Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Instagram is copying Snapchat.

The latter app is known for posts that disappear after a set period of time, and Instagram has spent the past decade honing its version of that format. Now, the Meta-owned app is doubling down on its copycat behavior. A new app called Instants is based around disappearing posts that have minimal editing.

Instants is currently available in Spain and Italy. Users who download the app can only create posts via their phone’s camera; the photo and video libraries on their devices are off limits. Once an Instants post is uploaded, it remains visible for 24 hours, but each follower can only view it once.

With its sense of spontaneity, its focus on unvarnished content, and its ephemeral nature, Instants feels like Instagram’s answer to BeReal. The French social app peaked in 2022, when its simplified, throwback approach to social media earned it millions of new users. BeReal’s fortunes have reversed course since then, but the app is still eager to recruit more creator partners in the U.S.

The launch of Instants helps Instagram counter that push. Creators who might have been tempted by a BeReal offer can now access a similar experience on a Meta-branded app.

If you’re wondering why Instagram is aping BeReal and Snapchat on a new app instead of bringing copycat features to its main app (as it did in the past), the answer has to do with timing. TechCrunch notes that Instants has been released as an in-app Instagram feature in other regions. These days, however, Meta prefers to sequester some of its short-form experiments. CapCut-style features have been developed on an app called Edits, and the omnipresent Reels format might be getting its own app, too.

Separating Instants from Instagram lets Meta reimagine disappearing posts. Features like Storylines and comments have made Stories more interactive, and Meta is testing how much community it can build from its fleeting content.

An Instagram spokesperson told TechCrunch that “multiple versions of Instants” will help developers refine the app. If you live in one of the regions where Instants is available, you can download it right now for both iOS and Android.

Filed under: Articles, Featured, Homepage Feature, Instagram, News by Sam Gutelle
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YouTube is testing a new ad format that reinforces the platform’s mission to make its live streams more seamless. The new spots, dubbed side-by-side ads, are now showing up on a handful of YouTube streams.

The side-by-side ads load in a separate video player that pops up directly below the active stream. Creators who take advantage of that format can run ad breaks without needing to actively interrupt their stream.

YouTube first teased side-by-side ads last year, when the format earned a mention at the annual Made On event. Six months later, Reddit users like PuffballOfficial12 have been served side-by-side ads, indicating the presence on an ongoing test.

The question of how to serve ads to streaming viewers is a crucial conundrum for platforms. Twitch’s effort to monetize its hours-long stream took a step forward with the 2020 introduction of mid-roll breaks, but that solution drew widespread criticism. Creators complained that the automatic insertion of the breaks sometimes preempted exciting gameplay moments or other stream highlights.

Twitch’s more recent formats, like its pause ads, enable types of monetization that don’t interrupt the streaming experience. As YouTube has leveled up its own live streaming infrastructure, it has found its own ways to serve uninterruptive ads. Picture-in-picture ads place spots in a minimized window, and the new side-by-side ads make a clear distinction between creator content and paid media.

There’s only one small snag: Side-by-side ads are kinda interruptive in their own way. Several Reddit users noted that the new ads have autoplaying sound, which viewers must mute if they want to understand the audio of the attached stream. So even though the spots are designed to play alongside creator content, some fans are rewinding streams to catch up on any action they missed while hunting for the mute button.

There might still be some kinks YouTube needs to work out as it continues to test its new format. The presence of side-by-side ads is an encouraging reminder that YouTube is considering ways to reduce the number of interruptions for its streaming viewers.

Filed under: advertising, Articles, Featured, Homepage Feature, News, YouTube by Sam Gutelle
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Hot hockey players are driving more views for the NHL–and we’re not just talking about the real guys out on the ice.

We’re talking about Heated Rivalry, the Peabody Award-winning TV adaptation of Rachel Reid‘s hit m/m romance novel. Starring Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie, the Crave-produced show became a fandom sensation shortly after dropping in November 2025. It’s not hard to see why: Williams and Storrie have stellar chemistry in their lead roles as anxious Canadian Shane Hollander and suave Russian Ilya Rozanov, rival captains of their respective hockey teams.

Just like we saw with Yuri!!! on ICE for the 2018 Winter Olympics and even the recent gacha horse girl game Umamusume: Pretty Derby, fictional sports stories can drive fan interest in real sports leagues.

And the NHL is taking notice.

That’s because it just hit its best viewership figures in 14 years. In its most recent season, games aired across ESPN, ABC, and TNT brought an average of 546,000 viewers, which was a 23% increase over the previous season.

Can we automatically say that increase is solely because of Heated Rivalry‘s success? No. But data from research firm EDO showed that brands running ads against hockey coverage in the U.S. saw campaign effectiveness raise 7% after Heated Rivalry took off. That effectiveness was specifically around consumers searching for products right after an ad aired–meaning people were not only actively watching, but engaging with ads.

Per Digiday, the NHL’s marketing team is looking to capitalize on this moment and turn casual and curious Rivalry-pilled viewers into lifelong hockey fans. It’s focusing mainly on Europe; for example, Jaka Lednik, the NHL’s SVP of International Strategy, told Digiday that Germany is of particular interest, and the NHL thinks it could be a “second level” of sports fandom, after soccer.

The push includes the NHL hosting and streaming more games in Europe. Two upcoming matches will pit the Ottawa Senators and Chicago Blackhawks against one another in Düsseldorf this December.

“We think there’s an opportunity to grow the sport for everyone,” Lednik said.

But IRL events aren’t the marketing team’s only focus. Their strategy also, of course, includes one central hub for Rivalry’s fandom: TikTok.

Per Digiday, the NHL has seen its most social media success on TikTok. Its European account, which has 2 million followers, just hit 1 billion lifetime views. During the most recent season, the account’s videos (a mix of moments from matches, behind-the-scenes clips, and off-the-ice chats with players) reached an average of 1.16 million views.

“Where [TikTok has] been really beneficial is in supporting our broadcasters in each of the markets,” Lednik said. “We’re able to drive tune-in, you know, make sure that people are aware of what’s happening when on our partners channels.”

Analyst Nicole Greene told Digiday that the NHL’s social strategy–connecting on TikTok, paying attention to Heated Rivalry (take notes, Canada Dry)–is “the new playbook” for sports leagues.

“Leagues are targeting international expansion and younger audiences through digital content and strategic partnerships,” she said. “If the NHL can use TikTok for what it’s best at–as a short-form, discovery-first channel within a multichannel strategy, prioritizing paid distribution, platform-native short videos, creator partnerships, shoppable media and measurement that ties social activity to on-site conversion–[all] that can help build its brand strength.”

Filed under: Homepage Feature by James Hale
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France Télévisions is serving the growing number of consumers who get their news from social media. The Paris-based company, which serves as its home country’s national public TV broadcaster, has announced a partnership with YouTube that will bring breaking headlines online.

As a result of the partnership, thousands of hours of France Télévisions news coverage will make its way to YouTube each year. National and regional news outlets will be part of that push, and YouTube viewers will also gain access to daily and weekly current affairs programs. France Télévisions is also plotting some original formats that will be developed with YouTube in mind.

France Télévisions is following the lead of numerous international media organizations, which have increased their output on platforms like YouTube and TikTok to meet rising demand among contemporary news consumers. The results of that push have been particularly noticeable in India, where local news hubs now rank among the most-watched channels on YouTube. U.S. outlets rake in millions of weekly views as well, especially during election season.

As that trend took off, France Télévisions hunted for partnerships. Last year, the media group announced its plan to bring more videos to YouTube. Later in 2025, it expanded digital coverage for events like the French Open. France Télévisions moved further into social media spaces when it adopted the C2PA content standard, which authenticates videos and defends against AI fraud across platforms.

Meanwhile, YouTube has found reasons of its own to seek out partnerships with major media companies. Its plan to continue dominating living room viewership involves broadcasts of big-time events like the Oscars and Eurovision. Alliances with firms like France Télévisions expand YouTube’s access to premium content.

In exchange for that access, YouTube connects its partners to consumers who don’t necessarily look for news anywhere else. “Users themselves have chosen these different journeys or different ways of consumption. Our job, and this is the primary mission of YouTube, is give the best user experience and business model,” YouTube Managing Director in France and South Europe Justine Ryst said at a recent event in Lille. “When France Télévisions goes on YouTube, it’s to get the [demographics] under 30 years old below versus its average audience on linear television.”

For France Télévisions, another benefit of the deal is access to YouTube’s likeness detection tool, which gives newscasters another layer of protection from AI deepfakes. Many of the people who get their news from social media have chosen to trust individual creators over larger organizations. Through its YouTube partnership, France Télévisions has a chance to change the narrative.

Filed under: Articles, Featured, Homepage Feature, News, News-Current Events by Sam Gutelle
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MrBeast‘s former Head of Creative has filed suit against his company, alleging she was sexually harassed by coworkers and clients, expected to work during her set period of maternity leave, and was fired after returning from leave.

Lorrayne Mavromatis, a Brazilian Instagrammer with over a million followers, filed suit in North Carolina April 22. She joined Beast Industries in 2022 as Head of Instagram, and was promoted twice within her first year; at one point, she was making $250K/year as Head of Creative, before being demoted, and then fired in 2025.

Her complaint alleges that during her time at Beast Industries, she experienced a “boy’s club” where she was forced to work in a “dimly lit” room in former CEO James Warren‘s personal home instead of the company’s office, and would have one-on-one meetings with him where he commented on her looks.

Mavromatis also alleges MrBeast–aka Jimmy Donaldson–refused to work with her on certain projects. When she asked Warren about this, he responded, “Jimmy gets really awkward around beautiful women. Let’s just say that when you’re around and he goes to the restroom, he’s not actually using the restroom,” per the suit.

In another case, Mavromatis expressed discomfort to Warren over a client hitting on her; he allegedly replied that she should be “honored” by the client’s advances.

Warren was not the only member of Donaldson’s company to make inappropriate comments, the suit alleges. Mavromatis claims that in one exchange, Donaldson said he would only participate in a video shoot with her “if she brought him a beer.” Mavromatis says she was also told to “shut up” or “stop talking” by a male colleague when she raised issues in a meeting.

In another instance, she witnessed male executives mocking female contestants on the first season of Beast Games “who complained they did not have access to feminine hygiene products and clean underwear while participating in the show,” per the suit.

“In this male-centric workplace, Plaintiff, one of the few women in a high-level role, was excluded from otherwise all-male meetings, demeaned in front of colleagues, harassed, and suffered from males [being] given preferential treatment in employment decisions,” the suit alleges.

This is not the first time Mavromatis has reported her concerns. She filed a formal report with Beast Industries’ head of HR in November 2023, noting “the sexually inappropriate encounters and harassment, and demeaning and hostile work environment she and other female employees had been living and experiencing working at MrBeast,” the suit says.

However, head of HR at the time was Sue Parisher–Donaldson’s mother.

After an investigation into her report, Mavromatis was demoted to Social Media Manager of Merchandise, a role “known by [company] employees as the division where ‘careers go to die,'” the suit alleges.

Mavromatis’s suit further claims Donaldson’s company violated the Family and Medical Leave Act, which allows employees to take unpaid, job-protected leave for specific family and medical reasons, including giving birth.

Following her demotion, Mavromatis went on leave to have her baby, but said she was expected to keep working. The suit claims she was pressured to join a conference call while actively in labor, and that she worked “nonstop” following her baby’s birth. “I was still bleeding, and I just had to show up,” she told The Associated Press.

The suit claims Mavromatis has suffered “mental anguish, humiliation, embarrassment” and “damage to her emotional and psychological well-being.” It seeks damages in the form of “lost wages, lost benefits, [and] reinstatement.”

MrBeast’s company has refuted all Mavromatis’s claims, calling her suit “clout-chasing” and saying it will not “submit to opportunistic lawyers looking to manufacture a payday from us.”

It claims Mavromatis’s position was eliminated as part of a reorg brought on by Beast Industries’ new Head of Ecommerce.

In regards to Mavromatis’s allegations about being forced to work during maternity leave, the company produced a March 31, 2025 screenshot from Slack where Mavromatis tells a coworker she’s “actually in labor at the hospital as we speak,” and the coworker responds by telling her she “shouldn’t even be checking” her messages.

Onstage at the Time100 Summit hours after Mavromatis’s complaint was filed, MrBeast was asked about “attention” on his company’s “culture,” and if there’s anything he would change.

Donaldson replied, “Yeah, I mean that’s always something that people talk about. I started this business when I was 11, so obviously, I didn’t know what that word meant back then. It’s obviously evolved over the lifetime of the company, but, you know, a couple of years ago, especially now we’re at 750 employees, I brought in more experienced people because, you know, shocker, as a person who’s studied YouTube videos and studied content, isn’t, you know, maybe the best to set a culture of a company at this scale.”

Filed under: Homepage Feature, Uncategorized by James Hale
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Second-screen scrolling is now a mainstream phenomenon, and Meta wants to bring more of that activity to Threads. To wit, the tech giant has announced that its X analogue now has Live Chats, where users around the world can discuss hot topics in a dynamic interface.

Threads users can locate Live Chats via community hubs, in-feed links, and the profile pages of chat hosts. Once they enter the conversation, those users will see an assortment of photos, videos, links, emojis, and polls, all of which will update in real time. Even after events conclude, users will still be able to search for and browse relevant Live Chats.

To paraphrase LeVar Burton, if you’re curious to know how Live Chats will function in practice, you don’t have to take my word for it. Meta is giving Threads users a chance to discover the new feature during one of the biggest cultural tentpoles of the spring: the NBA Playoffs.

By navigating to the NBAThreads community, users will be able to find the earliest examples of Live Chats on the platform. As the hoops action carries on — with Threads providing score updates in real time — NBA insiders like Malika Andrews and Rachel Nichols will host Live Chats tied to specific games and matchups.

It seems as if every major social platform wants a piece of pro sports action these days, but the rollout of Live Chats isn’t just about cultural trends. Threads’ new product has significant potential in the marketing world, since it’s a natural fit with the platform’s latest ad formats.

To explain what I mean, let’s look back to the 2026 NewFronts. At the annual pitchfest, tentpole-powered advertising was one of the biggest themes. Big tech companies claimed that brands need to put themselves at the center of the cultural conversations that happen on social media, and formats like TikTok Pulse get that job done.

Meta’s NewFronts pitch doubled down on the prevailing theme, with products like Reels trending ads bringing buyers closer to concerts, sports games, blockbuster movies, holidays, and other tentpoles. As Threads develops the nascent ad program it announced earlier this year, its Live Chats can provide centralized locations where cultural discourse can take place.

According to a Meta blog post, a “select group of creators” can host Live Chats within their respective communities. “We’re starting with the NBAThreads Community as we build and refine Live Chats — rolling out gradually to more communities on Threads so we can learn from early feedback and refine the experience,” reads the blog post.

Translation: Threads wants to find an interactive mix of posts for its new format. Real-time conversations aren’t new in the social media world (anyone else remember Google Wave?), but trending ads are the new hotness, so Meta has plenty of reasons to build out its communal spaces.

Filed under: Articles, Featured, Homepage Feature, Meta, News by Sam Gutelle
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Creators based in the U.K. can now take advantage of a banking solution that serves their unique financial needs. Visa has partnered with TikTok to launch a debit card that offers a number of creator-centric perks.

The so-called “creator card” attempts to address some of the issues that pop up when social media professionals bring their business to traditional banks. In many cases, those interactions evince skepticism from bankers, leaving creators short on cash and frustrated with their financial institutions.

In the United States, companies like Karat have reduced friction by rolling out credit and debit cards that are designed to be used by creators. Now, across the pond, one of Karat’s longtime partners has developed a similar solution. Users of Visa’s creator card will be able to clear payouts quickly, preventing delays that prevent them from accessing their money.

Visa’s partnership with TikTok adds some additional perks to its creator card. TikTok Live has become a full-time job for thousands of creators, and the creator card is designed to recognize in-stream gifts and other related revenue sources.

“We are incredibly excited to launch the UK creator card with TikTok to empower the next generation of entrepreneurs in the digital economy,” said Lucy Demery, Visa’s SVP of Commercial Solutions for Europe, in a statement.  “This launch is designed to give creators faster access to income from TikTok Live, brand partnerships, and platform payouts, so they can spend, plan, and reinvest in their business straight away.”

Even as creators across the globe gain access to new banking services, many digital professionals still struggle to work alongside mainstream financial institutions. In the United States, we saw examples of that phenomenon during tax season, when some creators were flummoxed by the bills they owed to the government. Visa recently reported that 49% of creators have their businesses impacted by late or inconsistent payments, and 41% of creators have had to turn down opportunities due to cash flow issues.

We’ll soon learn whether solutions like the creator card can mitigate those frustrations. After debuting its new product with a soft launch, Visa is now rolling out the card among a larger group of eligible Brits.

Filed under: Articles, Creator Economy, Featured, Homepage Feature, News, TikTok by Sam Gutelle
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We are firmly in the age of Claude and ChatGPT. Seemingly every business is using AI–whether that means developing new tools or rebranding old ones to highlight LLM usage in hopes of attracting AI-curious customers.

Viral Nation has SocialAI. But it wants people to know: It was already doing this years ago.

“For many years, we’ve had a version of AI,” Nicholas Spiro, Viral Nation’s Chief Commercial Officer, tells Tubefilter. “We’ve always had a version of analysis and insights.” Over the last 18 months, he says, Viral Nation has used advancements in AI to “rebuild entire products that our team, organization, and customers use. We took heavy feedback from the market.”

Chief among those products is SocialAI, which Spiro describes as a “decision-led intelligence module” that helps the various arms of Viral Nation’s business. For example, Viral Nation uses it to monitor a “universe of a few hundred thousand creators” to ensure it’s on top of what creators are currently making and talking about, Spiro says.

“Our ethos and our belief is that creators are tastemakers–so by monitoring them, you can learn even before the general population has an interest in something,” he explains.

One big component of SocialAI is Viral Nation Secure, which scans creators’ entire public profiles for overall brand safety and for data like their growth trajectories, audience demographics, and how their content niche fits in with the aforementioned trends.

Spiro says SocialAI (and, more specifically, Viral Nation Secure) is unique because “a lot of technologies right now that monitor social media look at text. We analyze every frame of video content, even on long-form platforms like YouTube.”

He adds that SocialAI can “look at full historical” for potential creator partners, which means “when a creator enters our program, we can go back 22 years” and see data from as early as 2004, when Facebook launched.

This obviously helps when Viral Nation–which is known as one of the biggest talent agencies in our space, but also offers a “flywheel” of talent, marketing, creative studio, and technology divisions–is matching up creators with brands. Viral Nation works with thousands of content creators, and pulls from that pool to design campaigns with brands like e.l.f., Uber, Samsung, Jack Daniel’s, and The Cheesecake Factory.

Spiro mentions again that Viral Nation has “always been doing an evolving version of this, but what I think we realized as we were doing scans with AI for brand safety is that there’s a lot more insight.”

SocialAI can “find when brands are mentioned, and take post observations faster than most brands can get the data,” Spiro says. “We could look at every single day and get a time-sensitive construction of results. And for economies of scale, with our talent arm, it helps us know what they should be priced at, because we can understand the competitive pricing marketplace. So some brands come to us for our pricing data.”

So the potential upsides for brands are clear. What about creators?

“The benefit for creators is that a safe ecosystem raises all boats,” Spiro says. “Think of it like this: If you’re on a platform like Facebook or Twitter and the conversation’s bad, brands don’t go there. Creators don’t go there. Deals aren’t struck. Right? It’s like that, but not at a platform level–at a whole industry level. I think the cultural conversation online is hugely important to the economic aspects of millions of creators who have this as their job.”

Basically, the more Viral Nation can use systems like SocialAI to prove that creators are not only safe, but savvy for brands to work with, the more deals we’ll see across the entire digital economy–which means more cash flowing in our ever-growing industry, and more money in creators’ pockets.

“Authenticity is always going to be the superpower of creators,” Spiro says. “It does matter that they can be connected with the right brand, and I think brands will feel comfortable operating in an environment that gives fair, competitive, transparent prices. That’s something I think is worth talking about.”

Viral Nation is a Tubefilter partner.

Filed under: Homepage Feature, Viral Nation by Tubefilter Staff
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When Markiplier‘s self-made (and self-funded) Iron Lung adaptation cranked $50+ million in theaters, it was easy to assume he’d eventually put a digital version of the movie up for sale on YouTube. After all, he’s been on the platform for 14 years, has nearly 40 million subscribers, and is one of the most recognizable faces in our industry. He also owns the rights to the movie, so he can put it wherever he wants. Meanwhile YouTube has thousands of films and TV shows for rent and sale, so the infrastructure is there.

Or is it?

Turns out, things are not as simple as they seem.

“As a YouTuber, [I figured] a really convenient thing to do is, I could put Iron Lung up on YouTube Movies for sale,” Markiplier (aka Mark Fischbach) told viewers in an April 20 livestream. “But the problem is, you can’t just take a video and put it up on YouTube and sell it as a movie. You’d think it would work that way, I thought it worked that way because I’m a YouTuber and I’m like, ‘I do that every day. I just put it up and release it.’ That’s not how it works.”

Once Fischbach realized how complicated the process was, he got in contact with Fede Goldenberg, YouTube’s Head of TV & Film Partnerships–because not only did he want to get Iron Lung live on YouTube, he wanted to find a way to make things easier for other indie filmmakers, too.

“The problem is, there are barriers for people to have entry [to sell on YouTube],” Fischbach explained. “There’s a thing called an aggregator that you usually have to go through, or a studio if you’re big enough for that. And I said [to Goldenberg], I have the success of this movie, it’s kind of like a moment here. Maybe we could use it, capitalize on it, and you could make me an aggregator.”

Becoming an official approved aggregator meant Fischbach “would be able to not only bring my movie onto the platform for sale, [but] if there are other people that have movies that I see and I think this is worth it, this is good, I can bring it onto the platform, and then people don’t have to go through the red tape, right?” he explained. “That was the goal. And I [told YouTube], ‘This seems like something that would be worth it.'”

YouTube agreed.

It and Fischbach are still in final stages of negotiations, having undergone what Fischbach describes as an “arduous legal process” where he was “so agreeable on everything.”

“I said what I’ll do is, I’ll release [Iron Lung] exclusively on YouTube if you’ll let me do this,” he said.

That means YouTube will be the sole digital destination where viewers will be able to buy Iron Lung. These are different and more limiting circumstances than major Hollywood studios experience; they normally offer their movies and TV shows for sale across numerous platforms, even as streaming services fight for exclusive catalog rights.

For example, Project Hail Mary will probably stream exclusively on Prime Video when it releases to home video, since it was produced by Amazon MGM Studios, but it’ll go up for sale across platforms like YouTube, Apple TV, and Fandango, because the wider the release, the more potential money a studio can make.

But for Fischbach, this sacrifice is worth it if he can both release Iron Lung online and be an advocate aggregator.

“Hopefully, hopefully down the road, what this means is–look, I can incorporate some change right now,” Fischbach said. “But down the road I would like to fight to build a system where anybody could do it. I feel like, down the road, if more people are making independent films, there should be a system where people are able to just [put their movies for sale on YouTube] almost as easily as making YouTube videos and uploading them.

“Now I can have a foot in the door that I can affect change, and if I can use this opportunity where Iron Lung had success to make it easier for more people after me to get their product not only made, but distributed and in front of people for people to see and possibly even make money off it, that’s the goal here,” he said.

He’s also thinking bigger: another idea he had involves content creators being able to post trailers for their own films or reviews for other creators’ films, then link directly to those movies for sale on YouTube’s platform. Creators could get a cut if their viewers decided to rent and/or buy the films.

All of this is part of a future where Fischbach sees himself “taking a chainsaw to the industry and I’m just trying to hack it apart because I hate all the red tape.”

Iron Lung doesn’t yet have a confirmed release date, but Fischbach said when it does come out, it’ll be in 4K HDR. Maybe then viewers will be able to find those secrets…

Filed under: Creator, Homepage Feature by James Hale
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The United States is celebrating its 250th birthday this summer, and a group of creators is turning that milestone into a celebration of science. A nonprofit called the Independent Media Initiative (IMI) is behind 50×50: Science Across America, a coast-to-coast “YouTube project” that will pair influential STEM creators with scientists from all 50 states.

50×50‘s mission is ambitious: Across ten days, the participating creators and their scientific collaborators will produce 50 original videos, which will be set in locations like labs, field sites, hospitals, factories, and research institutions. Those videos will arrive on YouTube in the fall of 2026.

To pull off its cross-country tour, the IMI has recruited some of YouTube’s biggest science creators. 50×50 participants will include Vlogbrothers Hank and John Green, former Mythbusters host Adam Savage, Xyla Foxlin, Emily Graslie, Joe Hanson, and Destin Sandlin of SmarterEveryDay. The participating scientists, as well as other creator contributors, will be announced at a later date.

“The United States has built a system for supporting and conducting science that has profoundly shaped the course of human progress,” Hanson said in a statement. “50×50 is an extraordinary opportunity to highlight that.”

You might expect a project like 50×50 to live on PBS, but its distribution on YouTube recognizes the video platform’s strong gravitational pull. When innovative moments in scientific history occur, YouTube is where people go to watch the events unfold. We saw that phenomenon in action earlier in April, when NASA reached nearly four million concurrent YouTube viewers with its live stream of the Artemis II moon mission.

According to a YouTube blog post, NASA’s Artemis II stream tallied more than 79 million views between April 1 and April 13. “As America approaches its 250th anniversary, YouTube is taking its mission to give everyone a front-row seat to the world’s most important stories one step further by turning historic milestones into immersive, interactive learning experiences,” reads the post.

The IMI, alongside partners like HHMI Tangled Bank Studios, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the Winn Family Foundation, and the Shanahan Family Foundation, has recognized YouTube’s potential as an archive of scientific wonderment. 50×50‘s contributions to that archive figure to be extraordinary, especially when you compare them to those other 250th birthday celebrations that will be going on around the same time.

Filed under: Articles, Featured, Homepage Feature, News, Science by Sam Gutelle
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The Indian government is proposing that content creators and other social media users should be governed by the same “code of ethics” as registered news publishers, and that social media platforms should be stripped of their safe harbor protections if they allow content that violates this code.

Basically, the proposal boils down to this: If passed, it would allow the Indian government (specifically its Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology) to have control over social media posts it deemed to be about “news and current affairs.” If a person’s post was judged to be inaccurate or unethical, it would be removed–and the platform they posted on could also face consequences.

The government claims its goal with the new rules is to crack down on fake news, hate speech, and deepfake imagery–but critics believe that instead, it wants overreaching power to censor posts it doesn’t like.

YouTuber Akash Banerjee, whose channel The Deshbhakt has 6.6 million subscribers, told the BBC that “Interestingly, despite many laws regulating online content, hate speech and fake news haven’t reduced in the country.”

“Meanwhile,” he added, “posts that are critical of the government–even if they’re satirical–are increasingly being blocked or removed.”

As an example, the BBC pointed to a March incident where X abruptly blocked around a dozen accounts whose main fare was satirical content about the Indian government.

X apparently initiated the blocks under orders from Section 69A of India’s IT Act, which allows the Indian government to cut access to online information “in the interest of sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of the State, friendly relations with foreign States or public order or for preventing incitement.”

One creator, Kumar Nayan, had his account (with its ~242,000 followers) restored after he challenged the block in court, but some of his posts are still unavailable until they’re reviewed by a government-appointed panel. The BBC said all of those posts either make fun of India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, or his political party.

“No reasonable person will say that these posts threaten the nation’s security or disturb communal harmony. They are just funny posts, so why does the government want them taken down?” Nayan told the BBC.

Human rights org Amnesty International argues these proposed changes “would facilitate abusive powers over users’ content.”

“The rules governing online spaces have progressively become more restrictive, with each successive amendment expanding state control over digital content,” Aakar Patel, Amnesty International India’s Chair of Board, said in a statement. “These amendments go further still, effectively turning social media platforms into enforcement arms of the state.”

He added that the amendments “contain a raft of alarming provisions that provide the authorities with intrusive and arbitrary powers over online content, which trample over users’ freedom of expression and privacy and pave way for mass and prolonged surveillance.”

The amendments were open for public comment through April 14; Amnesty International used that period to “urge the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology to immediately withdraw these amendments.”

While this proposed rule will only apply to Indian citizens, it echoes a push for government censorship in the U.S. Donald Trump has targeted Section 230 (our safe harbor laws for social media), and the Ted Cruz-chaired Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, & Transportation recently held a hearing called “Liability or Deniability? Platform Power as Section 230 Turns 30.”

Filed under: Homepage Feature by James Hale
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As digital-native creators harbor Hollywood dreams, a bonafide A-lister is taking her talents to Twitch. That’s the platform viewers can turn to to watch Keke Live, a talk show led by the versatile actor Keke Palmer.

Two decades after her breakout role in the film Akeelah and the Bee, Palmer is still an immense presence on the big screen. With nearly 15 million followers on Instagram, she also possesses a strong social following that will now form the base audience for her Twitch talk show.

In her inaugural Keke Live stream, Palmer cited creators like Kai Cenat and PlaqueBoyMax, whom she has interacted with on her journey toward Twitch stardom. “Y’all know your girl Keke likes to inspect every corner of the interwebs,” Palmer said. “This is the place to come to talk, laugh, and live, baby.”

Palmer is best known for her exploits in fields like film, TV, and pop music, and Keke Live gives her a chance to show off her range. At the same time, the new program allows her to explore her ongoing interest in internet culture. With her presence at tech demos and her status as driving force behind a digital network called Key TV, Palmer is no stranger to our neck of the woods. Now, as live programming like sports dominates TV screens, Palmer is testing whether Twitch can be a viable setting for a late night-quality talk show.

Along the way, she’ll celebrate the Black culture that’s bubbling up in the streaming community. Creators like Cenat and iShowSpeed have led a wave of Black streaming stars that also includes standouts like YourRAGE, Rakai, and Druski. The first Keke Live episode, which included a line dance and an “Afro-centric interior decoration history lesson,” showed that Palmer is eager to highlight Black excellence on Twitch.

It’s a great time for Palmer to be making such a bold cross-platform move. Recent deals — like the pact between Kylie Jenner and Night — have shown that there are fewer distinctions than ever before separating traditional celebrities from digital creators. In fact, no matter a creator’s origins, it seems as if everyone wants to be streaming these days, and Palmer’s contribution to that trend will contain her usual blend of charm and pizzazz.

Filed under: Articles, Featured, Homepage Feature, Live Streaming, News by Sam Gutelle
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