Hey Creatorverse readers,
Last week was one for the history books. A day after a New Mexico jury ordered Meta — the parent company of Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp — to pay $375 million in damages, a Los Angeles jury ordered Meta and YouTube parent company Google to pay $6 million with Meta paying the brunt of the damages. Both cases revolved around whether the social media platforms were as safe for children as these companies claimed. And both times juries ruled against the tech giants.
As I’ve covered before, these types of cases have unfolded internationally, but those two trials mark a tide shift in the U.S. Many experts TheWrap spoke to agreed that social media platforms will likely implement major design changes in the months to come to make them safer for kids (and to avoid further legal action). There are also several more child safety cases in the pipeline.
So what do these bellwether cases mean for creators?
First of all, there’s no indication that brands will stop investing in the creator economy anytime soon. Earlier this year, CreatorIQ found that the average annual investment in influencer marketing increased 171% in 2025, and IAB previously found that ad spend in the creator economy increased about four times faster than ad spending in the media industry.
But what it does mean is that the gap between brand-safe creators and their more controversial peers is going to widen. Expect creators with younger audiences who post about toxic body image standards to take a hit. Same goes for people who make AI slop for kids.
Melika Hashemi, a digital marketing director working with WPP, told Vogue that an increased focus on children’s safety “creates a segue to weed out the good influencers from the bad, and it opens the door for the good influencers to stand out.”
In some ways, the wheat has already started to separate from the chaff partially thanks to Hollywood. Safe creators like Dhar Mann, Ms. Rachel and Mark Rober are the ones getting headline-grabbing deals with companies like Tubi or Netflix. But every creator will likely be impacted by the upcoming social media crackdown. Even if you’re making content explicitly for adults, kids are always watching things they shouldn’t. Trust me, a woman who started watching Adult Swim when she was 12.
If you’re on the network and studio side, it’s about to get easier for you to figure out which creators are mass audience friendly. An increase in safety concerns means big business for companies like Creator IQ and Viral Nation, which offer products analyzing creator channels for potential partnerships. And if a creator, start accurately labeling your child friendly content now and brace yourself for some platform changes. This is one cultural war where you don’t want to be on the wrong side.
Now onto the rest.
Kayla Cobb
Senior Reporter
kayla.cobb@thewrap.com
P.S. We have some big news at TheWrap. Next week will mark our first-ever Creators x Hollywood Summit, an invite-only Los Angeles gathering of the top creators, entertainment leaders and brand partners who are shaping the future of storytelling and the new entertainment economy. So watch this space for some interesting panels and articles.
The event is presented in partnership with global creator agency Whalar and The Lighthouse, both part of the Whalar Group, and sponsored by City National Bank, Fox Entertainment, Lionsgate, Loeb & Loeb LLP and WEBTOON.
What’s New
“Jeopardy!” launched its first-ever YouTube edition with creators
Who says you can’t teach an old dog new tricks? “Jeopardy!” premiered its first YouTube edition yesterday with drag queen Monét X Change (1.3 million Instagram followers), singer Rebecca Black (1.6 million YouTube subscribers) and Dropout comedian Brennan Lee Mulligan (828,000 Instagram followers) as its first three contestants. The trio played for a charity prize and were given catered clues.
“We have taken the brave move of replacing people who are actually good with Jeopardy with people who are good at YouTube,” host Ken Jennings joked. It’s a big experiment for Sony Pictures TV and YouTube, and TheWrap’s Tess Patton has the behind-the-scenes look into how it all came together.
Alex Cooper announces a YouTube reality competition show with Dakota Mortensen, Anna Delvey and more
One of the biggest reality events of the season could premiere on YouTube next week. Alex Cooper’s (6.6 million Instagram followers) Unwell Productions announced “The 2026 Unwell Winter Games”on Monday, a four-episode reality competition series that stars several pop culture polarizing figures like fake German heiress Anna Delvey.
But the name that’s getting the most buzz is Dakota Mortensen, the “Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” star who’s at the center of the Taylor Frankie Paul domestic violence scandal. If you need a refresher, Paul was set to be “The Bachelorette” until videos emerged of Paul attacking Mortensen. ABC quickly scrapped the season. Though it was certainly pretaped, Cooper’s show will be one of Mortensen’s first TV appearances since the scandal broke.
YouTube remains the primary platform for creators
According to a reader poll from The Publish Press, Colin and Samir’s (1.6 million YouTube subscribers) creator-focused newsletter, 67% of creators consider YouTube to be their primary platform. That was followed by Instagram at 15%. The poll also found that 53% of respondents reported making less than $100,000 per year. It’s a limited sample size, but considering that Colin and Samir’s audience is highly plugged into the world of creator trends, it’s interesting.
Platform Updates
The MLB is reviving “This Week in Baseball” on X with Kait Maniscalco
Starting on Friday, the MLB will be bringing back its “This Week in Baseball” franchise on X. A new episode from the new shortform baseball series will premiere on Major League Baseball’s X account every Friday at noon ET. The series comes from MLB Studios and will be hosted by baseball-loving creator Kait Maniscalco (335,000 TikTok followers).
TikTok creators will be able to send Cameos to fans
TikTok and Cameo teamed up on Tuesday. As part of this new partnership, TikTok creators will be able to offer their fans personalized Cameo videos without leaving the app. As part of the news, Cameo revealed that TikTok creators are one of the fastest-growing talent segments for the celebrity-focused personalized video company.
Roughly one-third of music fans on Instagram are superfans
If you’re a major music fan, chances are high you’re on Instagram. That’s what a new study from Luminate and Meta found. The study defined a “superfan” as any consumer who engages with an artist in at least five different ways (examples include attending an artist’s concert or tipping an artist on Patreon). Of Instagram’s users who are music fans, nearly one-third (32%) qualified as superfans. Additionally, 58% of all music superfans use Instagram to engage with content about artists or music, and 38% of Gen Z or younger users qualify as superfans.
Awards Darlings
David Dobrik, Rachel Levin, Ella Moncrief and more win at the first-ever Snappy Awards
Snapchat dubbed the winners of its first-ever Snappy Awards on Tuesday. There were 22 winners altogether, but some of the big ones to highlight include Creator of the Year winner David Dobrik (25 million TikTok followers), Best Storyteller winner Rachel Levin (1.9 million SnapChat followers), Breakout Creator winner Ashton Hall (17.9 million Instagram followers) and One To Watch winner Ella Moncrief (1.3 million SnapChat followers).
The Clios launch creator awards
The Clios — the esteemed advertising awards organization — announced a creator-focused award last week. The Clio Creators programis a partnership with YouTube and Influential that will accept submissions across Instagram, LinkedIn, Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube and other emerging content creation platforms. The program will accept entries for both its Creator and Brand tracks.
Webbys 2026 host Josh Johnson scored a nomination
“The Daily Show” correspondent and occasional host Josh Johnson (2.6 million TikTok followers) was already set to host the 2026 Webby Awards. But as of this morning, he’s also a nominee in the Comedy category. Keith Lee, Katie Feeney, Chloe Ting and Steven Bartlett also scored nominations to name a few of the big name noms.
Movers and Shakers
A24 drops the creepy first trailer for Kane Parsons’ “Backrooms”
Prepare to be spooked this May. A24 released the first trailer for Kane Parsons’ “Backrooms,” a horror movie based on Parsons’ (2.9 million YouTube followers) viral webseries of the same name (Fun fact: that webseries is based on an old creepypasta). And it looks just as unsettling as Parsons’ videos.
CAA adds Rebecca Rusheen as an agent in its creators division
CAA has added creator economy powerhouse Rebecca Rusheen as an agent in its creators division. Rusheen started her career at Abrams, which later became A3 Artists, and moved to the Gersh Agency in 2024 when Gersh acquired the digital and non-scripted divisions of A3. She’s worked with major multi-hyphenate creators like Reece Feldman (2.8 million TikTok followers), who made headlines last year for premiering his short at Cannes Film Festival.
Gaming creator Alanah Pearce launches a production company, and Cas van de Pol is working on a game and TV pilot
Alanah Pearce (868,000 YouTube subscribers) launched her own indie production company last week. Charred Pictures will focus on involving game developers in film and TV adaptations. Its first projects include two movies based on video game IP and an original indie film from Pearce that has wrapped.
Speaking of gaming and creators, animation creator Cas van de Pol (8.6 million YouTube subscribers) is working on a video game and TV pilot.
Who to Watch
Pooja Tripathi
Have you ever walked into a hipster coffee shop and immediately felt judged? That’s kind of the whole premise of Pooja Tripathi’s (242,000 Instagram followers) “Brooklyn Coffee Shop.” Each episode of the shortform comedy follows a different and distinct weirdo who appears in Thyme (Tripathi) and Cale’s (Darryl Gene Daughtry Jr.) coffee shop and is not served any coffee. It’s a savage social critique that counts Kumail Nanjiani and Delaney Rowe among its celebrity guest stars.
Bonus Content
- The Manosphere Turns on Trump (via The Atlantic)
- The Rise of a Spanish-Language News Influence (via The New Yorker)
- The Substack Writers Who Need to Keep Their Day Jobs (via The Cut)
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This report provides a weekly deep dive into the creator economy. It highlights key trends, political and technological developments, data points and industry leaders all with the goal of making you smarter about this constantly evolving space.
