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It's Monday and Brilliant Labs may have mastered the art of selling smart glasses to the socially anxious. Their secret: designing frames that remember the names of people you meet (even when you don’t).

Today’s News

#TEAMWATER

MrBeast and Mark Rober are raising $40M for clean water

The campaign: Per Water.org, 2.2 billion people around the world currently lack access to safe drinking water. Now, as climate change threatens to make that problem even more pervasive, two of YouTube’s biggest stars are taking action. For their latest collaborative endeavor, Mark Rober and MrBeast (aka Jimmy Donaldson) have joined forces to launch #TeamWater, a campaign that aims to raise $40 million to bring clean water to millions of households.

If successful, Donaldson says #TeamWater will “get 2,000,000 people around the world clean water for decades.”

That campaign is off to a promising start. On August 1, a video introducing #TeamWater arrived on Rober’s channel with a link to the month-long #TeamWater charity drive (where WaterAid is collecting donations on behalf of the creators). Less than four hours after launch, that drive had already raised nearly $1 million. Now, nearly three days later, it’s up to $6.8 million.

The context: Donors have good reason to believe in the power of #TeamWater—and the creators leading the charge. In 2019, Rober and Donaldson similarly joined forces as #TeamTrees to raise $20 million and plant 20 million trees. Two years after completing that terrestrial effort, they turned their attention to the Earth’s big bodies of water. Through #TeamSeas, a $30 million fundraising campaign, Rober and Donaldson led an effort to remove more than 30 million pounds of trash from the ocean.

🌟 SPONSORED 🌟

Experts at TikTok and Meta have already led exclusive Creators HQ workshops. Now, it’s Google’s turn.

Earlier this year, 100 top creators joined industry leaders to launch the ultimate community and coworking space for digital pioneers: Creators HQ. 

Since then, Creators HQ has helped members level up with exclusive biz dev sessions, workshops, and bootcamps hosted by leaders at Meta, TikTok, and beyond. 

Next up: “How Gemini Can Power Your YouTube Content” with Marwa Khost, Communications Manager at Google in MENA.

On August 15, Google’s own Marwa Khost will pull back the curtain on Gemini AI in a hands-on workshop designed to help you boost productivity, spark creativity, and streamline content planning for YouTube. 

Existing Creators HQ members can RVSP here to join the workshop.

Not yet a member? At just $40 a month, Creators HQ membership includes…

• Subscriptions to Spotter Studio and Komi

• Access to filming, editing, and production facilities

• Priority Golden Visa applications

• Invites to exclusive workshops and sessions

HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰

• After previously allowing anyone to go live, Instagram has updated its policy so that “only public accounts with 1,000 followers or more will be able to create live videos.” (TechCrunch)
  
  

• An upcoming episode on Ms. Rachel’s YouTube channel will feature a 3-year-old survivor of an Israeli air strike, leading viewers to draw parallels between the YouTube kids sensation and Mr. Rogers. (Washington Post)
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• YouTube says it is experimenting with a new feature that gives creators the ability to “add collaborators to a video” and allow “content to be recommended to each of the creators’ audiences.” (YouTube Help)
  
  

• After previously suggesting that paid subreddits would roll out later this year, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman said the company is now "shifting resources away" from that feature. (Engadget)

CREATOR CONCERNS

YouTube might card you to prove you’re over 18. VTubers are worried.

The system: YouTube’s updated approach to age verification is raising concerns for VTubers. Last week, the platform announced the introduction of a new AI system designed to guess users’ ages based on account activity, and apply safeguards to those being operated by kids. To make sure users can set things right if that system ever makes a mistake, YouTube clarified that account holders “will have the option to verify that they are 18 or over, such as using a credit card or a government ID.”

The problem: That might seem like a straightforward solution, but some creators are less than thrilled about the idea of sharing identifying information. As demonstrated by documented instances of stalking, swatting, and more, being doxxed is a major concern for all creators.

Since government IDs usually contain full legal names and current addresses, it’s a serious security risk for any creator if they get leaked. That liability could be even great for faceless VTubers, who are often targeted by bad actors who take their desire for privacy as a challenge—and then there’s the problem of scammers.

In response to YouTube’s new verification system, VTuber Bao The Whale tweeted about a still-ongoing incident involving fellow creator AmatsukaUto‘s YouTube channel, which was hacked by cryptocurrency scammers. Bao—who recently signed with UTA—noted that she’s worried about whether and how Google plans to protect the contents of VTubers’ government-issued IDs:

While we’re guessing YouTube’s new system will primarily target viewer accounts, Bao’s concerns about the platform’s handling of creator safety aren’t unfounded. AmatsukaUto’s channel was hacked July 29. When she tweeted about it, she received a vague response from Team YouTube with general account recovery advice. As of press time, she has not regained access to her channel.

THE BIZ

As YouTube ages, defunct channels are becoming hot commodities

The swaps: The sale of a YouTube channel to the highest bidder is a violation of the platform’s Terms of Service—but that doesn’t mean those kinds of transactions aren’t happening.

A research team helmed by lead author Alejandro Cuevas of Carnegie Mellon University recently released a report detailing the use of third-party sites to buy and sell defunct social media accounts that have thousands or even millions of followers.

After examining 4,641 YouTube channels that were listed on Fameswap—a virtual marketplace where creators can list accounts for sale—between October 2024 and March 2025, the researchers determined that those hubs had a combined 823 million subscribers. The ones that found buyers collectively generated more than $1 million in sales, with many seemingly purchased for nefarious purposes. The researchers claimed that 37% of channels that were refashioned by a new owner were used to promote potentially harmful topics, such as political misinformation, crypto scams, and gambling ads.

The context: Even as YouTube takes action against those bad actors, its technology encourages illicit channel sales. Algorithmic tendencies seem to favor channels that have built-in subscriber bases, regardless of whether new owners share content that is completely incongruous with pre-purchase uploads.

And this isn’t just a YouTube problem, either: Reddit is bursting with activity from users who want to purchase old accounts, while “Hawk Tuah” girl Hailey Welch made a splash earlier this year by selling her X account to the owner of a meme page.

X has come up with a potential solution by proposing a program that would distribute inactive accounts among verified users, and YouTube could try something similar—but we’re guessing even that wouldn’t do much to slow down platforms like Fameswap.

LISTEN UP

This week on the podcast…

“Why Wait So Long?”: YouTube, Meta, and TikTok are suddenly rolling out a slate of new teen safety features—but is this a genuine effort to protect young users, or a reaction to potential fines? On the latest episode of Creator Upload, hosts Josh Cohen and Lauren Schnipper examine the latest wave of platform updates in the context of ongoing regulatory pressure from around the world.

Also on the discussion list: MrBeast’s animated series, Astronomer’s decision to tap Gwyneth Paltrow for a crisis-response ad, and the shocking collapse of VShojo.

It’s all right here on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

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