled into January, the new year, which is where I think we truly found our own pace, our own brand, what works for us, what people resonate with about us. Not just doing the trendy TikTok dance. I don’t think badly of anyone doing trendy TikTok dances. Whatever works for you, go ahead and do it, chase whatever. We wanted to find something that was our own. I feel like that started in the new year.

We’ve been here for six, seven months, but found our pace I think in the last four.

Tubefilter: I’m a very big gamer. I was verging on pro level for one game, but am casual for things like Apex Legends, and I feel like casual gamers sometimes think they’re taken less seriously by developers and by organizations. I’m really curious what you think about the importance of having a casual organization.

Avalanche: I can relate directly to you, because the way I came into the space when I was 13, 14, I was super interested in competitive Call of Duty. That was my scene. I know guys always play CoD, but that’s what I was in. I was following all the pros. I wanted to be like the pros. I was grinding ranked matches with my friends, trying to get the top ranks and be as close to professional scrim level as possible. In terms of casual gaming, I feel like casual gaming, it caters to just way more people. The people who have work, they get off work, they come home, they just want to have fun, play for a couple hours, go to bed. The college kids who aren’t that good.

Also it comes down to having– You can relate to this, I feel like. You might’ve been very talented, just naturally, but a lot of it comes down to setup too. I have cousins who don’t have the most money, don’t have the nicest setups. I’m trying to give my cousin my old PS5 and stuff just to step up his gaming setup. Some people don’t even have the opportunity to be as good as they can be in FPS games, because their internet isn’t great. They’re playing on a TV and not a super responsive monitor. They just have scuffed equipment.

Tubefilter: Yes. I was playing on a basic Xbox One.

Avalanche: You’re playing on a TV when you started?

Tubefilter: I was on a TV, yes. And I didn’t have a headset when I started. [laughs]

Avalanche: Salute. Salute to that.

Tubefilter: Now, I feel like I can’t transition over to PC, but I feel like if I picked it up on PC, I would’ve had a leg up.

Avalanche: I salute that so much, because when I play…I’ve been in gaming, I’ve told you, for a while. I’m so used to monitors now when I’m playing something like FIFA, for example, I need that response time. Then I’ll go to my friend’s house and we’ll play on some big, older TV, and I’m just getting mad and I’m complaining about those little things, and I feel like I’m bothering them. They’re like, “Brandon, shut up! Just play the game!”

I’m like, “You guys don’t understand!” I’m clicking a button and it’s happening, it feels like, a decade later in the game.

Tubefilter: Yes. It’s definitely a curve.

Avalanche: Yes. But the audience is massive and I feel like we’re very lucky to cater toward, we always say we’re what you want to hear in an Xbox party chat, in a PlayStation party chat. That’s what our company caters toward. Just a bunch of friends, sitting in game chat, talking about whatever, and who aren’t maybe the best at games. Someone has to be bottom frag. Someone has to be the worst one. It might be everyone at the same time.

Tubefilter: That’s the best. Bonding in suffering. So I know you guys have been doing an imposter series that has been insane. There’s also an insane level of content, the amount of content you’re putting out for that has been a lot of videos, and in what? Ten weeks?

Avalanche: Yes.

Tubefilter: I’m curious about the development of that.

Avalanche: I would like to shout out Mikeoofs. One of us four. We’re a group of four, it’s Nick, Classified, me, and Mike. Mike had this idea one day, we were all sitting on our couch where we normally do our podcast. He pitched the imposter idea, basically. This was December, mid to late December, where we were trying to find our own rhythm. We said for the new year, we want to chase our own goals, what we want to do, not just doing trends.

I said this yesterday to Hung, and we are really lucky, because this space…I’ve been around. This does not work like that. Having an original idea, doing it, and it just blowing up to the whole world and people loving it. Now we’ve been doing it for weeks and weeks. People are always interested. We’re trying to spice it up, inviting celebrities, inviting athletes. Hopefully in the future–not to leak anything–inviting different types of people just to make it interesting, but we got super lucky.

We started posting a few of them and then they just took off, because I feel like the casual audience could relate to us four sitting on the couch, arguing with each other about, oh, you’re wrong. I’m right. You’re lying. I’m not. They could see themselves doing it with their friends. People get so involved. The comment section is my favorite part.

People notice our mannerisms. Classify, when he’s usually imposter, he’ll start looking around like this and fidgeting with his mic, and the comments call him out. He does it multiple times. The comments call him out. When I’m imposter, I’ll say “world renowned” a lot. It’s like a freebie, because the topic will usually be celebrity, athlete, animals, something that all four of us have to know. It can’t be something super niche, like a niche anime character, because what if three of us don’t know. It has to be something like a shark that all four of us have heard of and we can go roundabout.

Yes, but people relate to it. People have become attached to us through it, which is cool. It’s starting to show even in like– Okay. I’m not some A-list celebrity, but we’ve been going out the last few weeks and we’ll go to the mall, and people notice. A group of kids walked up to us like, “Oh, you guys are the ones from the imposter videos. We love the series.” People have come from our long-form, which we’ll speak on later, but it’s cool to see the faces of some of these people, because we’re so used to just looking at numbers on the screen. Oh, we did this many views. We’ve had this many comments. It’s like, it’s cool to see the actual people and meet them.

Tubefilter: You’ve put out, I think, 70 different Shorts for this series in 10 weeks. How does the filming process go? Do you batch film?

Avalanche: Hung, do you want to go or do you want me to go?

Hung Tran: Yes. I can answer that. The squad comes into our office, which we have a 15,000 square foot studio in downtown Los Angeles. They come into the office probably three, four days a week, and they shoot a bunch of content in those days. The cool part about the imposter filming process is each short forum video that probably takes 10, 15 minutes to shoot. We can shoot a bunch in a day. Honestly, the longest part is probably the editing process. But yes, the guys are some of the hardest workers ever. They plan out the content and they go into the office and they just grind the shoots. We’ve got a team of a couple editors as well who support us.

Avalanche: Shout out Nom. Shout out George.

Hung Tran: Yes. Some of the funniest guys out there. They are able to batch shoot everything within a few days and then it goes to edit and then it goes to our social team.

Tubefilter: Perfect. Then Avalanche, you mentioned long-form. When did you get into long-form? Talk to me about the long-form plan.

Avalanche: Yes. We found a lot of success through, obviously, TikTok. That’s where the series originally blew up, and we took it to YouTube Shorts. If anything right now, I feel like it’s doing even better on YouTube Shorts than it is on TikTok. It’s doing great on both, but YouTube Shorts took off, and I never knew people even watch YouTube Shorts until we were out and about. Whenever we meet someone, I always ask, “Where did you come from?” Because I’m curious, do you watch TikTok? YouTube Shorts? I feel like the most replies I’ve gotten are from YouTube Shorts, and I never knew people really watched that, but it blew up.

Now we’re like dipping our toes into long-form, because with YouTube Shorts and that many people there, if you just sprinkle in three seconds at the end of the video, “Oh, this is just a clip from our long-form video, go check it out.” You’re already on the app, you click the link and you take yourself to the video. 

Yes, so long-form. Okay. Yes, let me backtrack. YouTube Shorts and TikTok, it’s only a minute probably of us debating. Little debate, conversation, and getting to know us for a minute at a time, minute at a time. Whereas long-form, we can make it as long as we want. Probably not over 30 minutes. I don’t think we’d ever do that, but somewhere between 15 and 30 minutes of people getting to know us, seeing us really talk stuff out, maybe do some challenges, some punishments for getting rounds wrong or right.

Then yes, I feel like in a way, YouTube long-form is just the most personal thing you can do, other than a livestream, I’d say. I come from livestreaming. You can stream for 12 hours straight. That’ll get real personal. You’ll get delirious, delusional after 12 hours. Yes. Long-form YouTube is what we’re trying to do. Our latest thing, which is brand new, is celebrity imposter, because we’re trying to spice it up. We’ve been doing just us four for some weeks now. Maybe switching some people out, bringing our editor in, bringing this random influencer in. Now we’re trying to get celebrities in our long-form YouTube videos, which maybe combines their audience and what we got going on over here, all these views. It just benefits both people.

Our first guest was Eric Winter. It went as great as we could have possibly imagined our first guest going, because it’s not always like that. You can get someone who’s not too talkative and more introverted, which is, no offense to anyone out there like that, but maybe the flow isn’t right. There’s no synergy. Eric came in and it felt like he was just one of the guys. He meshed with us. He won a round as imposter, which is hard to do with us four who’ve been playing this game for 10 weeks and we know each other’s mannerisms and stuff. He won a round. He was having fun. He was laughing.

Then all of the comments were my favorite part. He’s really popular on a show called The Rookie right now. Shout out The Rookie. They’re doing great. He’s one of the main guys. All of the comments were like, “Most unexpected collab, but glad it happened.” His name on the show is Tim Bradford. People are like, “What’s Officer Tim Bradford doing with these guys? Why is he here? What’s going on?” People are like, “This is so random, but we love it. The collab we didn’t know we needed.” What was the wording, Hung?

Hung Tran: The collab we didn’t know we wanted, but now we know we need it.

Avalanche: We know we need it. Yes. We saw that comment a billion times. That’s cool to see, because it’s people from this corner of the internet coming over to our world, and now they know our faces. The people who have been rocking with us know Eric, and maybe they want to go check out The Rookie now. It’s cool. Just two worlds colliding. I love seeing stuff like that.

Hung Tran: I can add to that too. Prior to Avalanche and Classy joining, I think Full Squad is really good at entertaining audiences. We were driving billions of views across TikTok. The new goal that we were trying to achieve was, how do we really build fandom? How do we really let people get to know these guys? That’s why when the impostor series started popping off, those videos are about a minute long, and people started really wanting more and more to get to know Classy, Avalanche, Mike, Nick. They understood their mannerisms. They understood their personality in a minute. We wanted to feed into that fandom a little bit more. Let our audience really get to know these squad members. They’re all phenomenal human beings. They also remind me– I’m older.

Avalanche: You’re not that much older, Hung. He always says this.

Tubefilter: How old are you?

Hung Tran: I’m 39. I’m an old man these days in social media culture. When I look at these four, they remind me of my friend group when I was their age. These guys are amazing. Again, they’re amazing human beings. They’re all super nice. They’re kind. They’re smart. They work hard. They also get to live the dream in Los Angeles. They’re all making content, living in LA, going to Coachella with Samsung, going to street races with Rockstar. Really cool experiences.

The reason we got into the long-form side is we really want to create that relationship with our audience and really let people get to know these guys even more. I’m biased, because I work with them every day. As people spend more and more time with them, they’re just going to fall in love with these guys. They’re the aspirational friend group, I think, that the audience watches. They’re like, “Oh, I have a friend like that. I have a friend like Mike. Oh, I’m the Classy of the group.”

Avalanche: Right. I feel like, another thing, too. I hate to jump forward. I don’t know if you’ll ask–

Tubefilter: No, that’s okay.

Avalanche: –but another thing that people can relate to, I know we’re just like a group of four guys, which is like, yes, all right, dude’s cool. We’re all very diverse. Classify, Russian. My background. A lot of our content is, our parents are immigrants. Classify’s parents are immigrants. My parents both immigrated from Kenya. I’m African American. Mike is Chinese and Japanese. Then we always say Nick’s our resident Valley white guy. But even then, people watching our videos, you look at the video and you see someone who maybe looks like you, who talks like you, maybe acts like one of your friends, I feel like that boosts us even more. 

Say we were four Black dudes. Not saying that’s a bad thing, but you might not relate to a whole subgroup of people out there. Having four just very diverse and different people in a group who are good friends, it’s special, I think. I think it’s very special. You can’t just throw any four people like that who will mesh like that, who are from four different backgrounds, and make this type of concept.

Tubefilter: Yes. It’s huge. Any other cool plans you guys have for this year in terms of developing content, building out more audience engagement, that kind of stuff?

Avalanche: Hung, I’ll let you go.

Hung Tran: Like Ava alluded to, celebrity imposter is our newest property.

Avalanche: Go check it out!

Hung Tran: That’s our podcast style, right? There are so many podcasts popping up these days. For us, we love doing podcasts. As you can see, Ava loves the app.

Avalanche: I love to speak. I’m sorry. I speak over people. I talk too much. Everyone knows that about me. If you’ve met me at any point in my life, that’s how I am. I love it. I love talking.

Hung Tran: We wanted to make something different. We wanted to make something ours. Our thought is, let’s play the game that people are getting to know us for and let’s have real conversations with some of these celebrities and influencers that we have access to. Let’s take it to a different level and get to know them.

We’ve got other properties coming as well. Again, the cool part about these guys in the squad is, it’s your friend group. What do you do with your friends? You’re uber competitive with your friends, right? We’re going to create other series where the four guys are just competing at everything together. I don’t want to leak too much about the series coming, but it’s really developing properties and really letting the audience get to know the amazing people in Full Squad.

Tubefilter: Perfect. Ava, you want to add anything?

Avalanche: He said that better than I could ever say it. Hung is way more well-spoken than me, but that’s pretty much it. We don’t want to leak. We have good stuff coming, but…

Tubefilter: No spoilers.

Avalanche: Yes, no spoilers. We’ve been having meetings about what we want to do next. Obviously, we’re very aware internet trends come and go. I’m honestly still stunned that people are as engaged with imposter as they are. If anything, it’s been hitting more people and improving, especially in the long form aspect of things, but we’ll only be able to do imposter for so long. We have to start thinking about, all right, what’s next? What else? What here? What there? We don’t want to say anything, because this is going out to the world, I’m assuming. We don’t want anyone taking our ideas. They’re our ideas.

Hung Tran: Yes. It’s all about evolving and keeping up with trends and figuring out what’s next for us. The goal always is to test new things, see what works, and be on the forefront of what’s happening in culture.

Tubefilter: Ava, what’s been your favorite part of joining Full Squad?

Avalanche: I’ll say a small thing and a big thing. Small thing is I’ve known Classy for six years, seven years. A long time, longer time than anyone. Hung as well. Hung isn’t in the group of four making the content. Hung makes sure we’re all doing what we’re supposed to do. He’s the head honcho. I knew I’d be fine with Classy in terms of making content, we know how each other are. 

But in terms of Nick and Mike, the meetings are cool, but it’s like, say we moved all the way out here. It could’ve went the other way. We could’ve just not meshed on camera. Things could’ve felt a little awkward and- I don’t know. It could’ve been some friction, but I’m glad that we just naturally fell into like immediately. We’re all around the same age, which I give credit to. We can relate to a lot of things. We had similar upbringings and stuff, even with our immigrant backgrounds and whole different families. I consider it was very lucky to start on the foot we did. September, October, November, we just started rolling like naturally. Sometimes that doesn’t happen. Two people you’ve never met in your life. I’ve only known them for what? Six, seven months now, that can come together and start rolling like that. I think it’s a very special thing. The main thing that I’m– What did you say? My favorite memory so far.

Tubefilter: Yes.

Avalanche: That’s not really a memory, but it’s just something I’m thankful for. Memory is just back to the imposter stuff is how lucky we were. Obviously it was a great idea, Mike, your idea was fantastic. Mike, if you’re watching this, I love you, Mike. Great idea, but like I said, I’ve been on the internet. I always say, it doesn’t work like that. People think you just hop online, start making TikToks for a month, and one of them will blow up, and you’ll just start getting a following. It does not work like that.

I know how lucky we were. Yes, it was a good idea. Yes, I think we executed it great, but there was also, I don’t know if you want to call it luck. We were consistent, but I think there was a little bit of luck that comes to it for the first few videos to take flight like that. Then all of these numbers just start rolling in, because we always said, January we want to start doing our own stuff, not trends, not stuff that we’ve seen in the past that we can just replicate and put, regurgitate. Do our own original content in January. We started putting these out in January and they took off in January and that’s a very special thing.

I consider it as very lucky. It’s still pumping numbers. It’s what? It’s almost summer and we’re still flying high off of this trend. I’m very thankful for that. That’s easily my favorite memory with how quickly everything took off. I know the guys are too. We’re all very appreciative of how this has gone, because it is not like that on the internet.

Hung Tran: Yes, it’s very cool. We’ve built the short form subscribers on YouTube via short-form content, and we’ve only posted what? Eight videos, long-form videos on YouTube. Very, very excited about the future and very appreciative of just the subscribers and the audience who’ve supported us along the way.

Avalanche: Just saying that to all the creators out there, you’ve got to put your head down. It’s not going to just happen overnight. We got very lucky.

Filed under: Articles, Featured, Homepage Feature, Millionaires, News by James Hale
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YouTube‘s latest Culture and Trends Report includes some data-driven analysis about fandoms and the fans that drive them. One of the most fascinating findings comes from the first page of insights: 65% of Gen Z respondents self-identified as content creators.

That number is up 25% since YouTube last published its annual Trends Report. Like last year — when YouTube brought in Airrack to dissect its community — fandoms are the most consistent through-line in the report. “We’re seeing a fundamental shift in video viewership,” reads the preamble to the report. “Today, 89% of Gen Z describe themselves as a fan of someone or something. And as more people become engaged fans, fans have also moved from being consumers of culture to directly shaping it.”

To YouTube, fandoms are king, and YouTube is the place those fandoms go to engage with other aficionados. The Trends Report survey found that 73% of fans turn to YouTube for content about their fandoms. That figure is 32% higher than corresponding percentages on other platforms, YouTube claimed.

YouTube’s report mentions plenty of creators and brands that exemplify the platform’s connections to global pop culture fandoms. Thanks to YouTube’s early successes with the NFL Sunday Ticket package, creator-led football content has exploded on the platform. With the next NFL season on the horizon, all 32 teams enjoyed strong returns on their tongue-in-cheek schedule release videos.

YouTube also noted that fan interest helped VivziePop land a deal with A24 for her animated program Hazbin Hotel. And indie projects like The Amazing Digital Circus have exploded in popularity by connecting with Gen Z and Gen Alpha fandoms.

The 2024 Culture and Trends Report includes specific recommendations for brands that want to hop onto the fandom bandwagon. Among other suggestions, YouTube advised brands to “empower fan creation, lean into fan communities, and show up where creators are.” Sponsors who heed that advice could become case studies in the 2025 Culture and Trends Report.

Filed under: Articles, Featured, Homepage Feature, News by Sam Gutelle
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Fact-checkers are raising concerns about YouTube‘s policies on misinformation. At the GlobalFact conference in Sarajevo, members of Poynter‘s International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) criticized YouTube for rolling out measures that “should be more effective.”

The international fact-checking community gathered in the Bosnian capital two years after penning an open letter that described YouTube as “a major conduit of online disinformation.” Since then, YouTube has launched several products to combat misleading content, but IFCN reps believe those actions have not been sufficient.

In the letter, fact-checkers asked YouTube to provide meaningful transparency, context on videos, action against repeat offenders, and translation tools for anti-misinformation efforts. The recent national election in India — which has been dubbed the “YouTube election” because of the high volume of traffic it drove to political hubs — showed the IFCN that its needs have not been fully met.

At GlobalFact, Newchecker founder Rajneil Kamath claimed that moderators were slow to respond to conduits of misinformation. He said that one misleading channel was allowed to operate for months after it was brought to YouTube’s attention.

Now, does it cause real-world, egregious harm?” Kamath asked about that particular incident. “No, it probably doesn’t, not at that instance. But what does it do? It reduces trust in institutions. It reduces your faith in democracy. It attacks individuals in many ways, and ultimately it’s potential physical harm. But at that instance, YouTube would do absolutely nothing. And it hasn’t changed.”

YouTube hasn’t been deaf to the IFCN’s concerns. Google has supported the organization with a $13.2 million grant program, but fact-checkers say that injection is not big enough to address the boogeyman of misinformation. “We need the tech companies’ money,” said Factchequeado co-founder and CEO Laura Zommer in an interview with Poynter. “But part of the reason why we need that so much is because they are making the problem bigger and bigger.”

AI could help YouTube address one of the IFCN’s concerns. Fact-checkers are calling for more tools that can translate anti-misinformation rhetoric, and those faculties could become widely available as YouTube rolls out its AI-powered dubbing tool. A new feature that lets users add informative notes to videos could also play a role as the IFCN looks to stem the tide of misinformation.

But even with those steps, YouTube and the IFCN face an uphill battle. Bad actors can use whatever tactics they want to spread misinformation. Good actors, however, are beholden to the truth — and that uneven playing field puts YouTube in a sticky situation.

Filed under: Articles, Featured, Homepage Feature, News by Sam Gutelle
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A four-hour YouTube video has stirred up some drama. Video essayist Jenny Nicholson took to X to explain that Disney had filed a copyright claim against her long-form review of the Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser hotel.

Galactic Starcruiser, which opened in 2022, combined the perks of a holiday resort with the fun of an immersive, interactive roleplay. Disney invited Nicholson, who is one of YouTube’s foremost authorities on nerd culture, to stay at the hotel and experience the gameplay therein.

If Disney watched Nicholson’s other Star Wars-related videos, they should have expected her to deliver critical feedback within her Galactic Battlecruiser review. Her 245-minute video contained plenty of negative notes: In an epic, calculated rant, Nicholson poked fun at the hotel’s central paradox: How can one location offer both a luxurious, carefree time and a gamified experience that tackles subjects like war and fascism?

In Nicholson’s mind, that combination was poorly executed. She took Disney to task for its poor execution of the Galactic Starcruiser concept and the uninspired gameplay offered to guests. Her thorough review has been seen more than 8.6 million times, with Esther Zuckerman of The New York Times calling it “one of the most captivating pieces of entertainment I’ve seen so far this year.”

The story doesn’t end with Nicholson’s review. Weeks after its initial upload date, Nicholson explained that Disney had filed a claim against the video because of “the music playing in the background of the marketing clips.” She lamented that the process of claims and counterclaims would obfuscate the video’s true value.

“YouTubing is such an impossible job for people who rely on the Adsense every single month,” Nicholson wrote. “Because Disney tried and failed to copyright claim the Star Wars hotel video I just have no idea how much money it’s made or when I’ll get it.” Nicholson said that she expects Disney to let the claim expire after 30 days rather than releasing it in response to the creator’s appeal — a move she called “rotten.”

Disney won’t even get a chance to update Galactic Starcruiser in response to Nicholson’s critiques, because the hotel closed down in 2023 after just 18 months of operation. “Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser is one of our most creative projects ever and has been praised by our guests and recognized for setting a new bar for innovation and immersive entertainment,” reads a statement from Disney. “We will take what we’ve learned to create future experiences that can reach more of our guests and fans.”

The Mouse House could show Nicholson some goodwill by removing its claim before the 30-day expiration date. Or it could take fans’ advice and tap Nicholson as the replacement for outgoing CEO Bob Iger. I for one would love nothing more than to see how long Nicholson could rant about her own work.

Filed under: Articles, Featured, Homepage Feature, News by Sam Gutelle
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Khaby Lame wants to be a Hollywood star, and he’s ready for his close-up.

The most-followed creator on TikTok, who reaches more than 162 million followers with his wordless comedy videos, is the star of a new Tubi series. Khaby Is Coming To America is a three-part travel show that depicts its titular star’s travels across the United States.

Each 20-minute episode of Khaby Is Coming To America takes place in a different U.S. city. Lame’s Tubi show contains the hallmarks of a typical travelogue: There are quirky local characters, regional delicacies, famous locations, and guest appearances from notable residents of the chosen cities. The Italian TikToker hangs out with soccer player David Beckham in Miami, joins sports pundit Stephen A. Smith in New York, and meets up with musician Jon Batiste in New Orleans.

Alicia Keys also appears in Khaby Is Coming To America. In an interview, Variety asked Lame to share his impressions of his celebrity co-stars. “Nobody surprised me,” Lame replied. “These people were really fun. Meeting them was like I thought it would be.”

The show’s title harkens back to a 1988 film starring Eddie Murphy, and that similarity is no coincidence. Like Prince Akeem, Lame is introducing himself to Americans in pursuit of a greater goal. TikTok’s biggest draw described his Tubi series as “training” for future Hollywood projects.

Lame has been clear that he intends to become a Hollywood star. He reiterated that desire to Variety and added that he wants to be a “full actor” who is known for more than just comedy.

On his path toward that dream, Lame has directed a short film and gotten the green light for a spy comedy called 00Khaby. In contrast with that upcoming role, Lame’s new travel show feels like an appetizer.

Khaby Is Coming To America is co-produced by media and advertising company Group Black alongside consumer goods giant Procter & Gamble. Several P&G brands receive product placement in the show. Lame’s American odyssey is available exclusively through Tubi, the free, ad-supported streaming hub acquired by Fox in 2020.

Filed under: Articles, Featured, Homepage Feature, News by Sam Gutelle
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Starting on July 9, deals are coming to TikTok Shop. That’s when the app will introduce Deals For You Days, a promotion that will offer discounts through TikTok’s social shopping hub.

The brands that will offer discounts on TikTok Shop will include a few longtime creator economy partnerships, including L’Oreal and Maybelline. (If you’re not into makeup, you can always grab some Zwilling knives while they’re on sale.) Creators will support the promotion through curated product lists and live broadcasts.

Tati Westbrook, the iconic beauty creator once known as GlamLifeGuru, is one of the TikTokers who will go live to promote her faves from the Deals For You collection. Other creators set to stream include  simplymandys and Stormi Steele; they’ll be joined by brands like Benefit Cosmetics and COOLA.

TikTok announced Deals For You Days in a Newsroom post. “With everything from trending fashion and beauty products, backyard entertainment essentials and decor, summer reading bestsellers, and more, TikTok Shop’s Deals For You Days has everything you need to get into the swing of summer,” reads the post.

In the most simple sense, Deals For You Days is a straightforward promotion that will bring more customers to a hub that already counts more than 500,000 sellers in the U.S. alone. TikTok is looking to its Shop as a potential cash cow, especially as the app deals with regulatory threats posed by the U.S. government.

Deals For You Days also offers some subtle advantages for its host. Since TikTok Shop’s early days, buyers have complained about the suspect quality f the items on sale. By highlighting its accord with major brands — and offering discounts on those partners’ products — TikTok is showing that its Shop has the potential to be a high-class outlet rather than a glorified dollar store. Shoppings can start looking for savings beginning next month.

Filed under: Articles, Featured, Homepage Feature, News by Sam Gutelle
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Items from Rhett and Link‘s morning show have been enshrined in the nation’s capital. The videomaking duo took a trip to Washington, D.C. to drop off several props from Good Mythical Morning at the Smithsonian Institution.

Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal, who have co-hosted Good Mythical Morning each weekday since 2012, contributed to the Smithsonian’s “Entertainment Nation” exhibit, which features artifacts that span 150 years of American content. Rhett and Link’s additions to the exhibit include the original blindfolds they used for GMM taste tests and a microphone they used to record the show.

Entertainment Nation highlights include Star Wars props and Dorothy’s ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz. Despite that company, Rhett and Link brushed off the idea that they are becoming relics of the past. “That’s right, your boys are museum-worthy,” Neal said in a video. “Does that mean we’re old now?”

“Nah man,” McLaughlin replied. “It means the Smithsonian knows what time it is.”

@mythical The original GMM mic & blindfolds (gifted to us by an incredible fan so many years ago!) have found a new home. We’re absolutely honored to join the ranks of so many entertainment icons in the Smithsonian’s #americanhistorymuseum ♬ original sound – Rhett & Link

The National Museum of American History, which is part of the Smithsonian, discussed Rhett and Link’s donation while reeling off some of the impressive stats the duo has compiled. More than 2,600 episodes of Good Mythical Morning have been uploaded since the show’s premiere in 2012.

This is not the first time the Smithsonian has shown an interest in creator culture. It previously enshrined mementos from The Guild, the groundbreaking web series led by Felicia Day.

Rhett and Link are the latest creators to become pieces of American history, but they’re not letting that distinction slow them down. Recent items on their jam-packed agenda have included a nationwide tour and continued investments in their fellow creators. Their company, Mythical Entertainment, recently hired VC vet Jawhara Tariq as its SVP of strategy, corporate developments, and investments.

Filed under: Articles, Featured, Homepage Feature, News by Sam Gutelle
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Several new products are available on YouTube, but only a select group of paying customers can currently try them out. The latest features to roll out for YouTube Premium subscribers include an AI-powered “jump ahead” button and a tool that generates and downloads YouTube Shorts playlists for offline consumption.

YouTube announced back in March that it was testing the ability to let viewers jump ahead in the videos they’re watching. The feature is distinct from the “skip forward” option. All YouTube users can still move forward ten seconds by double-clicking or double-tapping, but the new jump ahead button offers a more expedient means of fast-forwarding videos.

Rather than requiring users to tap away until they reach the part of the video they’re seeking, the jump ahead button uses AI insights to determine the “best parts of a video,” according to a YouTube blog post. That prediction will also factor in existing viewership data.

Other new YouTube features concern its Shorts format. On Android devices, Premium subscribers can now drop their Shorts into a picture-in-picture window, thus freeing up the rest of their screen to browse other apps and websites. YouTube is also turning on “smart downloads” for Shorts. Users who take the feature for a spin will be able to watch “a fresh batch of entertaining Shorts” that will download automatically to their devices and be available for offline viewing.

AI-powered features are becoming more common within YouTube’s product updates. Artificial intelligence plays an important role in the function of the jump ahead button, and it can answer user queries in a “conversational” tone thanks to a new “Ask” option.

As has become the norm for YouTube, the new features are only available for Premium subscribers. There’s a good chance that all of these updates will eventually roll out for all users. That’s what YouTube did for its gaming hub Playables, which it first tested among its Premium community. But the only way to ensure immediate access to the jump ahead button is to pay the price. The basic YouTube Premium plan currently costs $13.99 in the U.S.

Filed under: Articles, Featured, Homepage Feature, News by Sam Gutelle
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Former Jukin Media co-founders and execs Jonathan Skogmo, Mike Skogmo, and Anton Reut have reunited to launch their own travel media brand, LOST iN, with a $4 million seed round of investment from people like pocket.watch founder Chris Williams and Fullscreen founder George Strompolos.

As part of LOST iN’s founding, it acquired the travel guidebook publisher of the same name, which was founded in 2014 and has so far produced 25 books about global travel. It’s also launching with plans to partner with travel-focused digital creators to make original content across various platforms.

The goal, the company says, is to “captivate today’s premium economy traveler,” aka “young working professionals looking for a comfortable, yet authentic travel experience.”

LOST iN is the Skogmos’ and Reut’s first joint venture since they sold Jukin Media to Reader’s Digest owner Trusted Media Brands for an undisclosed sum back in 2021. Jonathan will serve as LOST iN’s CEO, with Mike as CMO and Reut as COO.

“With Jukin we learned how to build and monetize massive audiences, and we’ll leverage those learnings to focus on travel, a category that’s ripe for disruption and that attracts an affluent, highly-desirable consumer,” Jonathan said in a statement. “The acquisition of the LOST iN guidebooks business gives us a strong direct-to-consumer element to pair alongside the ad-supported business that we’ll build around digital video, and we’ll continue to diversify around events, memberships, and other initiatives that will add value for our community.”

Reut added, “The travel industry continues to grow significantly, yet traditional travel media has struggled to find a way to connect with digital-native audiences. LOST iN will be the solution for travel enthusiasts to get entertaining and informative travel content, and for advertisers looking to reach today’s traveler. It is truly a win-win-win for audiences, creators, and advertisers.”

LOST iN’s $4 million seed round was led by MaC Venture Capital, with additional investment and advising from BDMI, Pitbull Ventures, Hawke Media founder Erik Huberman, Skybound founder David Alpert, Kevin Gould of Kombo Ventures, Richard Wolpert, Matthew Rutler, the aforementioned Williams and Strompolos, and other angel investors.

“Jonathan, Mike and Anton have a proven track record of success in the digital media space,” Marlon Nichols, Co-Founder and Managing General Partner at MaC Venture Capital, said in a statement. “Their last venture, Jukin Media, was a truly innovative business, and now they’re poised to revamp a fragmented travel media space with few trusted voices and thousands of creators and influencers creating content independently. This team has the expertise to identify and partner with talented creators to become an indispensable part of the travel enthusiast’s media diet.”

LOST iN says it’s already looking forward to more acquisitions, and is hedging bets on data from McKinsey that indicates travel is forecast to grow an average of 5.8% per year through 2032–more than double the expected annual growth rate of the economy overall.

Filed under: Homepage Feature, Jukin Media by James Hale
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Welcome to Creators on the Rise, where we find and profile breakout creators who are in the midst of extraordinary growth. You can check out previous installments here.

Angela Rafuse knew her grandfather’s cat Mackenzie was special.

But, when she started posting videos of the “spicy” senior feline in January 2021, she didn’t anticipate just how enamored with Mackenzie the internet would become–enamored enough that Rafuse would draw a community of nearly 650,000 followers and be able to launch My Grandfather’s Cat, a Canada-wide charity that works with seniors to secure homes for their pets after they pass away.

Rafuse stepped up to adopt Mackenzie after her grandfather passed away, but in doing so, became acutely aware that if she hadn’t, Mackenzie would’ve had a very slim chance at living out the rest of her life happily.

“If I couldn’t have taken her, Mackenzie would’ve spent the rest of her life at a shelter because she would’ve been 14 years old, hissing in a cage, and nobody would’ve taken her, which is valid. It’s valid, because she was very vicious. I have scars to prove it all over my body, and my face,” she says.

Despite that, Rafuse adored Mackenzie–and, watching her videos, it’s clear Mackenzie adored her too. Rafuse was working as a fundraising coordinator for the Salvation Army when she started sharing Mackenzie’s grumpy, growly life on TikTok. She thought maybe three people would see the videos. Instead, her early clips were viewed by hundreds of thousands.

“I was very naive of what the app actually was and mostly how powerful the app is, how easy it is to go viral, but how things can get picked up and shared,” she says.

And there was one prevailing question coming in from all those viewers: Why on earth did Rafuse give her cat such a human name?

Rafuse found herself explaining over and over that Mackenzie had been her grandfather’s cat, named by him. Sharing that story had a big impact on her followers. “People just resonated with it. So many people have been through this,” she says. “I love when people will comment or message me and say, ‘I adopted a senior cat because of Mackenzie.’ It’s just the best thing. Or even a spicy cat because of Mackenzie. I love that so much.”

When her account hit 30,000 followers, Rafuse figured she had enough traction to start doing something. Using her nonprofit experience, she launched My Grandfather’s Cat, which, like we mentioned, works with seniors across Canada who are going into a nursing home or preparing for death find a home for their pets, so they’re assured that nothing bad will happen to their animals when they’re gone. My Grandfather’s Cat also donates $200 worth of cats’ preferred food to seniors who need a little help keeping their companions fed. Also, most recently, My Grandfather’s Cat celebrated its three-year anniversary with a giveaway of pet food to over 300 cats and dogs in Halifax.

It was through Mackenzie (and then Bo, a soulmate cat Rafuse intended to rehome through My Grandfather’s Cat but ended up keeping) that Rafuse learned how she can make a difference to hundreds of people and their pets across Canada–with a little help from TikTok.

@angrafus3Mackenzie’s worst enemy: the parka♬ original sound – angrafus3

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Tubefilter: I’d love to start with, for anybody who’s not familiar with you, give me a little bit of background about you, where you’re from, and what your life was like before social media.

Angela Rafuse: My name is Angela Rafuse. I am from Halifax, Nova Scotia. I started TikTok in January of 2021, I believe. I should know that, but I believe it was. I had adopted my grandfather’s cat, Mackenzie, after he passed away. I was just posting cute little videos with her because she had so much personality, so started posting cute little videos with her. Never thought anything would go viral or take off, and it did. Then it turned into an opportunity for me to start a charity to help seniors find homes for their pets before they move into retirement homes or pass away. That took over on social media. I adopted another cat, and that’s where we are now. We share about the charity, about my cat, Bo, Mackenzie stories, things like that.

Tubefilter: What originally made you pick TikTok?

Angela Rafuse: It was in the pandemic. I’m a millennial, so I wasn’t deep into TikTok at that point as everyone else was. One of my girlfriends is a lawyer and was posting TikToks. I mostly joined the app to support her and share her videos, and things like that, I guess, with friends or whatever was my plan at the time. I didn’t fully understand it. I know that’s wild, but I didn’t fully understand how the app worked. I thought it was like posting on Instagram. If I post a little video of Mackenzie, it would just go to the three people following me. I understand. Yes, I hate myself for that too, because I was so naive of what the app could do.

Tubefilter: I think it worked out for you.

Angela Rafuse: It worked really well for me. I was very naive of what the app actually was and mostly how powerful the app is, how easy it is to go viral, but how things can get picked up and shared. I think we’ve all seen the perspective of somebody who will talk about their first date with somebody, and then somebody else will come and duet and share about their first date as well. It’s such a powerful app. Social media hasn’t been done like that before. I think it’s a really, really cool app. It’s also really cool for charities to spread the word about their work. It’s a lot easier to get the word out on TikTok than it is Instagram or anything else.

Tubefilter: For people who don’t know her, tell us a little bit about Mackenzie.

Angela Rafuse: Mackenzie was my grandfather’s cat. I adopted her when he passed away. She did pass away about almost a year ago now, but she will always be the foundation of the work of the charity and everything else. 

Mackenzie was a grumpy, growly cat. She had the growliest– I called it a smoker’s meow. I don’t know. She literally sounded like she smoked a pack a day for her whole life. She had this growly meow. She was such a chatterbox. If I was holding her and I would talk to her, she would growl or meow back. She would hiss all the time. She had just such a spicy personality. She was also sweet and loving and loved to go on adventures. She loved to go kayaking and boating, and just different things like that. 

I just shared Mackenzie, our lives. We made these little “getting ready” videos, because when we were going on adventures, I would get her dressed to go, like just put her harness on, maybe a rain jacket if it was not nice outside, because I’m that kind of millennial cat mom. Those videos just took off because I think Mackenzie was just growling and then just sitting there, so no one really understood why she was growling but not running away. Those were videos that mostly took off in the beginning. Now, it’s more about sharing about the charity and Mackenzie’s legacy, and things like that.

Tubefilter: She sounds like an incredibly cool cat.

Angela Rafuse: That was the coolest cat in the entire world. How many cats do you know that would sit on your lap in a kayak? There are a couple on TikTok. That’s what Mackenzie did. She would be on the speedboat in her life jacket just sitting on the front of the speedboat flying down the water. 

I think another part that people didn’t realize is she was 17 years ol. She wasn’t a kitten, and she was doing all of these things. She just loved it.

Tubefilter: So you posted videos thinking that they would go out to three people.

Angela Rafuse: Yes.

Tubefilter: What happened? When did you start to think, Oh, this could become a thing? Then when did the charity aspect come into it?

Angela Rafuse: It’s funny. At the beginning when we would post videos and they would go viral, I would be in the comments talking to people. I don’t do that as much anymore for my own mental health and well-being. People say some mean things on the internet. I think once a video gets to a certain point, I just don’t read the comments anymore. I always do at the beginning, because those are people that are sweet, but then you know how the internet can be.

I’m definitely not the first person to talk about that. When I started posting videos at first, so many people would comment and say, “Why did you name your cat Mackenzie?” I would say, “She’s not my cat. She’s my grandfather’s cat. I didn’t name her.” Because Mackenzie is a weird name for a cat. I don’t know why my grandparents named her Mackenzie. It is a weird name for a cat.

Tubefilter: Oh no, I love cats with people names.

Angela Rafuse: Oh, her full name was Mackenzie Sheila Diane Rafuse.

Tubefilter: Oh my god. She sounds like a Golden Girl.

Angela Rafuse: She does. [laughs] I gave her those middle names. They were my grandmother’s middle names. It was bad, Mackenzie just wasn’t long enough, but Mackenzie Sheila Diane was. Then obviously she had my last name. Then we would get mail all the time, packages for “Mackenzie Rafuse,” which was hilarious because it was a person’s name. 

So many people would comment and say, “Why did you name your cat Mackenzie?” I would say, “She’s my grandfather’s cat. I adopted her when he passed away.” Then people were sharing their stories like, “Oh, I wish I could have done this. My grandparents’ cat ended up in a shelter.”

I worked in nonprofit for a while. I was like, there’s got to be some resource that I can send to people. There was nothing that existed to help seniors rehome their pets in a way that the senior could keep the cat until the very last day, somebody could find a home, and when the senior moved to the retirement home, the cat could move as well. I worked in marketing for nonprofits. I knew how to run a charity. I was in the pandemic, and I was bored. I was like, I can start this just a little side project. Famous last words: How big could it get?

I think we had about 20,000 or 30,000 followers on TikTok when I launched the charity. After that, it grew like wildfire. Our account kept growing and growing and growing. It was just amazing. People just resonated with it. So many people have been through this. Even if people can’t adopt through our charity, it’s inspired so many people to adopt senior cats, which is my favorite thing in the world. I love when people will comment or message me and say, “I adopted a senior cat because of Mackenzie.” It’s just the best thing. Or even a spicy cat because of Mackenzie. I love that so much.

Then I shared my other cat, Bo. I adopted him through the charity. It’s a lot of Bo content these days. He was 13 years old when I adopted him. He’s going to be 17 in June. He’s just the best guy in the world and has so much life to live. 

I think our account really does show how much life senior cats have to live, and how much they’re filled with love and personality at any age. Even though you won’t have a senior cat as long, if you adopt them older, you’re going to be loved to the point where it’s an unimaginable amount of love from senior cats.

Tubefilter: Obviously you have a lot of cats that cross your path. What made Bo the one that you were going to adopt next?

Angela Rafuse: Bo was not a planned adoption. Bo, I emergency fostered for one night.

Tubefilter: Oh, foster fail!

Angela Rafuse: He is a foster fail. He slept in my arms, and I could not let him go. Just couldn’t. He was mine. We were just meant to be together. We are soulmates in every way. We like all of the same things. We like snuggling on the couch. We both hate sleeping alone. We both like eating cheese. We were just meant to be together. I love him a lot, so I’m very, very grateful that he was a foster fail.

Tubefilter: How did he end up coming to you? You said he was an emergency?

Angela Rafuse: He was actually our second adoptable. It was at the very beginning of the charity, where I was still trying to figure out how things were going to work. We really figured it out as we went along for the first few months, like, how can we create a service that’s going to work for seniors? I had found a home for Bo. His senior was moving on Friday, and the new family couldn’t take him until Saturday, or maybe it was something like that. I was able to drive Bo to his new home. When I drove him to his new home, the family changed their minds when we got there–which, it happens.

It was, again, in the very beginning they changed their minds. I was like, “That’s fine. I can take him to my place for a few nights, get him settled and then find him another family.” As much as I fell madly in love with him, I found him another family, because I was like, “I can’t keep all the cats. That’s not going to be a very good charity if it’s just me hoarding animals.” 

I did find him another home.He made it two nights at his second home until the family called and they’re like, “Honestly, we feel like he’s waiting for you to come pick him up.” I went and he just came out from under their couch and ran into my arms and I was like, “All right, you’re going to come home and we’re just going to be together.” We’ve been together ever since.

I’d like to note, we have successfully completed 187 other adoptions and I have not kept the cat. I only did it once. [laughs]

Tubefilter: That’s quite the origin story though. What a lad. 

Angela Rafuse: We are definitely meant to be together. He is such a lovebug.

Tubefilter: How does the charity operate now? Do you have a location? Do you have a network of foster homes? How do things work?

Angela Rafuse: What we do is we have a network of volunteers across the country, across Canada. When a senior is ready to move into a retirement home, or somebody that’s participating in MAID, so medical assistance in dying, they submit an application. One of our volunteers will work with them. They’ll write the profile, get some photos, everything like that. We’ll post them on our website, social email list, the whole nine yards. When someone’s interested, the volunteer will interview them, make sure they’re a good fit for the adoptable, and a decent human being.

If we deem them a good fit, we’ll pass their information along to the senior. The senior then interviews all the applicants and chooses someone. Then they take the cat directly from the senior’s home to the new family. We don’t actually house any of the animals. The goal is for them to stay with their seniors and never have to be in a foster home or a shelter. Just go directly from one home to the other, because a lot of our adoptables are seniors as well, so it provides a lot less stress on the animal. It’s a really unique, not done service. 

Oh, it is a free service–we don’t charge adoption fees either, which is really cool as well. We’re really grateful that we have a lot of donors and we don’t have to charge. We also provide a pet food bank. It’s called My Grandmother’s Pet Pantry. I named it after my grandmother, because I named the charity after my grandfather, so I thought she should get something as well. Every season, we provide 25 seniors with $200 worth of pet food that’s completely free, shipped directly to their door, to help them. We’re all impacted by the rising cost of living, so this helps seniors on a fixed income be able to feed their cats exactly what their cat likes. That’s how the charity works.

Tubefilter: Amazing. Social media is still obviously a really huge part of what you do. You post a lot of adoptables. I’m just curious how it plays into the whole charity.

Angela Rafuse: Social media is how we find second forever homes. Without it, we couldn’t do the work we do. The charity wouldn’t exist without social media. It is the foundation of our work. We have the most incredible community. We have my TikTok community, which I believe is over 600,000 now. We have our Instagram community, which is over 100,000, and then our Facebook community which I think is 17,000. All people that are supporters of the charity, they want to adopt through us. We use social media in the way a shelter would’ve traditionally used adoption events.

People come in on a Saturday and just meet all the cats. We use social media for that. Social media allows us to save a huge amount of overhead. We don’t have to have cats in a shelter. Cats can literally stay in their homes. We can find them a home and they can move directly without, again, a foster, a shelter, anything like that. It actually makes it better for the animal, easier for us as an organization, keeps our costs really low. Overall, it’s the most powerful tool, and the charity couldn’t exist without it.

Tubefilter: I’m sure that’s a huge relief. Just personally, I was really ill a few years ago and I have two cats I absolutely adore. I have no idea what would’ve happened to them if things had gone downhill with me, so it must be a huge relief for so many people to know that their cats are going somewhere safe.

Angela Rafuse: It is. Also what’s really cool is just the things that have happened since with the charity. The ripple effect, I guess. So many people have been inspired to adopt senior cats because of our organization. Not only that, but a lot of seniors have adopted senior cats. It’s so funny, because seniors will apply through us and say, “Am I too old to adopt a cat?”

At our organization, no, you’re not. We only want to rehome a cat once, but heaven forbid something happened to you, that’s why we’re here. A lot of seniors have actually adopted cats because of us, and have been able to have that companionship that they would’ve lost out on solely because of worrying what would happen to the cat when they passed away. That’s been really cool as well.

For us, I say we don’t discriminate. I know maybe it’s not the best word, but we don’t discriminate based on age, health condition, no matter what it is. We will help a cat at any stage of life, at any age, because I know there’s people, really great people out there that will adopt cats at older ages. We’ve had multiple cats with diabetes that need insulin injections. We had a 17-year-old cat once.

We have a lot of 16-year-old cats, where people will go to shelters and because there are no-kill shelters in Canada and they’re to capacity, they’re just like, “Look, if you can find a home for this cat on your own, that would be great,” because a 16-year-old cat in a shelter… One, they’re not going to do well. They’re not going to adapt easily. It’s going to be really hard for them and they’re probably not going to get adopted. You don’t want them living the rest of their lives out at a shelter like Mackenzie would’ve.

If I couldn’t have taken her, Mackenzie would’ve spent the rest of her life at a shelter because she would’ve been 14 years old, hissing in a cage, and nobody would’ve taken her, which is valid. It’s valid, because she was very vicious. I have scars to prove it all over my body, and my face. I think that’s what’s great about our charity too, is it doesn’t matter. I won’t give up on an animal. That’s somebody’s best friend. I couldn’t give up on an animal. We will help no matter the age. We’ll be there, and we’ll do our best to find second forever homes. I believe our success rate right now–I hate saying this, because then I feel like it jinxes it–I think it’s 97%.

Tubefilter: Oh, wow.

Angela Rafuse: The cats we’ve helped have been adopted, but again, that’s social media, that’s our community. There are such good people out there just waiting for the opportunity to adopt an older cat. It’s the greatest thing ever. It is truly the greatest thing, or it’s the greatest joy. It’s the greatest thing I’ve ever done. It’s my whole life. It’s my life’s purpose. I should probably get a hobby or a relationship. Till then…

Tubefilter: You did say Bo was your soulmate, so I think you’re set.

Angela Rafuse: He is. He’s the only man that’s allowed in this apartment.

Tubefilter: That’s very fair. [laughs]

Angela Rafuse: It’s my greatest joy. I’m so lucky and fortunate and grateful that I get to do this every single day as a job. I do social media on the side, which I’m very fortunate about as well, but to do this charity as a job and have people just believe in it and support it, I’m so lucky. I’m so, so lucky. 

Tubefilter: I know you said you get a lot of donations, but have you applied for any grants, or any provincial funding?

Angela Rafuse: We have. For the first two years, I did this on top of my full-time job.

Tubefilter: What did you used to do?

Angela Rafuse: I worked in fundraising for community programs for the Salvation Army, all the different shelters, the youth programs, the LGBT programs, all of that, that’s what I did. I did the fundraising for all of that at Salvation Army. That’s my background. 

Tubefilter: That really is a perfect job to set you up for this.

Angela Rafuse: I had the background. I had the experience and I had also been there for five years, so I was ready for a change. The bigger the charity is, the more of a slow-moving unit it is for change in any way. Even something simple as filming Instagram Reels becomes a beast with big charities. It’s not as simple as me with my phone. 

That’s what I love about having my own charity and being able to do this. I have a lot of creative freedom, where I’m like, this is a trend we can jump on, and I can do it right away. Granted, we are getting big. The charity is becoming an absolute beast of its own, but what a problem to have! We’re helping so many cats. We’re providing food for so many seniors. 

We are getting to the point now that this is my full-time job now, and I’m very fortunate that it is. I get to now take the time to apply for grants. We did receive our first grant for our pet pantry, and we’ll be applying for a lot more grants as we grow, as we get bigger, and as we need funding. I’m not really one to hoard grant money or things like that. If we have enough to operate, great, but we’ll continue to apply as we get bigger and the needs get bigger as well.

Tubefilter: Being on social media gave you the opportunity to launch this charity, but what else has been your favorite part of being on socials?

Angela Rafuse: It’s definitely inspiring people to adopt senior cats. I think that’s the best thing ever. I think that’s definitely my favorite thing, is when people adopt cats because of things like this. It’s also made me feel very normal about my love of cats. I don’t know how to describe that. For me, Bo is my child. Mackenzie was my child. They are the loves of my life. Bo is the love of my life, so was Mackenzie. Because they are, I love them so deeply. I treat Bo like gold. Bo doesn’t have bad days. Bo has his own iPad. He’s currently sleeping in his, I think it’s a yurt. [angles camera]

Tubefilter: Look at that fancy man.

Angela Rafuse: In his yurt. Brands are really, really generous. They will send us lots of things for Bo as well. He’s got so many toys and things, even Mackenzie got them, that I didn’t know existed beforehand. Once I watched Mackenzie, I remember this day so well, she ate breakfast from the feeder that was sent to her, played with toys from a subscription box that was sent to her, then climbed up on her cat tree that was sent to her, and then laid on the window ledge that was sent to her. Her whole life was just brand things that were sent to her. I don’t even know half of these products exist until a brand reaches out to us and says, “I think your cat would love this.” I’m like, “I think they would too.” 

The other day, somebody sent Bo whack-a-mole cheese. It looks like a little piece of cheese, and little mice come out of it and my cats can whack them. He loves that so much. I wouldn’t have even known that that existed. Bo and Mackenzie, it gave them such a more exciting life, and it’s made me feel so much more normal. I did a video the other day of packing for Bo’s stuff to go to my parents’ house, and so many people were just commenting like, “I feel so seen. I feel like this is me.” Different things like that. Even people were commenting. I remember this one girl commented about how she has a plant that her cats like to dig up and then plant back. She has to replant it. She sent that to her mom’s house when she was babysitting her cats. That makes me feel so much better about the extreme I go to.

Tubefilter: It’s normal!

Angela Rafuse: I just feel so much more normal and seen, and relatable. It’s nice to have that many people believe in my idea. Because sometimes you sit there and you come up with these ideas, and you’re like, I wonder if this will work. It’s very validating that that many people support it and think it’s a good idea too. Very lucky.

Tubefilter: Before we go, I’d like to hear more about your pet food pantry.    

Angela Rafuse: I think a lot of food banks in, I know Nova Scotia, for sure, do carry pet food, but there’s a big difference I personally find. When it comes to humans, say you’re giving me two types of crackers. I might not prefer the second type, but I’ll eat it if I’m hungry. I’ll understand that I need to eat that to survive. Now granted, nobody should have to do that. Absolutely no one should. If there’s a human in a desperate situation, they know how to do that. 

Cats don’t understand that. Cats, especially if you have an older cat, will stick their nose up to anything. Bo ate only cheddar cat food, the cheddar-flavored Fancy Feast, for an entire week. Then he woke up one day and decided he didn’t like that anymore. Thank goodness, I had bought three boxes of it. Thank you, Bo. We always have to rotate flavors. Cats just don’t understand that. That’s why with our pet pantry, you just can’t give a person anything for a cat and hopefully their cat will eat it. That’s why with our pet pantry, we work with the seniors to send them the exact food that their cat eats.

Tubefilter: That’s huge.

Angela Rafuse: We just ship it directly to their door. Even starting a pet food bank and having pet food is amazing. It’s amazing to have, but we try to take it the extra step to make sure that we’re sending people exactly what they want.

Tubefilter: Delivery for seniors is so important, too.

Angela Rafuse: Seniors have such a hard time get getting out. We send $200 worth of pet food. That’s a lot of pet food. We really can send enough that it’s going to make a big impact in their lives and it’s not going to help them for just a week, but actually a big impact. That’s why we use Amazon to ship it directly to their door. It works really well. It ships directly to their door. Seniors love it. The dignity is a big piece as well. A lot of seniors just have a really hard time asking for help in any way. Especially the ones that have been independent their whole lives and now need help. This is a discreet way of going about it. They apply online, I reach out to them, ship them the food, they never have to leave their home.

I definitely structured it so it’s a very unique program. Now we’re not as able to help as many people through a program like this, but we just launched it in February. We’re really trying to grow it as much as we can and as much as we can get donations and eventually grants and things like that. My only other note, I don’t know if I mentioned this is because I’m a marketer. This is important to me. We launched my grandfather’s cat, the charity, on my grandfather’s birthday, which is May 18th. We launched the pet pantry on February 20th, which is my grandmother’s birthday.

Angela Rafuse is repped by Viral Nation.

Filed under: Articles, Creators on the Rise, Featured, Homepage Feature, News by James Hale
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Real-life battle royales are so hot right now, and a top Kick streamer is hopping on the bandwagon. Ice Poseidon (real name Paul Denino) has opened up applications for a Hunger Games-inspired competition that will pit creators against one another with a $100,000 prize on the line.

On X, Denino explained that his Hunger Games event will take place in “late July.” 50 competitors will enter a sprawling battleground in Austin, Texas, and the last creator standing will take home the $100,000 prize. Denino solicited applications from creators who don’t “have any history of medical concerns,” and he noted that applicants who send in highly-liked submission videos will be more likely to be selected.

Late July, I’m doing a Hunger Games recreation for $100,000. If you would like to compete please post a video submission in my X community (link below). State why you’d make a good contestant and any skills you have. Must not have any history of medical concerns. 50 competitors.… pic.twitter.com/EDJZinzEdH

— Ice_Poseidon (@REALIcePoseidon) June 23, 2024

Unlike the actual Hunger Games, Denino’s recreation won’t be a battle to the death. (The man known as Ice Poseidon is controversial, but not that controversial.) Instead, contestants will be outfitted with chest-mounted cameras and light-up vests that will track the amount of “health” players have left.

Denino’s announcement comes just a few weeks after Kai Cenat shared his own plan to put on a real-life battle royale. That reveal was met with mixed reviews: While Cenat’s fans are eager to see the spectacular event, creator Sam Hyde accused the Twitch star of stealing his idea.

Despite Hyde’s complaint, creator battle royales are becoming more common thanks to the influence of games like Fortnite, Apex Legends, and PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds. Denino’s take on the format will be broadcast on his Kick account, and contestants are expected to stream on their Kick channels as well.

A shared event of that size could be huge for Kick, which is looking to build up a homegrown community by offering financial incentives for streamers. Even if Twitch’s CEO thinks that Kick has focused too heavily on big-name streamers, Ice Poseidon’s Hunger Games event reminds us that the actions of top Kick stars can benefit the platform as a whole.

Filed under: Articles, Featured, Homepage Feature, News by Sam Gutelle
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Dr Disrespect (aka Guy Beahm) has been booted by his own game development studio after it was revealed that his Twitch permaban stemmed from him using the platform’s DM system to message a minor.

Speculation over the cause of Beahm’s 2020 permaban has been rampant for years, with some people thinking it might be because of the 2019 incident where he filmed in a bathroom at E3, and others suspecting he was being punished for trying to create a Twitch competitor. Rumors reignited in 2022, after Beahm “[sued] the fuck” out of Twitch and settled for an undisclosed amount of money.

But Twitch has a policy of not commenting on reasons for bans (even going so far as to not tell streamers themselves why they’re banned), and Beahm wouldn’t confirm what had happened, so there was no way of knowing why Twitch had cut ties with one of its most prominent streamers.

Until June 21, when former Twitch employee Cody Conners tweeted, “He got banned because got caught sexting a minor in the then existing Twitch whispers product. He was trying to meet up with her at TwitchCon. The powers that be could read in plain text.”

No one made the wrong decision, fuck him and his boys.

— Cody Conners (@evoli) June 22, 2024

Not long after that tweet, Midnight Society, which Beahm founded in 2021 and which is developing its first title Deadrop, confirmed it had cut ties with him. “We assumed his innocence and began speaking with parties involved. And in order to maintain our principles and standards as a studio and individuals, we needed to act,” the studio tweeted. “For this reason, we are terminating our relationship with Guy Beahm immediately.”

The studio hasn’t said anything yet, but it appears Deadrop will continue developing Deadrop without Beahm.

Beahm eventually took to Twitter himself and confirmed what Conners had said was true: he was banned for DMing a minor.

“Were there twitch whisper messages with an individual minor back in 2017? The answer is yes. Were there real intentions behind these messages, the answer is absolutely not. These were casual, mutual conversations that sometimes leaned too much in the direction of being inappropriate, but nothing more,” he wrote. “Nothing illegal happened, no pictures were shared, no crimes were committed, I never even met the individual.”

He added, “Now, from a moral standpoint I’ll absolutely take responsibility. I should have never entertained these conversations to begin with. That’s on me. That’s on me as an adult, a husband and a father. It should have never happened. I get it. I’m not perfect and I’ll fucking own my shit. This was stupid.”

Beahm went on to say he’s currently taking an “extended vacation” from stream, “and I’m coming back with a heavy weight off my shoulders.”

It’s not surprising he wants to be off camera for a while, considering he appeared to have been live the moment he heard Midnight Society was dropping him:

You can see the exact moment Dr Disrespect appears to find out that Midnight Society is dropping him, or some other seemingly bad news related to his Twitch ban allegations.

He had just defeated Bayle The Dread and went to look at his phone after fast travelling to Scadu Atlus pic.twitter.com/CwgPSVYCXc

— AmericanTruckSongs9 (@ethangach) June 24, 2024

He was also live back in 2020 when he was informed of the Twitch ban, and his reaction to that news was caught on camera, too.

A source familiar with the matter told The Verge Beahm was found out because a moderation report was filed on the DMs with the minor “a significant amount of time” later. Twitch appears to have banned Beahm swiftly after the report was filed.

Twitch has not publicly commented on the situation; if it does, we’ll update this story with any new info.

Filed under: Homepage Feature by James Hale
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