It's Tuesday and Roblox players looking to flex their skills can head over to Game Mountain, a brand-new in-game experience created by the Olympic & Paralympic Committee and NBCUniversal.

Today’s News

• 🫰The Olympic Committee sues Prime for millions 

• AsqMe is giving the power back to creators 

• 💰 MrBeast + 50 creators = instant hit for Samsung 

• Donald Trump is back on all major platforms 

GOING FOR THE GOLD

Logan Paul and KSI’s Prime could lose “millions of dollars” in a legal battle with the Olympic Committee

The campaign: Prime’s partnership with Olympic gold medalist Kevin Durant has taken a (potentially) expensive turn.

On July 9, the Logan Paul and KSI-owned company launched a Durant-branded version of its core drink featuring a navy blue wraparound label with a gold star.

• According to the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC), that campaign also featured promotional phrases like “Team USA Kevin Durant Drink,” “Going for Gold,” “Olympic,” and “Olympian.” The problem: the latter three terms and “Team USA” are all trademarked by the USOPC.

The lawsuit: The deployment of those promotional materials is at the center of a new lawsuit, which accuses Prime of endangering the USOPC’s relationship with Coca-Cola—a company that made “a significant monetary contribution” to claim exclusive rights to the use of phrases like “Olympic” on drinks in the United States. According to the suit, a USOPC lawyer asked Prime to stop using trademarked language on July 10, but the promotions continued.

• Now, the committee has asked a judge to compel Prime to hand over all profits from the Durant collaboration and pay “millions of dollars” in additional damages.

The big picture: The USOPC’s suit isn’t the only legal trouble on Prime’s plate. Paul and KSI’s brand is also facing a $5 million lawsuit from California for allegedly peddling “false and misleading representations” to downplay the presence of PFAs in its packaging.

• Both cases signal an important message for creators: building hype for online content is one thing—promoting physical products with (allegedly) misleading marketing tactics is something else entirely. While controversy and clickbait played a key role in the growth of Paul’s online career, the use of false or overblown language in retail marketing could be a pricey mistake.

HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰

• AI company AsqMe has debuted FirstDraft, a “personal conversational AI” that helps creators answer audience questions based on their existing content. (Tubefilter)
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• Reddit is teaming up with the NFL, NBA, and MLB for a partnership that will bring game highlights, athlete AMAs, and other sports content to its platform. (The Verge)

• Netflix says it has no plans to form discount bundles with other streamers because it already offers “a superior product experience” as a “go-to destination for entertainment.” (TechRadar)
  
  

• TikTok reportedly plans to make Shop accessible to viewers in Ireland and Spain “as early as October” of 2024. (Bloomberg)

DATA • GOSPEL STATS 📈

Top 3 Branded Videos: 50 creators go to war and a fish goes under the knife

Gospel Stats’ latest Weekly Brand Report is a testament to the varied tastes of devoted YouTube viewers. As usual, a MrBeast video claimed the #1 spot in the branded rankings—but a fish surgery vlog and a Dhar Mann morality tale also scored top marks.

🥇 MrBeast x Samsung: 50 YouTubers Fight For $1,000,000
MrBeast’s latest video was a star-powered super challenge. The creator “gathered 50 of the biggest YouTubers on the planet” and pitted them against each other in pursuit of a massive prize: $1 million to divide among fans.

• It’s no wonder that competition brought in a whopping 170.5 million views. As MrBeast (aka Jimmy Donaldson) pointed out, his Samsung-sponsored video united “1 billion subscribers worth of YouTubers”—meaning viewers were flooding in from every corner of the platform.

🥈 Fish4Ever x API Fish Care: Why I Cut My Fish
Fish4Ever’s viral fish surgery might not be a wide-reaching creator face-off, but it still managed to capture the attention of 15 million viewers. Some of those viewers might be in it for the novelty, but a good chunk are undoubtedly fish lovers. That’s good news for the video’s sponsor, a fish care brand that jives swimmingly with YouTube’s growing cadre of aquarium enthusiasts.

🥉 Dhar Mann Studios x Dragon City: Opposite TWINS SWAP LIVES For 1 Week
Dhar Mann Studios has become a recurring fixture in Gospel’s branded rankings. For the second time in two weeks, a video from the studio featured both a morality-focused skit and a gaming sponsorship. This week’s brand partner: social media-savvy mobile game Dragon City.

Want more YouTube sponsorship insights? Get in touch with Gospel Stats here.

TO BAN OR NOT TO BAN

Twitch is the latest platform to unban Trump. What does that mean for the future of social media moderation?

The great unbanning: Donald Trump has now been reinstated on every major social media platform.

Twitch followed the lead of YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and X earlier this month by reinstating the former president’s channel on the basis that “there is value in hearing from Presidential nominees directly.”

• Like its counterparts, Twitch exiled Trump following the Jan. 6 Capitol Hill attack in order to prevent “further violence.” Since then, all major platforms have cited one of two reasons for unbanning him: (1) voters should “hear equally from major national candidates” and (2) “the risk of real-world violence” has lessened (per YouTube).
  
  

• Trump has taken full advantage of his return to social media, where he claims 3.1 million YouTube subscribers, 35M Facebook followers, 26M Instagram followers, and 150,000 Twitch followers. The former president graced Twitch on July 20, when he and VP nominee JD Vance captured thousands of views with a two-hour stream.

The big picture: Aside from setting a precedent for future elections, Trump’s unbanning raises complicated questions related to moderation. For one, how should platforms decide who—if anyone—is above their community guidelines? And should those companies even be held responsible for moderating the speech of public figures in the first place?

• Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 has long shielded platforms from legal liability so long as they respond to moderation requests in a timely manner. Some parties believe that law allows platforms to ignore the spread of violence and misinformation; others (including states like Florida and Texas) believe it gives platforms too much power to censor users—especially politicians. As companies like Twitch determine when and how to moderate notable users, they’ll have to consider whether their actions provide either camp with additional ammo.

WATCH THIS 📺

Fortnite players can now go to battle in a Tesla Cybertruck

The big debut: A new combat vehicle is coming to Fortnite. In an X post uploaded yesterday, the game platform announced that players can now “catch a ride” in one of Tesla’s buzziest creations: the Cybertruck.

• A trailer for that branded partnership comes on the heels of in-game collabs with soccer club Manchester City F.C. and fast food chain Whataburger. The takeaway: whether you’re craving a burger, a multiplayer battle, or that brand-new car smell, Fortnite’s got it covered.

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Today's newsletter is from: Emily Burton, Sam Gutelle, and Josh Cohen. Drew Baldwin helped edit, too. It's a team effort.