TOGETHER WITH

It’s Tuesday and even chatbots aren’t immune to peer pressure. According to a recent study, ChatGPT was more willing to break rules when told that “all the other LLMs are doing it.”

Today’s News

REACHING NEW HEIGHTS

Taylor Swift’s podcast appearance set a world record

The episode: Last week, Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s engagement announcement became the most-reposted post on Instagram—and that wasn’t their only record-breaking reveal of the month.

On August 13, Swift announced her next album, The Life of a Showgirl, while guest-starring on an episode of Travis and Jason Kelce’s longtime podcast, New Heights. The pop star is known for giving very few interviews, so that two-hour chat was a rare opportunity for fans to learn about the battle over the rights to her first six albums, the easter eggs she layers into tracks, and the grueling schedule behind her ridiculously popular Eras tour (which also broke records as the highest-grossing tour of all time).

The stats: As one of the top podcasts on YouTube, New Heights is popular in its own right—but its audience nevertheless represents only a tiny fraction of Swift’s worldwide fanbase.

It’s no surprise, then, that the musician’s appearance became the most-viewed installment of the Kelces’ podcast—and that was just the beginning.

According to Guinness World Records, the live premiere of Swift’s guest spot also set a new record for the number of concurrent listeners on any podcast: over 1.3 million people.

Data from Mondo Metrics confirms the massive fan response to Swift’s New Heights appearance. To date, the full episode and various clips of it have earned…

• 379 million views on Instagram

• 20.4 million views on YouTube

• 34.5 million views on TikTok

• 61.6 million views on X

• 51.4 million views on Facebook

• 1.1 million views on Threads

🌟 SPONSORED 🌟

The world’s biggest creator expo drew 30,000 attendees in 2025. What’s next for the 1 Billion Followers Summit?

In January 2025, the 1 Billion Followers Summit once again proved to be the largest expo for content creators on the globe.

Next year, that event will return from January 9-11, 2026 with more attendees, more speakers, and more opportunities than ever before—so while we wait for everything from speaker reveals to ticket details, we’re taking a look back at the stats that defined 2025.

In 2025, the 1 Billion Followers Summit encompassed…

• 30,000+ attendees

• 420+ speakers, who collectively claim 2.3B+ online followers

• 300+ panels, keynotes, and workshops

• 8+ platform spaces led by YouTube, Meta, TikTok, X, and more

• Plus, one $1M award honoring a groundbreaking creator

This year, attendees heard from digital pioneers like Khaby Lame, Airrack, Trevor Noah, Jay Shetty, Zach King, and Maye Musk. Who will lead the way in 2026?

Tickets for 2026 are on sale now. Keep an eye on the 1 Billion Followers Summit website to find out more:

HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰

• Sports channel Culture Media is touring college football venues across the U.S.—and assembling its own on-the-go creator house—as part of an initiative called the Culture College Tour. (Tubefilter)
  
  

• TikTok is the latest platform to level up DMs. Its latest additions to direct messaging: image-sharing and voice messages. (The Verge)
  
  

• Meta has confirmed that it will institute "guardrails as an extra precaution" to prevent its chatbots from talking to teenagers about self-harm and eating disorders. (Engadget)
  
  

• Lionsgate hosted a special screening of The Long Walk for influencers. The catch: like the film’s characters, attendees had to walk at least three miles per hour throughout the movie or risk getting kicked out. (Gizmodo)

STREAMING NEWS

A streamer died while live on Kick. France is holding the platform accountable.

The creator: On Kick, Raphaël Graven cultivated a reputation as a human punching bag. During collabs with streamers Naruto and Safine (who have since been banned on the platform), the 46-year-old creator endured physical abuse and sleep deprivation.

According to Le Parisien, those stunts helped Graven—who was known online as Jean Pormanove—amass about 500,000 followers. Then, on August 18, the streamer passed away while live on Kick, leading the French government to file a lawsuit against the three-year-old platform.

The context: Was Graven’s death an accident or an act of negligence on Kick’s part? Despite his success, the creator had lamented the abuse livestreamed at his expense. Shortly before his death, he messaged his mom that he was “being held hostage” and was “fed up” with the offensive streams. And while an autopsy revealed that Graven’s death was caused by “medical and/or toxicological means” and was “not traumatic in origin,” the sleep deprivation he endured on-stream was undoubtedly unhealthy.

The allegations: In response, French Minister of State for Digital Affairs Clara Chappaz is contending that Kick “did not do everything possible to stop the broadcast of dangerous content” in the lead-up to Graven’s death.

She’s not alone, either. In Kick’s native Australia, the local eSafety Commissioner is also on the case—and if its investigation concludes that the platform could have done more to ensure Graven’s safety, resulting fines could rise as high as $49.5 million.

Will France and Australia’s cases against Kick lead to permanent change in the realm of digital safety? Social media platforms have long been protected by safe harbor provisions, and while Chappaz is eager to take Kick to court, she acknowledges that the situation is complicated. “As a minister,” she said, “you cannot decide to shut down a site.”

HAVE YOU HEARD?

Last week in the creator economy…

Each week, we handpick a selection of stories to give you a snapshot of the trends, business moves, and platform updates defining the creator industry. In the latest news roundup: Roblox faces a child safety controversy, a Netflix film rocks the box office, and AI slop breeds lucrative revenue streams.

The creator commotion: Roblox claims to have banned one of its top stars, Schlep, because his hunt for child predators took “the law into his own hands.” The digital vigilante, however, isn’t buying that explanation—and he wasn’t afraid to tell Roblox (and the rest of X) exactly why exiling him was the wrong move. It’s hard to see how Roblox will come out of this situation looking like the good guys, especially with Schlep’s audience growing quickly.

The box office hit: KPop Demon Hunters successfully sealed the honmoon during its theatrical run. Netflix bet big on the animated hit by launching a sing-along event in movie theaters across the country. The numbers from that run are now in, and they confirm that KPop Demon Hunters earned between $18 million and $20 million over its big weekend (per Bloomberg).

The AI video boom: AI-generated videos featuring chaotic scenes have started popping up across short-form video platforms, and the returns have been significant. One slop creator claimed to make $9,000 in a single month from his videos. Maybe YouTube will be able to crack down on that category, but it feels like the weird cats, dogs, babies, and Jesuses are here to stay.

The game show: Taskmaster‘s 20th season will feature day-and-date YouTube releases. We recently wrote about the novel distribution strategy that has turned the British game show into an online hit. For the program’s 20th season, its producers are doubling down by bringing Taskmaster episodes to YouTube in the U.S at the same time they premiere on British TV.

LISTEN UP 🎙️

This week on the podcast…

“YouTube’s New Plan”: On the latest installment of Creator Upload, hosts Lauren Schnipper and Josh Cohen dive into a wild week that saw Roblox shatter concurrent user records thanks to a viral beef between game devs.

Also on the discussion board: the wide rollout of YouTube's new Hype feature—which spotlights channels with under 500,000 subscribers—and the platform’s creator-heavy partnership with the NFL.

Check out the full episode on Spotify and Apple Podcasts for all the details.

Was this email forwarded to you? Subscribe here.​

Want to introduce your brand to Tubefilter’s audience? Sponsor the newsletter.

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