MatPat’s next big theory: That he can get lawmakers to understand the creator economy

You can sometimes still find MatPat at the Theorist office. He’s there, just off-camera as a creative director, having retired from 13 years of hosting thousands of YouTube videos. But when he’s not there, you might be able to find him on Capitol Hill, because he’s now an official lobbyist for the $250 billion creator economy–and the many creators who make their living as part of that economy.

MatPat told TechCrunch his core project on the Hill right now is providing lawmakers with information as basic as “What is YouTube?” He said in one case, a legislator opened their session with, “Question one, what is Roku, and how is it different from YouTube?”

“Which is telling about where we’re starting from,” he said. In another case, he approached a legislator from North Carolina and asked if she knew she has the biggest YouTuber in the world living in her state, “[A]nd she’s like, ‘Oh yeah, he’s MacBeast, right?'”

These interactions may seem silly on the surface, but they’re symptoms of a much deeper, larger, and more serious problem. Legislators regularly try to pass, and sometimes do pass, laws that significantly affect the platforms where creators earn their livings. Legislators also pursue regulatory actions against platforms without basic understanding of how they work. Remember the dismal TikTok hearings that preluded its ban? Or even the 2018 Facebook hearings where Mark Zuckerberg tried his absolute best to explain basic concepts of the internet.

And, amid all this, creators are caught in the crossfire.

Sure, the White House has brought creators in on occasion, and is actually planning to hold a creator economy conference Aug. 14, but those standalone instances don’t change that creators have no legal recognition in our government, and that we are governed by lawmakers who don’t seem keen to change that.

Unless MatPat can change them.

“Right now, there’s no designation and official government records that say like, ‘I am a content creator by trade. I make a bulk of my income through creating content, video, social content, whatever that is,'” he told TechCrunch. If the designation and records did exist, lawmakers would be able to see that data from their states and know what portion of their constituencies are creators, the way they can with other jobs.

He also wants to work on getting creators tax breaks. Right now, many creators pay self-employment tax, which is a huge chunk out of their earnings.

“We’re trying to educate lawmakers about what the creator economy is, and that it’s an actual job and that we are actually small businesses, and as a result, there are certain tax codes and things that apply to small businesses,” he said. “Even when you talk to accountants, they’re like, well are you though? Because there’s not a clear indicator on tax forms–like, what is a creator business?”

MatPat would know. Since he and wife Stephanie Patrick launched Theorist Media in 2011, the company’s five channels have grown to a combined 45 million subscribers (and, very important, made a cultural impact that put MatPat in the Five Nights at Freddy’s movie). In December 2022, they sold it to startup Lunar X. As TechCrunch points out, that sale combined with MatPat stepping down from hosting marks one of the first successful exits for a major YouTuber from their own channel.

So, if anyone’s got the business chops to teach the U.S. government what’s going on in our industry, it’s him. Lawmakers just have to listen.