TOGETHER WITH

It’s Friday and we’re wishing a fond farewell to Elwood Edwards. The voice behind AOL’s “You’ve Got Mail” jingle has passed away 35 years after recording the iconic phrase on cassette.

Today’s News

TIKTOK TALK

Canada is shutting down TikTok’s offices in Vancouver and Toronto—but it’s not banning the app

The order: Canada is the latest country to push back against TikTok’s growing influence. Canadian Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne has ordered the platform to shut down its offices in Vancouver and Toronto—although the app itself isn’t being banned (at least, not yet).

According to Champagne, Canada’s decision to weaken TikTok’s operations was informed by national security concerns, including potential issues associated with TikTok’s connections to the Chinese Communist Party (its parent company, ByteDance, is based in Beijing and has alleged ties with CCP officials).

The response: In contrast to U.S. legislators’ attempts to force a ban or divestiture of TikTok, Champagne says the Canadian government “is not blocking Canadians’ access to the TikTok application or their ability to create content” because “the decision to use a social media application or platform is a personal choice.”

The lessened severity of that approach doesn’t seem to have softened TikTok’s resistance to regulation—or eased the minds of Canadian residents. In a brief response to Champagne’s edict, the platform vowed to challenge the shutdown order in court, just as it has entered into a legal battle against the United States. Additional resistance to Canada’s order came from figures like University of Ottawa law professor Michael Geist, who argued that “the risks associated with the app will remain but the ability to hold the company accountable will be weakened.”

🔆 SPONSORED 🔆

Tickets just dropped for the world’s largest assembly of content creators. Will you be there?

1 Billion Followers Summit is returning to Dubai for 2025. 

From January 11-13, the Summit will bring together leading creators and social media pioneers to explore how new media can fuel national economies and advance sustainable goals worldwide. 

Tickets are available here, with three packages designed to help visitors level up their careers:

• The Track Access Package gives visitors access to one chosen track—Technology, Economy, or Content—and its corresponding sessions and workshops. Tracks will be led by industry experts, including VidCon CEO Jim Louderback, VidCon advisor Rachel Masters, and Complexly COO Leslie Morgan.
  
  

• The Full Access Package provides 3-days access to sessions and workshops related to all three of the Summit’s tracks, plus admission to the concluding ceremony and side events.
  
  

• The VIP Package gives visitors access to all sessions, round tables, and side events held over the 3-day Summit, as well as its concluding ceremony.

In 2024, 1 Billion Followers Summit drew over 7,000 participants from 95 countries and generated 300M+ engagements across platforms. The 2025 event is expected to garner even more demand—meaning interested attendees are encouraged to book tickets early. 

Secure your spot → 

HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰

• In just 17 months, the author behind beloved kids’ titles like Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus has cultivated a YouTube presence that includes 100,000 subscribers and nearly 30 million views. (Tubefilter)
  
  

• A new integration will allow users on Apple Music and Spotify to post music and playlists directly to TikTok. (Engadget)
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• South Korea’s Personal Information Protection Commission has fined Meta roughly $15 million over claims that Facebook illegally collected and shared sensitive user information with advertisers. (AP News)
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• Instagram has announced a new update that will allow creators with Professional Accounts to boost content containing GIFs and stickers. (Social Media Today)

VOTING DAY

Millions of people went online for election night coverage. Here’s how the stats panned out:

The numbers: The arrival of November 5 triggered major viewership spikes across social media, with YouTube alone generating 72 million watch time hours of Voting Day coverage (per Streams Charts). Across platforms, average concurrent viewership for political content was around 3.5 million. As the announcement of results in key swing states drew closer, peak viewership hit 9.14 million viewers.

Here’s a quick look at the stats:

• YouTube generated more Election Day watch time than any other platform by grabbing over 80% of livestream viewership across the web.
  
  

• Right-leaning Rumble came in second place with 13.1% of viewership (around 11 million hours).
  
  

• Twitch followed with around 4 million hours.
  
  

• Finally, up-and-coming streaming platform Kick claimed just 1.6% of viewership (or roughly 1.3 million hours).

The context: YouTube’s position as both a competitor and a modern alternative to traditional TV seems to have given it a leg-up on Election Day. Per Streams Charts, “all the top broadcasts were on YouTube, as this platform remains the primary choice for TV networks to stream their content online.” Fox News was YouTube’s single most popular live broadcaster during Election Day, with an all-time peak of 1.14 million concurrent viewers. It beat the next most popular broadcaster—NBC News—by almost double.

Over on cable TV, Nielsen ratings showed that 42 million viewers tuned in for Election Day broadcasts. 9.8 million watched on Fox News. ABC came in second with 5.7 million viewers, followed by MSNBC with 5.5 million, NBC with 5.3 million, and CNN with 4.7 million.

LET’S EAT

As live spectacles increase, one creator plans to eat for four days straight on YouTube

The challenge: An upcoming livestream will test how much risk viewers and platforms can stomach in the name of virality. 

Afua Nash—who claims 420,000 followers on TikTok and 20,000 on Instagram—plans to eat for 103 hours and 20 minutes straight in an attempt to set the record for longest eating marathon. The Ghanian mukbang creator’s “non-stop eating” endeavor will be streamed live on Afropodstudios‘ YouTube channel (81K subscribers), where she’ll guest star in a special November 11 episode of its Savage Room Show podcast.

Of course, there’s no guarantee that YouTube will actually allow Nash to complete her four-day-and-seven-hour challenge uninterrupted. Just a couple months ago, Australian creator Norme was banned on YouTube, Twitch, and Kick (an impressive feat) while attempting to set a new Guinness World Record by streaming himself not sleeping for 264 hours. In addition to those bans, Norme’s stunt prompted discussions about how far some creators will go once they hit “Go Live.”

The context: Nash and Norme are the latest in a long line of creators who have put themselves through extreme challenges for a shot at heightened viewership. Two of the biggest streamers in the world, Ironmouse and Kai Cenat, have participated in weeks-long, 24/7 livestreams composed of high-profile hijinx (where they sleep on camera, too) in order to claim the title of Most Subscribed Twitch Streamer of All Time (and make hundreds of thousands of dollars in the process).

While some of those proceeds go to charity, the increasing prevalence of marathon streams suggests that more and more streamers are putting their health at risk to earn views. Will a fresh wave of creator burnout be up next?

WATCH THIS 📺

Are marathon vloggers helping or hurting the running community?

The genre: Almost a decade ago, Casey Neistat arguably kicked off the creator distance running trend by posting a series of viral marathon vlogs. Since then, other creators have followed the YouTuber’s lead by participating in running events like the New York Marathon.

Influencers Hailey Kalil and Morning Brew producer Macy Gilliam were among the 55,646 entrants who embarked on the latest edition of that 26.2-mile journey, which took place on November 3. Gilliam’s subsequent vlog joins the mountain of running content that has hit social media this year. During the first six months of 2024 alone, videos related to the sport hauled in more than three billion views on YouTube.

The controversy: That trend has brought well-deserved attention to a sport that has historically struggled to attract crowds—but it’s also triggered its fair share of controversy. The Boston Athletic Association, for instance, sparked criticism after offering Boston Marathon bibs to influencers who fell short of standard qualifying times.

The resulting outcry begs an important question: if creator participation comes at the expense of runners who have trained their whole lives, is the tradeoff worthwhile?

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