TOGETHER WITH

It's Tuesday and based on NASA’s plans for a ChatGPT-style interface, the AI chatbot’s influence has now reached all the way to outer space.

LET’S PLAY 🎮

YouTube’s rumored gaming hub could bring it closer to casual games market

YouTube is making the jump to casual gaming. According to The Wall Street Journal, an email sent to Google employees encouraged workers to try out Playables, a new test product designed to offer a selection of games that can be played directly through YouTube.

That new feature—which reportedly includes a brick-breaking game called Stack Bounce—would be available on both the mobile and desktop versions of YouTube, and could tie into the Google Play store.

Playables isn’t YouTube’s first foray into gaming (or Google’s):

YouTube has long been a go-to destination for gaming creators and a vocal supporter of stars in that sphere—but Google’s own attempts to ally itself with gamers have been a mixed bag. The tech giant shuttered its internal game development studio (aka Google Stadia) back in 2021, just a year after its initial launch.

But despite Google’s hit-and-miss attempt to woo gamers, there is a clear demand for gaming products launched by popular video and streaming platforms. Netflix has launched casual gaming titles that tie into its most-watched properties, while TikTok’s video game destination serves viewers who say “TikTok made me play it.” YouTube may be looking to match those competitors, though for now, it’s not revealing its plans:

🔆 SPONSORED 🔆

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Getting started with Spotter is simple—in fact, creators like Airrack, Gracie’s Corner, and Miss Darcei have already received personalized funding to fit their exact needs.

Here’s what two of those top YouTubers have to say about Spotter:

Airrack (13.4M Subscribers): “Spotter was there for me.”
When Airrack wanted to expand his production team in 2022, he knew exactly where to turn to: “If I immediately need cash, obviously Spotter is where I would go for that.”

Gracie’s Corner (2M Subscribers): “Because of the funds, we've been able to expand out the production team…now we have the capacity to put out eight videos per month versus four.”

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HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰

• King Charles has debuted a climate change-centric YouTube channel for his environment nonprofit, RE:TV. (Tubefilter)
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• New Netflix subscribers in Canada will no longer have the option to sign up for the streamer’s least expensive ad-free tier. (Gizmodo)
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• A recent House memo has prohibited congressional offices from using all AI chatbots except ChatGPT Plus. (The Verge)
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• A group of TikTok and Instagram creators are taking heat for praising Shein’s working conditions after receiving factory tours sponsored by the fast fashion company. (Gizmodo)

DATA • GLOBAL TOP 50 📈

This soccer star plays by her own rules—and she never turns down a challenge

Since March 2023, Celine Dept has collected more than a million YouTube subscribers thanks to her colorful soccer content and talented friend group. It’s easy to see why Shorts viewers find the Belgium native’s short-form videos so captivating: Dept’s determination to play by her own rules has allowed the footy star to go way beyond the traditional rules of soccer. In fact, the creator’s most popular videos revolve around everything from juggling lego-covered soccer balls to competing in games of “footgolf.”

Those off-the-wall challenges have turned Dept into a viral sensation.

The creator’s short-form videos have gathered a whopping 468.3 million likes on TikTok, where they now reach a fandom of 13.1 million followers and routinely score tens of millions of views. Dept’s clips have racked up stunning viewership stats on Shorts, too; on that platform, her top video claims nearly 100 million views.

View counts like those have made Dept’s sports hub into one of the most-watched YouTube channels worldwide.

• In fact, the sports star recently collected 363.4 million views over the course of just one week.

• That seven-day total was good for a week-over-week traffic increase of 38%.

• Altogether, that jump in viewership shot Dept’s channel to #18 in the latest Global Top 50.

TALKING POLITICS

U.S. legislators aren’t happy about YouTube’s new approach to political misinformation

The House Committee on Energy and Commerce is taking issue with YouTube’s updated political misinformation policy. Earlier this month, the video platform announced that it would “stop removing content that advances false claims that widespread fraud, errors, or glitches occurred in the 2020 and other past US Presidential elections.”

Now, four congressional legislators have written to express their “deep disappointment” over that decision.

In an open letter addressed to Alphabet/Google CEO Sundar Pichai and YouTube CEO Neal Mohan, Reps. Kathy Castor (D-Fla.), Doris Matsui (D-Calif.), Frank Pallone (D-N.J.), and Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) noted their concerns about the platform’s updated policy—especially as it relates to the upcoming presidential election.

Reps. Castor, Matsui, Pallone, and Schakowsky asked YouTube to provide both a “a detailed explanation” of how misinformation about past elections “does not violate its policies” and a “detailed description of how [it] plans to fact check, label, provide context around, or reduce the spread of such content on its platform.”

The due date for those details: July 6.

Whether or not YouTube intends to meet that deadline remains to be seen. The platform declined to comment about its plans for the 2024 election when asked by Tubefilter earlier this month. A spokesperson noted only that YouTube would “have more details to share” regarding the upcoming election “in the months to come.”

WATCH THIS 📺

Philly locals can now enjoy lo-fi beats while they watch I-95 repairs

If you’re going to watch (or create) a livestream of highway repairs, you might as well do it for the memes. That was all the motivation Pennsylvania-based software developer Brent Schooley needed to set up a Twitch stream of the in-progress rebuild of the 1-95.

Thanks to Schooley, Philly locals can now track the progress of those repairs while participating in a meme-infused chatroom and enjoying what The Philadelphia Inquirer describes as the “chill, docile sounds of dream pop and jazz.”

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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.