TOGETHER WITH

It’s Wednesday and Hasan Piker just got quite the profile in Slate, which pitched him as the “hot” and "dangerous” Democrat equivalent to Joe Rogan.

THE REAL REASON?

TikTok is a center for Palestine activism. Is that why it got banned?

The ban: The TikTok ban spent years languishing between the Oval Office and Congress. Donald Trump talked about banning it during his first term, but that got dropped down the priority list when Joe Biden took office in 2021. TikTok’s CEO was (pretty ineptly) grilled by Congress in 2023, but after that, things quieted down. Biden seemed content to let TikTok stay; he even made an account there in early 2024 as part of his campaign’s attempt to reach The Youths. For a while, TikTok was safe.

The change: Then, in late 2024, ban talk suddenly ratcheted up again amongst U.S. lawmakers. But why? Well, according to former Republican Senator turned defense contractor exec Mike Gallagher, the conflict in Gaza had a key role.

Gallagher wrote the TikTok ban bill (officially called the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act), and during the recent Munich Security Conference, he explained that it seemed dead in the water—until TikTok was flooded with support for Palestine.

The conflict: Some people perceived that support flood as antisemitic and called for TikTok to clamp down on content about Israel’s attack on Palestine. This, it appears, may have brought attention back to the platform, its content moderation, and how it handles users’ accounts—key concerns for U.S. lawmakers.

So what now? TikTok narrowly escaped a ban just as Trump came back into office (and welcomed the platform’s CEO at his inauguration…). He decided to give its owner ByteDance a 75-day extension from its original Jan. 19 deadline, which means TikTok is now due to be banned sometime in April if ByteDance doesn’t divest before then. But, considering Trump now appears to view TikTok as an ally, who knows if the ban will ever go through.

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HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰

• “Kidfluencers” are the faces of some of YouTube’s biggest channels. But what happens when they want to grow up? (Tubefilter)
  
  

• Generative AI clipping platform OpusClip has announced a biweekly livestream series offering advice and support from industry experts. Next up: a March 1st webinar hosted at 10 AM PST. (OpusClip - Tubefilter Partner)
  
  

• MrBeast got buzzed in at the NBA All-Star Game—and in true MrBeast style, he hosted a half-court shooting competition that rewarded the winner with $100,000 cash. (Dexerto)
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• Kick loves to capitalize whenever it sees slightest weakness in Twitch, and after Asmongold revealed his Twitch earnings, Kick’s co-founder is determined to show him how much more he could make if he switched platforms. (Bloomberg)

GREAT PYRAMID GALORE

YouTube’s biggest branded video takes MrBeast into the pyramids

The tombs: What happens when you give a YouTuber “unrestricted access” to the Giza pyramid complex, one of the world’s most somber and awe-inspiring historical sites? Well, if that YouTuber is MrBeast, he makes a challenge out of it, and turns it into the latest video promoting his Moose Toys lineup.

He got permission to visit the complex—which includes the Great Pyramid, the pyramid of Khafre, and the pyramid of Menkaure, along with the famous Great Sphinx and surrounding support buildings—for just 100 hours. Guided by an expert, he and his usual crew (Chandler Hallow, Karl Jacobs, et al) squeeze through tight tunnels, brave flooded passageways, and overall get to have the kind of experience 99% Egyptian history enthusiasts could only dream of. They even get to check out a few locations that are off-limits to the public.

The toys: This adventure is sponsored in part by Moose Toys, the Melbourne, Australia-based toymaker that partnered with MrBeast back in January 2024. Whatever toy you expected to emerge from that partnership, it probably wasn’t what they ended up making: So far, they’ve released lines of figures called Swarms and Mutators, both of which come in mad science-y packaging. Kids crack open test tubes to get to the toys—and children are apparently really digging that, considering Mutators were the top-selling toys in the action figure category during the last couple months of 2024.

As for what else popped up in our latest Gospel Stats Weekly Brand Report, we have a microscopic look at things from Veritasium, a table tennis tournament with some of the NFL’s biggest stars, and a gaslighting Facebook Marketplace bot from Michael Reeves.

Check it all out here.

SUPER BOWL BUMPIN’

Kendrick Lamar’s in the YouTube spotlight after his Super Bowl performance

The chart bump: It’s happened before: when an artist shines during the Super Bowl halftime show, they often see their numbers tick up on YouTube in the weeks after. And Kendrick Lamar is no different. He was already hitting big numbers on YouTube thanks to his devastating Drake diss track “Not Like Us,” but in the wake of his Super Bowl performance, his cultural impact is especially easy to see.

As Sam Gutelle reports in our Top 50 Most Viewed U.S. YouTube Channels chart this week, Lamar made it to spot #40, with 107,354,616 views on his own channel. It’d be easy to assume most of that viewership was driven by videos related to “Not Like Us,” but the traffic is actually spread out across Lamar’s channel.

For example, the music video for his recently released track “squabble up” is absolutely killing it right now. According to YouTube, it’s currently the #8 top trending music video on the platform, and it has over 42 million views.

The runners up: While Lamar is our biggest featuree on this week’s chart, it’s worth noting he’s not the only musician making waves lately. We mentioned last week that Lady Gaga’s numbers are also surging amid her “Abracadabra” comeback.

As for who else is kicking butt, it’s kids’ creators. Because it’s always kids’ creators. When we do charts, kids’ content dominates virtually every one. It’s one of the biggest categories on YouTube, and this week, there’s no break in its rule: Disney Jr. is up to spot #43, with over 100 million views.

Clearly, it’s time for Bluey and Kendrick Lamar to team up on a track. If not, they’ll have to diss one another. Watch out, Kendrick: That blue heeler has some bite to his bark.

WATCH THIS 📺

Planes are not having a good time right now

In case you haven’t heard, the airline industry is not exactly doing great at the moment. Some of the incidents over the past few weeks have resulted in serious tragedies, but others—like the most recent Delta crash, where an entire plane just fully flipped over while trying to land at the Toronto airport—thankfully saw all passengers and crew walk away.

So, what’s the deal? What’s causing crashes? Well, that’s outside our wheelhouse. What is in our wheelhouse is YouTube commentary comedian Big Tugg, whose video about “why flying SUCKS” predates these incidents, but still brings a little levity to the situation by reminding us of all the small (and sometimes, dare we say, endearing?) annoyances that can mount up when you board a plane. Annoyances like people taking their shoes off and putting their feet on your armrests. Or reclining their seats—and your drink—into your face. Also, those first class flyers who give you the stink eye because you really gotta hit the bathroom and you had to come up in their section to do it because god knows the two tiny economy bathroom stalls are stuffed to the gills at all times during every flight.

Anyway. Check out Big Tugg’s take here—and in case you also have grievances against things like the ocean or Florida, he’s got videos about why those suck too.

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