The Unwell Network has announced its latest signing. The media company founded by Call Her Daddy host Alex Cooper will work with Hallie Batchelder, an upstart creator with growing followings on TikTok and Instagram.

Alongside Cooper and the rest of the Unwell team, Batchelder will develop multiple projects. Specific details about those ventures haven’t been revealed yet, but the Unwell Network is best known for its library of podcasts, including Call Her Daddy, Madeline Argy‘s Pretty Lonesome, and Alix Earle‘s  Hot Mess.

Argy and Earle were the first two creators who joined up with Cooper when the Call Her Daddy host announced the Unwell Network last year. The podcasts born out of those partnerships quickly shot up the Spotify charts, where Cooper and her chatty podcast have long been mainstays.

The latest addition to the Unwell roster is known for her posts on TikTok — where, in the last month alone, several of her clips have received at least one million views — and her Instagram Live broadcasts. She signaled her upcoming alliance with Unwell back in May, when she wore a hoodie emblazoned with the company’s logo in one of her Instagram posts.

 

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A post shared by Hallie Batchelder (@halliebatchelder)

The Unwell Network is a subsidiary of Trending, the Gen Z media company founded by Cooper and her partner Matt Kaplan of ACE Entertainment. “I could not be more excited for Hallie Batchelder to join the Unwell family,” Cooper said in a statement. “When I came across Hallie’s content online, I was immediately hooked and knew she belonged at the network. Not only does she truly embody the Unwell brand, but she is true to who she is. People crave authenticity and I think that’s why Hallie’s ‘tell it like it is’ personality resonates so well with so many.”

Unwell’s leading lady is set up for a big summer. She will contribute to NBC’s coverage of the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. That gig should raise her profile while benefitting the creators in her orbit — including Batchelder.

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Unspeakable is the latest channel to step into the FAST lane. The content brand led by creator Nathan Milner has announced a new app that will bundle Unspeakable clips for distribution on free, ad-supported TV channels.

The app comes out of a partnership between content studio FilmRise and over-the-top distributor Future Today. The two firms announced Unspeakable’s FAST foray during a VidCon Anaheim session that featured FilmRise Head of Content Jonitha Keymoore and Future Today SVP of Content and Partnerships David Di Lorenzo.

Last year, FilmRise announced that it was working with YouTubers to bring their content to TV screens. Unspeakable has been a recurring partner for FilmRise’s creator-to-TV pipeline, and the new app — which Future Today will design and host — is the latest extension of that accord.

The app will include 200 hours of content from the Unspeakable YouTube channels, including the main hub as well as the UnspeakablePlays destination. The videos have been repackaged into a TV-friendly format that will include multiple channels. In addition to Unspeakable and UnspeakablePlays series, the app will also offer an “Unspeakable for Kids” hub that will be appropriate for viewers of all ages.

FilmRise has worked with creator management firm Night, which reps Unspeakable, since 2021. The two companies’ joint effort has allowed 119 hours of Unspeakable content to live on the new app.

Creator apps have been hot commodities for more than a decade, and they have gained additional relevance in the current heyday of FAST content. Creator services provider Jellysmack, for example, has worked with dozens of partners on FAST-focused apps.

“The demand for this app underscores the ever-growing appetite for digital-first series tailor-made for a traditional viewing experience,” Keymoore said in a statement. “This effort solidifies FilmRise’s position as the go-to destination for digital-first properties seeking wider distribution opportunities.”

As Milner continues to star in Unspeakable’s chart-topping videos, he is making time for several other ventures. In 2022, he launched an outdoor adventure park in the Dallas area. He also recently teamed up with Minecraft creator Aphmau on a line of juiceboxes.

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Google is considering partnerships with creators as part of its investment in the AI arms race. According to a report from The Information, Google is developing customizable chatbots that will run on its in-house large language model, Gemini.

The report indicates that Google’s chatbot users will be able to customize the personality and appearance of their AI companions. The product could eventually be integrated into YouTube, and Google has reportedly held talks with creators about the possibility of developing chatbots based on those influencers’ likenesses.

That plan sounds similar to the one Meta has put into place for its AI characters. Some of the chatbots powered by Meta’s Llama LLM were built in tandem with creators like Charli D’Amelio and MrBeast. TikTok has also explored the idea of launching its own customizable chatbot product.

All of that activity has compelled Google to supercharge its AI chatbot operation. According to The Information, Google Doodle design Ryan Germick is leading the Google Labs team that is spearheading the Gemini companion project. “Google Labs is a place where we experiment with future AI product ideas—some of which may be integrated into our products at some point, some of which will not,” a Google spokesperson told The Information.

Google’s customizable chatbots are likely to have a lot of details in common with the ones offered by Character.AI. The similarities make sense, given the latter firm’s connection to Mountain View. Character.AI was founded by a pair of former Google engineers in 2021.

There isn’t any buzz yet about which specific YouTubers could lend their likenesses to the Google Labs operation, but the development of those avatars has the potential to be hugely helpful for creators. Instagram is working on a program that would outsource some tasks — including fan interactions — to lookalike AIs.

Google hasn’t offered an exact timeline for its customizable chatbot rollout, but The Information noted that the new AIs could arrive as early as “this year.”

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Gifted subs are coming to Patreon. The creator funding platform announced its new monetization option amidst a flurry of updates.

Patreon conveyed several changes through a blog post it published one day before the start of VidCon Anaheim. The most notable update concerns gifted subs, a key revenue source for creators on Twitch that has been copied by platforms across the social web. Patreon’s take on gifted subscriptions is part of its plan to convert patrons with free memberships into paying customers.

“Gifting is one of the all-time most requested tools for creators on Patreon — and now it’s in the works. We’re testing the ability to gift membership to fans for a set amount of time,” reads the blog post. “Gifting will live in a new, dedicated Promotions tab alongside other new tools for discounting digital products and automating offers.”

Tools for converting patrons are currently the name of the game for Patreon, which announced a year ago that it would allow non-paying patrons to access some content for free. In its latest update, Patreon revealed positive results from its shift. 30 million free memberships have been acquired over the past year, and more than half of those freeloaders have said they could be interested in upgrading to a paid option.

Patreon also noted that 90% of creators who have “highly active communities” earn at least $1,000 per month. To encourage the development of even more active communities, Patreon will let creators count down to the release of new content by hosting a live chat alongside patrons. (YouTube’s Premieres, anyone?) Free patrons will soon have access to community chats as well, and creators will be able to bundle posts in sellable collections as a means of upselling those non-paying supporters.

Though an exact timeline for the rollout of these new features isn’t available, Patreon has said that its gifted subs and chat countdowns are “coming next.” Updates about the platform’s incoming products can be found here.

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The legal battle between TikTok and the United States government has the app’s partners reeling. According to the Financial Times, ad agencies are drawing up contingency plans that will go into effect if TikTok is banned in the U.S. or spun off from its parent company ByteDance.

The Financial Times report cited higher-ups at several agencies that represent brands on TikTok. Those firms are figuring out what they’ll do if the Protecting Americans From Foreign Adversaries Act (PAFFAA) is upheld in court. Per the terms of the new U.S. law, ByteDance must divest TikTok within 270 days, or else the app will be restricted in the U.S. TikTok’s Beijing-based parent has indicated that it has no plans to divest, and it is mounting a multi-pronged legal challenge against PAFFAA.

Some agencies are protecting against PAFFAA by seeking “kill clauses” that will release financial commitments if the TikTok ban goes through. Others are considering budgetary shifts that would allocate more resources for operations on social platforms other than TikTok.

“If a ban is triggered, we would expect ad revenue to move to other social-video platforms, such as Meta’s Reels and YouTube’s Shorts, as well as other digital media owners, and the creators and influencers currently active on those platforms,” reads a GroupM report published earlier this month.

At the Cannes Lions festival in Southern France, TikTok execs got a chance to advise agencies about their investments on the app. TikTok Global Head of Brand Marketing Sofia Hernandez told Campaign that advertisers should consider TikTok as an entertainment platform, not just a social media service. That’s a familiar line for TikTok and its reps.

“In general, agencies and others feel like TikTok is social media, when really it’s entertainment,” Hernandez said. “There’s still this old-school concept of virality and that’s not really what this is about. It’s about, ‘How do we really make something that we think people are going to enjoy and connect with?’ And that, in turn, makes it.”

Despite TikTok’s reassurances, some of its partners are concerned about how a potential ban could impact the bottom line. The app itself, on the other hand, is proceeding as if PAFFAA has little chance of holding up in court. It is continuing to aggressively expand its TikTok Shop infrastructure, and it recently leased more office space in the Seattle area.

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After landing a blockbuster deal with Amazon and becoming YouTube’s most-subscribed creator, Jimmy Donaldson is heading back into the lab — the MrBeast Lab, that is.

That’s the name of a new toy line co-developed by Donaldson and Moose Toys, the brand known for items like Shopkins and Magic Mixies. Those two entities are working together on a full set of collectibles and action figures. The designs will capture “the ferocity of the globally recognizable MrBeast logo,” according to a press release shared by Moose Toys.

“Moose Toys is always pushing boundaries to innovate in new ways and we’re going to blow up the toy industry with this line,” Donaldson said in a statement. “Their dedication to the smallest details and challenging themselves to go beyond the point of disruption is how I approach every aspect of my brand. I’m super pumped about this partnership and know my fans are going to love it.”

Items in the MrBeast Lab line include micro collectibles called Swarms, color-changing toys called Mutators, and additional figures that will resemble MrBeast’s panther logo. At launch, all items will be available for $24.99 and under.

Both of the parties behind MrBeast Lab will support the joint venture through multiple avenues of promotions. The toys are expected to show up in MrBeast videos, which reach Donaldson’s 289 million subscribers on YouTube. Moose Toys will exhibit the line at Comic-Con International, which will return to San Diego in July.

Moose Toys discussed its partnership with Donaldson back in January. At the time, the toy brand said that its MrBeast-inspired figurines would hit shelves in the fall, but U.S.-based consumers will get access to the line a bit sooner. MrBeast Lab items will see release in July in the U.S. Expansion to other regions will come at a later date.

To keep tabs on the growing number of ventures in the MrBeast universe, Donaldson has established a unit called Beast Industires and hired a veteran of VC firm SoftBank to lead it. In the meantime, Donaldson continues to plug away on some of the biggest videos he has ever released. His Amazon show Beast Games doesn’t have an official release date, but it could take MrBeast mania to another level whenever it eventually arrives on streaming services.

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[Editor’s Note: Tubefilter Charts is a weekly rankings column from Tubefilter with data provided by GospelStats. It’s exactly what it sounds like: a top number ranking of YouTube channels based on statistics collected within a given time frame. Check out all of our Tubefilter Charts with new installments every week right here.]

Among the 50 most-watched U.S.-based YouTube channels during the third week of June, only nine have a significant presence on the long-form version of YouTube. A Shorts channel even dethroned MrBeast at the top of our all-American ranking.

Music fans will find a few curious insights in this week’s U.S. Top 50. Here’s the scoop:

Chart Toppers

The top five channels in this week’s U.S. Top 50 is a crowded bunch, but Jason Derulo was able to separate himself from the pack. The singer-songwriter has become a regular factor in these charts thanks to his activity on Shorts. He promotes his music by attaching it to some of the most widely-circulated short-form videos on YouTube. That’s right: The man who was once “Ridin’ Solo” is now a serial reposter who gets 565.1 million weekly views. And yes, feel free to use “Jason Derulo’s Meme Account” for your next trivia team name.

J House jr. has equaled its highest-ever finish in the U.S. Top 50. The family-oriented Shorts channel has had a breakout year so far in 2024, and its fortunes improved during our most recent seven-day measurement period. With a library full of bright and colorful Shorts content, J House jr. increased its traffic by 11% week-over-week to reach 562.4 million weekly views. The current chart leader among U.S.-based family channels now has more than four billion lifetime views, and it’s on track to cross the five million mark sometime in July.

MrBeast is in third place in the U.S. Top 50. The most-watched and most-subscribed individual American creator on YouTube has seen his weekly traffic decline since he pulled in 1.3 billion weekly views at the start of June. This time out, MrBeast finished our latest measurement period with 531.9 million weekly views, which was 25% less traffic than his previous seven-day sum. In spite of that viewership decline, Jimmy Donaldson can say that he’s one of the few creators in this week’s U.S. Top 50 who isn’t predominantly active on Shorts (even if he does have a sizable presence within that format).

Another individual creator is sitting in fourth place in the U.S. Top 50. Alan Chikin Chow was the fourth of four channels with at least 500 million weekly views during the third week of June. With 507.3 million weekly views, Chow barely cleared that benchmark while also bringing his lifetime YouTube traffic above 40 billion. It was also a big week for Chow in other ways. The man known for his YouTube Shorts comedy videos has signed with talent agency CAA, which will represent him as he continues to stake out his place on our leaderboard.

MaviGadget rounds out this week’s U.S. top five. The short-form stalwart used its library of tool-focused videos to collect 482.5 million weekly views.

Top Gainers

Jason Derulo isn’t the only musician who is using YouTube Shorts to increase the size of his following. Another individual riding a wave of short-form traffic is Magelias Kristofer, the producer known as Prvnci.

Once upon a time, Prvnci’s output on YouTube was focused around his long-form videos, which he used to share the songs he produced and performed. The advent of Shorts, however, has changed the nature of Prvnci’s output. He now gets millions of views with Shorts that follow curious members of the animal kingdom. Prvnci explains that change simply with a line in his channel description: “We are all animals.”

Like Jason Derulo, Prvnci uses short-form aggregation as a vehicle for sharing music. His songs and beats typically serve as the soundtrack for his short-form uploads, and in some cases, he even tries to sync up his music with the movement of a particular animal. Videos featuring cute animals were already a popular choice on YouTube Shorts, and many of those clips are improved with the inclusion of a hip-hop soundscape.

The Shorts audience took a liking to Prvnci’s digital zoo during the third week of June. That’s when Kristoffer’s primary YouTube channel received 127.5 million weekly views, which was 11% more traffic than the amount it recorded in the previous week. Prvnci isn’t quite in Jason Derulo territory yet, but he hasn’t been active on Shorts for nearly as long. The more work he puts in on his animal videos, the higher he’ll rise in the U.S. Top 50. Right now, he finds himself in 35th place.

Channel Distribution

This week, there are 41 YouTube Shorts channels in the U.S. Top 50.

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Welcome to our rundown of the most-watched branded YouTube videos of the week.

We’re publishing this snippet of a larger Gospel Stats Weekly Brand Report in order to analyze sponsorship trends in the creator economy. Any video launched in tandem with an official brand partner is eligible for the ranking.

And – as the name up above would imply – all the data comes from Gospel Stats. If you’re interested in learning more about Gospel – and which brands are sponsoring what creators on YouTube – click here.

After taking a week off from the #1 spot in our Weekly Brand Report, MrBeast has returned to familiar territory. Meanwhile, a mobile game with a significant marketing budget is involved with two different creators near the top of the ranking. Those are two of the top stories from our latest rundown of notable YouTube campaigns.

#1 World’s Deadliest Obstacle Course!
Channel: MrBeast
Brand: Cirkul

MrBeast threw us a curveball last week. Instead of providing the #1 video in the Weekly Brand Report, he showed up as a guest star in the #1 video in the Weekly Brand Report. His Airrack gym rat collab was great, but this week, Jimmy Donaldson reminded us how he became YouTube’s biggest creators: By perfectly executing large-scale videos with sponsorships seamlessly layered in. He brought back longtime partner Cirkul as the sponsor of a clip that features an extravagant obstacle course. Let’s just say there’s a reason MrBeast’s face shows up when you arrive on the Cirkul website.

#2 I Stayed in Secret Hotels
Channel: Ryan Trahan
Brand: Squad Busters

Ryan Trahan‘s latest adventure was a hit among his 16 million subscribers. The creator who is best known for his own collab with MrBeast (the penny challenge) didn’t need to share the spotlight as his video about secret hotels went gangbusters for sponsor Squad Busters. If Ryan Trahan does want to check out the Supercell-published game he stumped for, he may need to form a party of his own. Perhaps he can ask MrBeast and Airrack to join his squad. In total, Squad Busters-sponsored videos appear twice in this week’s Brand Report.

#3 CHEERLEADER Falls In Love With NERD | Dhar Mann Studios
Channel: Dhar Mann Studios
Brand: Dragon City

Squad Busters isn’t the only casual game to earn a prominent mention in this week’s Brand Report. Dragon City, a social network game that has appeared in our rankings in the past, is back at it as the sponsor of Dhar Mann‘s latest moralistic tale. The clip is vintage Mann: There’s a cool kid who learns that there’s more to life than being popular, a nerd who is rewarded for his kindness, and plenty of work for Mann’s recurring stable of actors. What does this have to do with a game that asks its players to tend to dragon eggs? The connection is a bit of a stretch, but that’s part of the Dragon City gameplan.

#4 Ghost Hunting at Haunted Insane Asylum (ft. Jake & Johnnie)
Channel: Sam and Colby
Brand: Dragon City

Dragon City is the latest game to run a marketing blitz on YouTube. In addition to its sponsorship of Dhar Mann’s #3-ranked video, it also supported the Sam and Colby clip that sits in fourth place. Overall, four Dragon City-sponsored videos hit YouTube this week, and they have all received at least 350,000 views so far. Sam and Colby’s contribution to this mobile game marketing blitz is above five million views on its own, and it’s providing the all-American summertime scares we’ll be missing without a new season of Stranger Things.

BONUS #1,745 She Almost Died Today
Channel: The Sargi Family
Brand: Casetify

The clickbait title of this Sargi Family video doesn’t refer to any of the dropped phones that appear in the vlog, but it might as well. The family channel supported everyone’s favorite hub for new phone cases — i.e. Casetify — by rolling through old video footage that shows various family members’ fallen phones. We previously found Casetify near the top of our Weekly Brand Report, but in our latest data, we can see that the retailer has connections with YouTube creators of all shapes and sizes.

…and there’s a lot more data where that came from. If you’re interested in learning more about Gospel – and which brands are sponsoring what creators on YouTube – click here.

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[Editor’s Note: Tubefilter Charts is a weekly rankings column from Tubefilter with data provided by GospelStats. It’s exactly what it sounds like: a top number ranking of YouTube channels based on statistics collected within a given time frame. Check out all of our Tubefilter Charts with new installments every week right here.]

Scroll down for this week’s Tubefilter Chart. 👇

YouTube Shorts channels occupy four of the top five spots in the Global Top 50. And once again, an Indian family channel is leading the way.

Beyond the #1 spot, there are five more short-form family hubs among the top 20 most-watched YouTube channels of the week.

Chart Toppers

Aside from a brief MrBeast-shaped blip at the start of June, Anaya Kandhal has dominated our weekly charts over the past three months. The most-watched YouTube channel of April and May achieved a second-straight #1 finish after collecting 832.5 million weekly views. At that pace, young Anaya and her family will reach 30 billion lifetime views next week. And unless MrBeast’s chart trends reverse, Anaya Kandhal will claim the title of most-watched YouTube channel for the third month in a row. No one can catch India’s favorite young video creator.

ToRung is in second place in the Global Top 50 for the second week in a row. Vietnam’s sole representative in the chart picked up 666.9 million weekly views and ended the week just a few views short of 16 billion. Almost all of that traffic has come on YouTube Shorts, where ToRung’s ridiculous thumbnails draw in viewers who would otherwise scroll by. That tactic has also helped ToRung raise its subscriber count, which currently exceeds 23 million.

After securing two straight fourth-place finishes, T-Series went back up to third during the third week of June. YouTube’s most-watched channel of all time gained 645.7 million weekly views while raising its subscriber total (the second-highest on YouTube) to 268 million. Though T-Series’ weekly viewership declined by 9% week-over-week, the Indian record label moved up one spot as Shorts channels shifted around it. Here’s some common ground for feuding YouTube fanbases: T-Series and MrBeast are the only channels in the top ten that aren’t Shorts channels.

KL BRO Biju Rithvik is sitting in fourth place in this week’s Global Top 50. Though KL BRO topped the charts for significant stretches in 2023, it has not quite kept up with fellow Indian kids’ Shorts hub Anaya Kandhal. Even with 644.8 million weekly views, KL BRO finished three spots behind its family-friendly compatriot. Competition is fierce in the world of agreeable, minute-long videos that target YouTube’s youngest viewers. KL BRO, which got its start on Shorts, is now one of the format’s leading channels.

Jason Derulo rounds out this week’s global top five. With a channel that cobbles together popular videos from across the short-form universe, the pop star earned 565.1 million weekly views.

Top Gainers

YouTube viewers may spend too much time looking at screens, but they’re at least picking up some useful survival skills. This week, one of the top channels on Shorts belonged to Maruysa Outdoors, whose wordless videos offer practical advice for life in the wilderness.

Though Marusya stays silent in her videos, the adjoining descriptions imbue her with personality. With her brains, brawns, and beauty, Marusya finds a little peace and quiet amid the great outdoors.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Cv7waoXHPos

Marusya may be an expert when it comes to survival skills, but the key factor behind her growth on YouTube has little to do with her axe-swinging abilities. The scraping, striking, and dripping sounds in Marusya’s videos bring in an additional audience from YouTube’s ASMR community.

As its audience expands, Marusya Outdoors is moving up in our charts. During the third week of May, the Russia-based channel added 279.1 million weekly views, which was more than twice as much traffic as the previous week’s total. There are now more than 14 million subscribers who hang around to catch Marusya’s newest vertical videos.

The rise of an outdoors-focused channel coincides with the beginning of summer in the Northern Hemisphere. The next time I’m in nature, I’ll follow Marusya’s lead and listen to the calming sounds around me. Then I’ll bottle up that audio for use in future Shorts.

Channel Distribution

Here’s a breakdown of the Top 50 Most Viewed channels this week in terms of their countries of origin:

• United States: 16 channels in the Top 50.
• India: 15 channels in the Top 50.
• Hong Kong and Russia: 3 channels in the Top 50.
• Turkey: 2 channels in the Top 50.
• Belgium, Canada, China, Czechia, El Salvador, France, Japan, Pakistan, South Korea, United Arab Emirates, and Vietnam: 1 channel each in the Top 50.

This week, 40 channels in the Top 50 are primarily active on YouTube Shorts.

As always, keep up to speed with the latest Tubefilter Charts and all of our news at Tubefilter by following us on Twitter, becoming a fan on Facebook, and watching our videos on YouTube.

Filed under: Articles, Homepage Feature, News, statistics, Statistics, Web Series, YouTube, Youtube Chart by Sam Gutelle
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Gaming and entertainment org XSET has acquired Illusive Media to form its own in-house studio, which it says will produce “original and unrivaled content, including in-game maps, digital skins, and immersive digital worlds.”

Illusive Media started as a web design business back in the MySpace days, and has since evolved into a full-service, Telly Award-winning creative studio led by co-founder and Creative Director Shomi Patwary. XSET, meanwhile, launched in 2020, and is known for its eclectic talent roster, which includes Sophia the robot.

As part of the acquisition, Patwary will head the newly formed XSET Studios, which the org says aims to produce content that will let brands and influencers “connect with audiences across diverse platforms”–with a particular eye toward connecting with Gen Z and Gen Alpha.

XSET Studios’ debut drop is a Fortnite collab with Miami Dolphins wide receiver Tyreek Hill; it produced a custom in-game map for him, which it says is indicative of the kind of immersive experiences it wants to continue creating in games like Fortnite, Roblox and Grand Theft Auto. It also plans to make short- and long-form video content.

“Being acquired by XSET made total sense to us as so many of our commercial clients have called out the desire to appeal to gamers and gaming culture,” Patwary said in a statement. “We are super excited to build something new and different with the new XSET Studios.”

XSET co-founder/CEO Greg Selkoe added, “Shomi is a legend with immense respect in the community. Having him lead XSET Studios is a privilege, and we are excited about the innovation and creativity he will bring to our brand engagements.”

Selkoe also announced the launch of XSET Studios in a YouTube sizzle reel, which you can see here:

While this is XSET’s first venture into opening a homegrown studio, it’s not the first time the org has gotten into original content. Last year, it signed a deal with Glytch, a company that plans to build 32 esports stadiums over the next eight years. That deal included Glytch-sponsored original series following members of XSET’s Apex Legends and Valorant teams.

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John Allen is hitting the road. The storyteller known as MrBallen has announced a 15-city tour that will take him across the United States during the fall of 2024.

The cross-country swing is the first full-length tour put on by Ballen Studios, the company Allen constructed to support his empire of “strange, dark, and mysterious” stories. Though Ballen Studios has expanded to include multiple creator-centric ventures, the upcoming tour will put the spotlight on the company’s founder and principal figure.

Allen’s fans have made his YouTube videos into some of the platform’s most-watched clips, and those supporters can expect more of the same on the upcoming tour. Across his 15 stops, the former U.S. Navy SEAL will share sordid details from true crime tales. That description sounds similar to the synopsis of Allen’s first live event, which he hosted last October.

“This is something I’ve dreamed about, but I never thought it could be a reality,” Allen said in a statement. “Telling stories on YouTube and on the podcast each week for millions of fans is something I absolutely love to do. Now, to be able to do that in front of those fans, feel their energy, and have a chance to meet them as well, is something that excites me to no end. I can’t wait to get out there and get going.”

The tour will begin on September 26, 2024 with a show in Dallas. From that point on, Allen will spend the next month hitting cities in the South, Midwest, and East Coast regions. His live event series is set to conclude on October 20 with a show at the Coca-Cola Roxy in Atlanta. Tickets for all of the current tour dates are available through the official MrBallen website.

As he embarks on his maiden tour, Allen will also oversee some other exciting plans at Ballen Studios. On October 1, the true crime creator will release his first book, a graphic novel titled MrBallen Presents: Strange, Dark & Mysterious. Fans will be able to pick up the book at tour stops and will also have the option to order it via conventional booksellers.

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TikTok and the United States Department of Justice are already preparing arguments for an upcoming case that will challenge the constitutionality of the U.S. government’s “divest-or-ban” law. Now, a second, unrelated court date has been added to both parties’ calendars. The DoJ will question TikTok’s child safety policy as part of a consumer protection lawsuit that began as a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) complaint.

Earlier this week, several outlets reported that the FTC referred a complaint about TikTok and parent company ByteDance to the DoJ. The complaint had two parts: A claim that TikTok misled U.S. users about data security, and a claim that TikTok violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) by collecting data from users under the age of 13. The DoJ will drop the first part of the complaint, but the COPPA-related allegations will be argued in the upcoming lawsuit.

The FTC declined to comment on the DoJ decision. In a statement provided to BBC News, a TikTok spokesperson expressed disappointment over the FTC’s choice.

COPPA has been a thorn in tech companies’ side since its rules governing children on social media platforms went into effect in 2020. TikTok and ByteDance have been slapped with multiple fines, and competitors like Google have been hit as well.

The U.S. government’s focus on children’s digital safety across all three branches. During his State of the Union addresses, President Biden has pressed big tech firms to take security seriously. Meanwhile, in Congress, hearings about child safety have turned into wars of words between legislators and tech leaders (including TikTok’s Shou Zi Chew and Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg).

Now, the U.S. judiciary will do its part to investigate TikTok’s child safety measures. The lawsuit is unrelated to the aforementioned court battle challenging the divest-or-ban law, but both cases will concern similar topics. In its lawsuit against the DoJ, TikTok may argue that the U.S. government failed to give serious consideration to a security plan called Project Texas. Here’s what we can say for certain: The legal teams at TikTok and the DoJ are about to have their hands full.

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