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Good morning. While Coachella headliner rumors swirl around my X timeline, Grand Theft Auto announced a music festival of its own.
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Cardi B, Don Toliver, and Travis Scott will perform at a one-day festival in Vice City (aka Miami) on November 21. Unfortunately, the commute from Los Santos is a bit long and I won’t be able to make it.
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— Syd Cohen
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Today’s lineup:
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Why Google and Meta Are Suing California
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Meta, Google, and TikTok sue California / Illustration by Moy Zhong
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This year, platforms have faced over $1T in lawsuits from several different US states over alleged child endangerment. Now, Google, Meta, and TikTok are fighting back.
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Last week, the tech companies filed lawsuits against California, attempting to block a law that would change algorithms for users under 16.
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Inside the legislation:
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In September, California governor Gavin Newsom passed Assembly Bill 1709, which states that platforms can’t implement addictive features (like suggested videos or autoplay) for users under 16. The platforms would have to implement ID verification in the state to ensure the age of its users.
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The legislation also establishes an “e-Safety Advisory Committee” that operates under the California Department of Justice.
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Google, Meta, and TikTok are suing on the grounds that the law violates the First Amendment and Section 230, a federal law that deems platforms not liable for anything posted by its users. Platforms’ spokespeople have called for parents to enforce social media usage rules for their kids instead.
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Here’s what this could mean for creators →
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If platforms win the suit: There would be no change in teenage users’ algorithms, and we would potentially see less ID verification implemented on the sites (though many platforms already have ID verification policies in place). For creators, nothing would change.
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If platforms lose and the law passes: Teen usage in California would either be restricted or redirected to a non-algorithmic feed, making teen social media consumption habits more unpredictable. For teen creators or adult creators with children in their audiences, this could change who watches your videos.
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Do you think Google, Meta, and TikTok will win the lawsuit?
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How Saying “F*ck It” Became One Creator’s Job
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Alaina Booth doubles down with her content format, “F*ck It Friday” / Alaina Booth
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Earlier this year, Alaina Booth carved out 15 minutes once a week to do one thing that scared her. She called it “F*ck It Friday.”
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Within 8 months, Booth left her full-time job to build her creator business in public.
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Zoom out: Building in public has become one of the defining creator trends of the moment. The playbook has roots in startup culture, but for Booth, building in public is the product.
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Here’s what Booth has “found out” since “f*cking around” →
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1) Don’t force the format. Booth and a former coworker did “F*ck It Friday” for months before she posted it. People now come to her asking how to find their winning format. Her answer: you can’t force it.
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“I wasn’t trying to find my ‘F*ck It Friday,’” Booth said. “It found me.”
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2) Set boundaries. Building in public doesn’t mean you owe your audience full transparency. Booth keeps professional pitches and stories from other peoples’ personal lives private so if she pivots, she doesn’t have to do damage control.
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“I don’t have to explain myself if I don’t want to,” Booth said. “[Your followers] actually don’t care that much. They just want to see what’s next. They just want to see progress.”
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3) Copycats are a good thing. When your whole brand is public, people will rip it off. Instead of getting defensive, Booth reframed the inevitable:
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“[Copycats are] the best feeling in the world. I see it as amazing UGC that’s on behalf of my brand. It’s a sign that it’s bigger than me.”
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Today, Booth is documenting what happens when you “f*ck around and find out” publicly.
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“I’m trying to make myself into a case study that this works in real time,” Booth told us. “I’m not like, ‘guys, this will work.’ I’m kind of like, ‘let’s figure out if it works together.’”
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How Philanthropy Funds Creators
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The Sloan Foundation (right) funds creator ideas in the science and tech space, including Xyla Foxlin’s series to build a plane from scratch (left) / Xyla Foxlin, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
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Most creators fund their work in one of two ways: brand partnerships or streaming deals reserved for the biggest names.
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But there’s an overlooked option that asks for neither an ad read nor an audience of millions: grants that exist specifically to bring ambitious ideas to life.
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How grants support creators: For decades, the Sloan Foundation has funded science storytelling across public radio, TV, film, and books. Now, it funds creators—awarding direct grants and prizes with partners like the Independent Media Initiative.
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Sloan backs creators from 20K followers to over 10M with original ideas in the science and tech space. In return, Sloan asks creators to deliver quality videos, plus an annual report and funder credit.
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“We pick people we believe in and then trust them to do their work and deliver,” Sloan Vice President and Program Director Doron Weber told us.
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Creator case study: In 2024, Sloan awarded engineering creator Xyla Foxlin $100K, which she used to pursue a childhood dream to build an airplane from scratch.
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Since winning the prize, Foxlin has spent more than $50K on materials and produced four long-form videos—with more to come. Looking back, Foxlin believes sponsors may have covered the project, but it took the grant to get her to try.
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“The Sloan Foundation is a really big name in extremely serious science,” she said. “Being able to say I won a grant from the Sloan Foundation as a scientist or an engineer is a big deal in the research world.”
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Zooming out: Foundations are learning a creator with 500K subscribers may reach more people than most of the media outlets they’ve traditionally funded.
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If the model spreads, it changes the pitch for creators with ambitious ideas. Instead of asking which brand would sponsor your project, the question could become, “Which institution exists to fund exactly this?”
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If you could fund your next big project with a grant or a brand deal, which would you pick?
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👀 Creator Jobs
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Substack is looking for a creator success manager to help its writers build “thriving, sustainable businesses.”
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Theorist Media is hiring a freelance writer to attend movie screenings and premieres in Los Angeles.
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YumCrunch is looking for a long-form video editor to help with an unscripted series for a food creator.
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🔥 Press Worthy
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