Creators – Breaking News & Latest Updates 2026
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Creators

YouTube, Instagram, SoundCloud, and other online platforms are changing the way people create and consume media. The Verge’s Creators section covers the people using these platforms, what they’re making, and how those platforms are changing (for better and worse) in response to the vloggers, influencers, podcasters, photographers, musicians, educators, designers, and more who are using them.

The Verge’s Creators section also looks at the way creators are able to turn their projects into careers — from Patreons and merch sales, to ads and Kickstarters — and the ways they’re forced to adapt to changing circumstances as platforms crack down on bad actors and respond to pressure from users and advertisers. New platforms are constantly emerging, and existing ones are ever-changing — what creators have to do to succeed is always going to look different from one year to the next.

YouTube is building AI creator tools that do almost everything for them

YouTube wants creators to use its own tools to optimize their content to break through.

Mia Sato
OpenAI nabs key Patreon execs ahead of upcoming announcement

OpenAI now has the team behind the modern creator-subscription economy.

Jess Weatherbed

Latest In Creators

Jess Weatherbed
Jess Weatherbed
Photoshop and Lightroom tools are now in Gemini.

After bringing its plugin to ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, and Slack, Adobe’s app is now available in Google’s chatbot too. Just tag “@Adobe” in Gemini with your request after installing the plugin, and it’ll surface the best Creative Suite tools for editing photos, generating marketing designs, and more.

an image illustrating Adobe tools arriving in Gemini.
Adobe is aggressively expanding it’s creative tool suite to third-party platforms.
Image: Adobe
Stevie Bonifield
Stevie Bonifield
YouTuber Elliot Choy says an AI Kalshi ad stole one of his videos and changed his race.

Choy shared a screenshot of the ad on X that appears nearly identical to one of his videos, except the person in the ad is white. NPR’s Bobby Allyn reported in a separate post that the ad is real, adding, “A Kalshi rep says the ad is old and that they no longer use AI-generated ads.”

Terrence O'Brien
Terrence O'Brien
Free Rodecaster Video firmware update adds 4K support.

People have been asking for 4K, and Rode is giving it to them. The Rodecaster Video, Video S, and Video Core now have a 4K capture mode. They’re also getting expanded syncing capabilities with the Rodecaster Pro II and Duo for fully integrated audio/video production setups.

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Jess Weatherbed
Jess Weatherbed
YouTube will let you make multiple personalized AI feeds.

This builds on the feature introduced in May which allows users to build a custom video feed based on AI prompt descriptions of your interests, moods, or favorite topics. The expansion means you can create and save more than one custom feed to your home screen, with YouTube saying it’ll be available for users in the US on web, mobile, and TVs “soon.”

Mia Sato
Mia Sato
YouTube will hunt for AI voice deepfakes that sound like creators.

YouTube is expanding its likeness detection tool to include not just facial matches, but vocal matches too. At the company’s Made on YouTube event on Wednesday, executives teased the upcoming expansion that will allow creators to monitor potential synthetic soundalikes posted to the platform.

The original likeness detection feature started testing with creators and eventually was opened to anyone with a YouTube account — the company has essentially created its own deepfake monitoring and takedown regime.

Jess Weatherbed
Jess Weatherbed
Clavicular charged with rape and drugging in Massachusetts.

Charges against the 20 year old “looksmaxxing” manosphere influencer (real name: Braden Peters) were filed on September 8th, and include one count of rape, one count of drugging someone for sexual intercourse, and one count of procuring alcohol for someone underage. Arraignment is set for October 14th.

Jess Weatherbed
Jess Weatherbed
Adobe’s Premiere video editor is now on Android.

After launching for iPhone last year, a free Android version of the Premiere mobile app is now available on the Google Play store. Devices need at least 5GB of RAM and to be running Android 13 or later, and the app provides a multi-track editing timeline with tools for visual effects, audio, transitions, and more.

A screenshot showing visual filters on the Adobe Premiere mobile app.
There are also basic tools like filters alongside the more professional editing features.
Image: Adobe
Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Meta’s Threads is making podcasts more prominent in the feed.

As part of a few new podcast-focused features for Threads, there are new podcast cards that will show up in posts and profiles that make the podcast stand out. Could be useful for creators trying to promote their show.

A screenshot of a podcast card in Threads.
A podcast card in Threads.
Image: Meta
Adam Conover explains how YouTube ruined everything
Play

The comedian, podcast host, and, yes, YouTuber on the state of media today.

Nilay Patel
Stevie Bonifield
Stevie Bonifield
Twitch is testing an AI ‘Stream Coach’ that gives creators tips after their streams.

The AI coaching feature is only available to a small group of streamers right now. Unlike Twitch’s generative AI training toggle, which is opt out, the company says this feature would be opt-in if it’s ever expanded beyond this test.

A screenshot of a Twitch tweet responding to questions about an AI Steam Coach feature
Image: Twitch
Anime reaction YouTubers are at war with copyright enforcers

Content creators say their videos are fair use, but one controversial company begs to differ.

Charles Pulliam-Moore
Richard Lawler
Richard Lawler
Judge rules TikTok broke a Texas law by misleading users on its child safety features.

A 2025 lawsuit claiming TikTok violated the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act will now go to trial after Judge Cory Liu granted the state’s request for a partial summary judgment on Thursday.

The state had argued that TikTok said it would remove content with drugs, gambling, or graphic injuries but instead designated it “hard to find,” and said a Restricted Mode setting filtered out content that was inappropriate for minors while employees internally acknowledged it didn’t work as well as advertised.

Emma Roth
Emma Roth
Adobe reports record $6.76 billion in revenue as it continues its AI push.

That’s a 13 percent increase from the same time last year, according to Adobe’s Q3 earnings report released on Thursday. The company also reached more than one billion monthly active users across its suite of software, as it fills out Photoshop, Premiere, Express, Acrobat, Lightroom, and other apps with new AI tools.

Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Instagram now lets you add posts you’re tagged in to your profile grid.

Tagged posts will appear in reverse-chronological order on your grid, but you can also reorder them if you want.

Screenshots showing how you can add an Instagram post to your grid and what it looks like on the grid.
Screenshots showing how you can add an Instagram post to your grid and what it looks like on the grid.
Image: Instagram
Emma Roth
Emma Roth
Crooked Media is launching a social initiative to attract young voters to the Democratic party.

Crooked Ideas, the nonprofit arm of Crooked Media, is tapping Chaotic Era author Kyle Tharp to head up the iniative, which will support existing political influencers and focus on creating content related to issues like AI safety, climate change, healthcare, and “enshittification,” according to a report from Semafor.

Content creators drop the ball

Recent US Open shenanigans and YouTubers’ disastrous golf ad show a risky relationship between brands and influencers.

Charles Pulliam-Moore
Charles Pulliam-Moore
Charles Pulliam-Moore
Star Guardian: Guardian of the Stars.

If you liked the pilot animatic for Kiana Khansmith’s Pretty Pretty Please I Don’t Want to Be a Magical Girl, you’re going to love the Mercury Filmworks-produced, fully animated version of the first episode that just hit YouTube.

Richard Lawler
Richard Lawler
Wikipedia staffers vote to unionize.

As reported by Wired, more than 200 US-based workers at the Wikimedia Foundation, which hosts Wikipedia, will join Communications Workers of America (CWA) Local 9415 after management declined to voluntarily recognize the union in July.

Organizing committee member Bryan Davis called it a “huge milestone” and said:

We continue our petition for recognition in the U.K. and hope to see more jurisdiction-specific units call for voluntary recognition in the coming weeks and months. Solidarity will continue to drive our discussions, planning, and actions as we begin working on our collective goals for contract bargaining to support all WMF workers regardless of legal jurisdiction, job duty, or hours of employment.

Richard Lawler
Richard Lawler
Andrew Tate indicted in Romania, again.

More than three years after Tate and his brother were arrested and indicted in Romania on charges of human trafficking, Reuters reports the DIICOT prosecuting unit has indicted Tate again. They’ve charged Tate for “trafficking minors, money laundering, sex with a minor and witness tampering and his brother Tristan for complicity.”

Both Tates were arrested in Miami in July after British authorities requested their extradition, and they are currently in jail in the US.

Stevie Bonifield
Stevie Bonifield
TikTok’s comments section is getting audio messages.

A new feature rolling out “over the next month” lets you leave comments by recording a 60-second voice memo. TikTok is also bringing polls, Live Photos, and photo carousels with up to nine images to the comments section.

Four screenshots of TikTok’s Voice Comments feature
Image: TikTok
Meredith Haggerty
Meredith Haggerty
Last call at the chicken shop.

Charming celeb interviewer Amelia Dimoldenberg announced today that she’ll be wrapping her viral Chicken Shop Date video series with a few final dates. Will Andrew Garfield swoop in to sweep her off her feet before the shop closes for good? We can only hope.

Jess Weatherbed
Jess Weatherbed
Adobe’s Photoshop, Premiere, and AI tools are now in Slack.

Adobe for Slack is available starting today for Slack Business Plus and Enterprise Plus teams, allowing users to make or edit images, videos, and documents directly in Slack. It works like Adobe’s chatbot — describe the outcome you want to Slackbot, and it’ll call on more than 70 tools from Creative Cloud apps and Firefly to complete the task.

Adobe for Slack example image.
The new Slack integration is designed for conversational design prompts, and projects can be continued in Adobe’s apps if you need more creative control.
Image: Adobe
Emma Roth
Emma Roth
Travel YouTuber Drew Binsky is the latest creator to strike a deal with Netflix.

A selection of Binsky’s videos will appear on Netflix starting September 19th, similar to the streamer’s deals with Kevin Langue, Nick DiGiovanni, and Mythical Entertainment, as reported by Variety. YouTube has reportedly offered creators millions not to cross-post their videos to Netflix.

Charles Pulliam-Moore
Charles Pulliam-Moore
MrBeast’s fans aren’t too hot on reading, apparently.

HarperCollins probably dropped a pretty penny to get Jimmy “MrBeast” Donaldson and James Patterson to collaborate on their newly released novel, The Most Dangerous Games. But Semafor reports that the publisher might have a hard time making that money back due to the book’s very, very low pre-sales.

Correction: An earlier version of this post incorrectly highlighted the book’s pre-sale numbers rather than post-launch sales.

Stevie Bonifield
Stevie Bonifield
M. Night Shyamalan’s latest film is a YouTube video.

He admitted to being “scared” but excited about his new YouTube channel in his first video, but said that after 30 years making movies, he wants to “undo whatever stigmas are in my head or in anybody’s head.” Shyamalan dives into his Signs filmmaking diary in his second video on the channel.

Welcome to Night Vale cocreator Joseph Fink learned storytelling from Grim Fandango 

His latest book, The Nudge, tells the tale of a man who can’t seem to outrun a mysterious evil.

Terrence O'Brien
Musicians-turned-detectives are hunting for AI grifters

As AI infiltrates the electronic dance music scene, a callout culture is brewing.

Charles Pulliam-Moore
Lauren Feiner
Lauren Feiner
Meta is planning an ad blitz urging TikTok and YouTube to follow its lead.

It’s planning to run full-page ads in The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and New York Times on Thursday, according to NYT reporter Mike Isaac, on the heels of Meta’s $17 billion settlement with state AGs. Meta is using the settlement to urge its top competitors to take on similar restrictions.

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Lauren Feiner
Lauren Feiner
A New Jersey teen is dropping the next social media addiction case against Meta, YouTube, and Snap.

It would have been the next bellwether in the group of cases tried in a Los Angeles state court. In the first, Meta and YouTube were ordered to pay $6 million total. After settling with TikTok, the teen’s lawyer told The New York Times, she wanted to “resume her life.”