Foolish Algorithms

💡 TOP STORIES

LORD WHAT FOOLS THESE ALGORITHMS BE

TikTok’s latest 2026 Trend Report, titled “Irreplaceable Instinct”, takes a subtle swipe at its own algorithms. It argues that audiences are moving away from passive escapism and romanticized content and instead embracing what it calls “Reali-TEA”: an imperfect, unfiltered reality. The report highlights the growing importance of curators and tastemakers while throwing influencers under the bus.  Those same influencers, it should be noted, were largely created by TikTok’s algorithms in the first place.

Brands that lean into community and emotional ROI are more likely to win than the endlessly viral TikTok shopping sprees of 2025. Just as Instagram discovered true power in DMs, TikTok now finds that “comment-photo-react” interactions offer more value than memes and viral videos.

According to the study, the community wants a human spark, not a viral pitch. As we rewire our brains, the algorithm will presumably be rewired as well. (TikTok)

US GOVERNMENT BEGINS TO RECOGNIZE CREATORS

Representative Ro Khanna released a “Creator Bill of Rights” resolution (H.Res. 1005) last week aimed at legitimizing the more than 10 million Americans who identify as creators. The seven key principles include recognizing creators as legit businesses, providing affordable and portable health care, retirement options, transparent and predictable revenue sharing, community portability , and protection from AI misuse.

This isn’t a law. It’s a “sense of the House” policy framework intended to shape how Congress treats and protects creators going forward, particularly the most vulnerable. I’d like to see more concrete proposals, but it’s a meaningful start. (TikTok, Ro Khanna, Congress.Gov)

JOURNALISM HAS BECOME A CREATOR BUSINESS

The latest Reuters Institute report reads like an accidental love letter to the creator economy. With search traffic expected to plunge, trust eroding, and audiences bypassing traditional newsrooms, publishers are finally pivoting. Instead of resisting creators, they are beginning to emulate them.

Nearly three-quarters of news organizations plan to lean into personality-led video, storytelling formats borrowed from short- and long-form social platforms, and community-first relationships that replace the old broadcast megaphone.

Their top priority isn’t search, text, or even short-form social. It’s YouTube, including Shorts. Publishers are also shifting toward what the report calls “liquid content,” built to be remixed and reshaped rather than crafted for a single destination. Creators are no longer ignored or dismissed. They’re now seen as the competition, the blueprint, and in many ways the future of journalism itself. (Reuters Institute)

Related:  @Sophia Smith Galer , who spoke on this topic at 1BFS, has a great take on the study and what real newsroom transformation actually looks like. (LinkedIn)

KHABY LAME’S $4B BET

What happens when you take the modern-day Mr. Bean and plug him into a publicly traded financial machine?

We’re about to find out. TikTok’s biggest star, @Khaby Lame, has sold a controlling stake in his core company to China-based Rich Sparkle Holdings, becoming its largest shareholder in the process. Partnered with Chinese livestream commerce firm Anhui Xiaoheiyang Network Technology, the group is promising an astonishing $4B in revenue across the US, Middle East, and Southeast Asia within three years.

On paper, this looks like a blueprint for the next phase of creator capitalism: global IP, live commerce, AI leverage, and public-market scale. The deal even includes the development of an “AI Digital Twin,” with Khaby authorizing the use of his Face ID and Voice ID to scale content beyond his physical self. It’s a roadmap other mega-creators could happily follow all the way to the bank.

But there’s a darker read. Rich Sparkle trades on the Nasdaq, and its stock is already up roughly 300 percent, after jumping nearly 5x before falling back hard. That raises an uncomfortable question: is this an operating plan, or a very clever stock-market trade with a creator as the headline asset?  

Maybe it’s both. Or maybe we’re watching financial engineering wrapped up in a creator economy blanket. Either way, it’s a test case worth watching closely. HT to @Jeff Frommer for flagging this.  (Rich Sparkle, Owners Only)

😎 SPONSOR

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If you want to speak to the people building the next wave of media, creators, and AI, this is where they show up every week. Drop me an email and check out our sponsorship information here.

📊 RESEARCH

Show Me the Money: Creator marketing exploded, up 171% YoY. Unfortunately, creators aren’t seeing a matching windfall. A new study from CreatorIQ finds that even as creators professionalize and brand dollars become more predictable, compensation remains constrained. Flat fees still dominate over performance-based pay, while brands demand more deliverables, broader usage rights, and paid amplification in the same deal. Video is now the default, even when another format would likely perform better, like a sponsored LinkedIn post. Worse, more money is flowing to a small group of “safe” creators, rather than a broader set who may be more effective and efficient.  

The risk is a blander, less diverse creator economy. That’s bad news for everyone. (CreatorIQ) 

Creators Beat Campaigns: Agentio’s analysis of more than 10,000 YouTube creator integrations demonstrates the power of long-term strategy over one-off experiments. This isn’t a random sample of the creator economy. It reflects campaigns from brands with the budget and patience to execute at a high level. But within that context, the results are instructive.

Nearly 40 percent of views and 30 percent of clicks arrive more than 30 days after a video goes live, challenging the idea that only the first month matters. Repetition consistently outperforms single placements, with performance improving over time rather than decaying. In fact, conversion rates are roughly 1.9x higher by the sixth integration than the first. 

Why?  On YouTube, repetition builds trust.  It’s not that YouTube creator marketing works for everyone. But when done consistently, long-term partnerships compound value and significantly outperform most other media. (Agentio)

💡 QUIBIS

PLATFORMS

YouTube Funding Content Again? The Financial Times reports that  the BBC will partner with YouTube to develop original programming aimed at GenZ.  Could this mark a new direction for Big Red? (Variety)

A Scary New World:  Rights expert @Chris Landa explains the current state of Content ID and why creators need to understand what’s changed,  or risk ruin. (Tubefilter)

From Boardroom to Hot Seat:  Congrats to new Meta president Dina Powell McCormick, who served on the board for eight months before going all in. (Houston Chronicle)

Devaluation Accelerates: Likes are increasingly irrelevant on Instagram. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. (Daily Dot)

Threads Beats X: Threads wins mobile DAUs 141M to 125M according to Sensor Tower. (TC)

GOOOAAAAAAL: TikTok and FIFA team up to expand World Cup reach.  (Campaign)

TikTok’s Microdrama App:  Double T launches PineDrama in the US and Brazil. Unclear if it’s covered by the TikTok divestiture rules, but H.R.7521 would certainly apply. (PCMag, Congress.Gov ) 

OTHER CREATOR ECONOMY

Welcome Back: @Hank Green returns to Crash Course to help the rest of us understand what “Scientific Thinking” really means, and how to think critically about what we see and hear. (YouTube)

Bye Bye Birdie: Australia bans social accounts for kids under 16, wiping out nearly 5 million accounts.  The UK could be next. (PBS, CNBC) 

CoinBeast: Ethereum-focused Bitmine Immersion invests $200M in MrBeast.  More IPO-positive signals.  (Coindesk)

RJ Unleashed:  Since “graduating” from Paramount, @RJ Larese has been on fire.  His five rules for working with creators in 2026. are all worth reading. (Influencer Marketing Hub)  

Old School?  Fanatics launches a content studio which seems focused on traditional TV-style shows and docs, rather than creator-infused content.  (SportCal)

Where’s My BabyMan:  Digg 2.0 formally launches with a focus on trust and a promise to use AI to stop AI. (TC)

Maybe This Time Will Be Different: I still remember 15 years ago when big media companies first tried to collab with YouTubers. It didn’t end well.  So, I’m intrigued but skeptical of Fox’s new “Creator Studios”.  I hope it works.  (Variety)

CREATOR TECH – AI, AR, VR, MORE

Missing AirBNB: Legendary investor @Mike Maples Jr. explores how explanatory problems and contradictions lead to true breakthrough monopolies.  Good background for creators imagining their next product. (Pattern Breakers)  

Related: Don’t forget to exit, because nothing lasts forever. How AirBNB has failed as a public company. (Skift)

Making AI Useful:  Ex Facebook exec – and now head of product at OpenAI – @Fidji Simo explores how to expose AI’s power. (Fidji Simo)

CES Recap: I missed CES again this year (not crying) because of 1BFS.  Ex-Microsoft exec @Steven Sinofsky again delivered a great, somewhat long writeup.  (Hardcore Software)

Everything and Nothing Is TV:  @Rex Woodbury riffs on how all media turn into “TV” (or video) and reflects on how we’ll be putting the YOU into video in 2026.  He also forsees AI making things cheaper (Digital Native).

100% written by me – no human or AI ghostwriters were involved in the production (except for the cover art!) and AI was very lightly used for editing.

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