Do you see how Jools Lebron debuted on a late night show? Very cutesy. Very mindful. Very demure. The TikTok star and creator of the “very demure, very mindful” trend appeared with guest host RuPaul on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Monday. Lebron chatted with the Drag Race icon during the …
Read More »NBC Sent 27 Creators to Paris. It Only Needed Snoop and Olympic Athletes
In mid-June, when NBCUniversal announced it was partnering with Meta, Overtime, Snapchat, TikTok, and YouTube to send 27 influencers to the 2024 Paris Olympics, it seemed like a big deal. These were huge content creators like Kai Cenat, Daniel Macdonald, and Zhongni “Zhong” Zhu, people with millions upon millions of …
Read More »Kamala Harris’ Campaign Is a Windfall for Influencers
After President Joe Biden stepped down and Harris announced her candidacy, excitement quickly swelled around the new campaign. The KamalaHQ account on TikTok quintupled in followers within the first week, the campaign tells WIRED, and the new Harris-focused content received 232 million views and more than 33 million likes. This …
Read More »TikTok Sued by US Justice Department for Alleged Violations of Kids’ Privacy
In March 2019, TikTok agreed to a US federal court order barring the social media giant from collecting personal information from its youngest users without their parents’ consent. According to a new lawsuit filed by US authorities, TikTok immediately breached that order and now faces penalties of $51,744 per violation …
Read More »TikTok Has a Nazi Problem
Neo-Nazis and white supremacists are sharing Hitler-related propaganda and trying to recruit new members on TikTok, according to a new report from the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) shared exclusively with WIRED. The TikTok algorithm is also promoting this content to new users, researchers found, as extremist communities are leveraging …
Read More »Drew Afualo Will Never Stop Making Fun of Misogynist Men
Drew Afualo is never at a loss for words. On the topic of idiot men who get a rise out of shaming women online—nitpicking them over their weight, their dress, or their body count (when it comes to sexual partners)—she, in fact, won’t shut up. It is why her fans, …
Read More »Eminem’s New Album Prompted Gen X to Declare a TikTok ‘War’ on Gen Z
In the past week, a somewhat one-sided argument has taken over TikTok. Gen X, it seems, is “declaring war” on Gen Z, going viral with shitposts about what they see as Gen Z’s overreaction to Eminem’s new album The Death of Slim Shady. While it may be hard to work …
Read More »TikTok Lite Leaves up to 1 Billion Users With Fewer Protections
In May, TikTok announced that it would automatically label AI-generated content on its platform. That's not true, though, of all versions of the app. A new report from the Mozilla Foundation and AI Forensics finds that TikTok’s Lite-Save Data version, aimed at users in poorer markets, not only leaves AI-generated …
Read More »The Trump Shooting Fueled an Online Sticker Battle
Ever since the assassination attempt on former US president Donald Trump last Saturday, the tenor online has been understandably tense. Far-right extremists are sending out calls for violence, militias are recruiting, and everyone, it seems, has a conspiracy theory about what led to the shooting. But in the corners of …
Read More »The Real Problem With TikTok’s ‘Fruity’ Boy Trend
Cruise around TikTok these days and you're bound to stumble on one: A young woman, standing next to a presumed beau, pointing out their “feminine, vintage-Levi’s-wearing, tote-bag-carrying, mustached little boyfriend.” If you haven't seen one of those, maybe it's the person saying “if my friends think you're a little bit …
Read More »