TOGETHER WITH

It’s Thursday, and .com isn’t the coolest domain on the block anymore. With that bubble thoroughly burst, tech giants including OpenAI and Meta are jumping on domains like “.agent” and “.superintelligence.”

TAKING ACTION

The advocacy day: On September 25, VPN providers Surfshark, Windscribe, and Amnezia joined forces with nonprofit group Fight for the Future to defend internet users’ collective right to use private networks.

Millions of people worldwide leverage VPNs to access websites that are otherwise geolocked or age-restricted. In many countries, those services are permitted because they fall under users’ rights to free speech and expression—but recent events have complicated the VPN landscape.

In Australia, a law banning users under the age of 16 from social media has only made kids more active online. Approximately one in 20 young Australians have evaded the ban by using a VPN to spoof their location.

Other governments want to enact similar laws, but VPNs clearly represent a serious obstacle. Utah became the first state to force websites to restrict traffic from suspected VPNs, and Australia is considering a blanket ban on the networks.

The context: Those policy proposals don’t sit well with Fight for the Future, which has now hosted Defend VPNs Day of Action for two years running.

In a statement, Fight for the Future Campaign Director Sarah Phillips described VPNs as “a basic, necessary, and vital tool to protect us from everything from the most serious criminalization at the hands of an oppressive government…to just wanting to protect ourselves from the steady leak of our data to be exploited.”

Perhaps, with collective action, future installments of Defend VPNs Day of Action won’t be necessary—but the current state of affairs suggests that VPN usage will remain a contentious issue at the state and federal levels.

From world premieres to breakthrough ideas, MIPCOM Cannes is where the global content community unites—and this year’s big event kicks off in just four days.

With 150+ speakers and 18,611 m² of exhibition space, planning your MIPCOM experience in advance is key to maximizing the marketplace’s value. So, what should be on your itinerary? 

Here’s Tubefilter’s bite-sized guide to MIPCOM Cannes:

1. The must-see destination: The MIP Innovation Lab
The MIP Innovation Lab is the ideal place to explore the tech powering the future of streaming, vertical storytelling, and more.

→ Our session recommendation: “New Formats, New Stories: The Creators Behind Meta’s Original Series.”

2. The can’t-miss headliner: “Building Fan Culture Together - Dennis Papirowski, Global Head of Content, TikTok”
You won’t want to miss out on this October 14 deep-dive into TikTok and Disney’s collaboration. 

3. The #1 networking spot: The MIP Creative Hub
Whether you’re developing IP, building creator partnerships, or looking for what’s next, the MIP Creative Hub is where new creative opportunities take shape.

→ Our session recommendation: “Developing Formats on TikTok: The Next Generation of Storytellers,” presented by TikTok on October 12.

Ready to start planning your agenda?

HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰

TECH TIME

The renaissance: Last month, Meta took a bold step forward by announcing advanced smart glasses that can play major entertainment apps while remaining completely portable.

When that product arrives next year, it will cement Meta’s status as a wearables titan. The tech giant has already benefited from a Ray-Ban partnership that makes its smart glasses sportier than ever before, and an Oakley design further upped the ante last year.

That renaissance is a welcome turn of events for wearables enthusiasts. But how does the current era of smart glasses affect everyone else’s right to privacy?

The legislative response: The rise of wearable devices that can surreptitiously record in public spaces has already led to some legislative actions. A rundown of laws compiled by Reuters, for instance, notes that smart glasses have been banned from court facilities in New York, restricted in British movie theaters, and scrutinized across the European Union.

The most significant smart glasses crackdown has occurred in Norway, where government officials are proposing a sweeping restriction that would ban the use of smart glasses in common public spaces. 

Meta has not yet offered a direct comment on Norway’s proposal, though it has highlighted the privacy features of its smart glasses. An LED light glows when the recording equipment is in use, and the hardware is designed to automatically disable the camera if the user tampers with the LED.

Those safeguards are important, but they seem unlikely to quell widespread security concerns—meaning Meta’s wearables push has produced yet another regulatory issue for Zuck and co.

MEDICAL MAYHEM

The report: Do TikTok viewers put too much faith in doctors on their For You Page? A study from a research team led by Dr. Suzanne Makarem of Virginia Commonwealth University makes a compelling argument for ‘yes.’

The researchers combed through 330 videos posted by doctors with at least 100,000 TikTok followers before interviewing 26 Gen Zers who follow physician-influencers on the app.

The first part of the study revealed that TikTok users are more likely to engage with doctors who look the part, with physician-influencers who wore medical attire receiving significantly more comments than those dressed in casual clothes.

The issue: Viewers’ willingness to trust creators dressed in medical attire may not seem like a big deal, especially given that the accounts studied by the research team are all medical doctors.

But that trust becomes tricky when product recommendations come into the picture. As the report noted, “[physician-influencers’] role as healthcare experts appears to keep informants from questioning…product recommendations because ‘after all, the doctor is only going to promote something that actually works.’”

Some respondents also seemed to trust creators more than their own doctors, with physician-influencers seen as well-meaning while real-life doctors were perceived to be chasing profits. 

“My gynecologist taught me how to treat my urinary tract infection, but the TikTok doctors taught me how to ease the pain,” one informant said, adding that doctors are “just healing the thing you have in the moment, and…not doing anything to stop it from getting to this point.”

That attitude suggests that the prevalence of medical misinformation on TikTok is a symptom of a larger broken medical system. Americans’ lack of faith in their own doctors is too big of an issue for TikTok to solve on its own—but users should keep in mind that wearing a lab coat doesn’t automatically make a creator trustworthy.

WATCH THIS 👀

The drinking gadget: Earlier this year, YouTube tech king Mark Rober threw a casino party and invited “all the internet’s smartest creators” to cheat the house with the most clever gadgets they could dream up.

The idea, of course, was to cheat at the casino games (and hopefully win $10,000). But not every creator decided to go that route. Rather than outsmarting the games themselves, WoolyBeetle1 (aka Katrina) decided to focus her energies on designing a device “that got some of the biggest YouTubers in the world not walking in a straight line.”

The end result was essentially a Tamagotchi that “promotes binge-drinking.” Creators at the event clipped the device to their drinks and took swigs to keep an on-screen digital horse alive. Quit drinking, and the horse bit the dust.

Is it an ethical creation? Probably not—which is exactly why the video description reads “please do not make these im serious. i would feel really awful if someone were to get hurt.”

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Today's newsletter is from: Emily Burton, Sam Gutelle, and Josh Cohen.