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.
Driven by both institutional mistrust and the need to go viral, Epstein theories are clogging up TikTok.
Niamh Rowe
Latest In Creators
Kamala Harris’ campaign account, @KamalaHQ, has rebranded as a digital rapid response operation.
Mia Sato
Stevie Bonifield
Stevie Bonifield
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Richard Lawler
Mr. Beast and Rainbolt pop up with Super Bowl ad contests.
Redfin is doing a geoguessing-themed game of skill to give away a million-dollar house in its app, based on clues found in its Super Bowl ad, and Rainbolt is part of the promo — but he’s not allowed to help, based on the rules here.
Meanwhile, Salesforce’s Mr. Beast ad promises a million-dollar giveaway based on the clues in its 30-second ad.
Dominic Preston
Why you can’t label your way into consensus reality amid the AI deepfake apocalypse.
Nilay Patel
Jay Peters
Mia Sato
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Thomas Ricker
TikTok USA is back.
We can confirm that basic features in the US do seem to work reliably now on the new Trump-friendly entity’s servers, even if the algorithm still seems a little wonky at times. Per TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC:
We have successfully restored TikTok back to normal after a significant outage caused by winter weather took down a primary US data center site operated by Oracle. The winter storm led to a power outage which caused network and storage issues at the site and impacted tens of thousands of servers that help keep TikTok running in the US.
Great, but how many of ya’ll have abandoned the platform?
Mia Sato
Jess Weatherbed
Nick Shirley and others like him are reminiscent of yellow journalism of the 19th century, updated and turbocharged by social media algorithms.
Mia Sato
R
Richard Lawler
Oracle admits it broke TikTok.
Without explaining why its cloud status page doesn’t list any outages, TikTok USDS part-owner Oracle outed itself as the previously unnamed “US data center partner” that experienced a power outage over the weekend, blocking videos from publishing and unraveling its all-important algorithm for a few days.
Michael Egbert, Oracle Spokesperson:
Over the weekend, an Oracle data center experienced a temporary weather-related power outage which impacted TikTok. The challenges U.S. TikTok users may be experiencing are the result of technical issues that followed the power outage, which Oracle and TikTok are working to quickly resolve.
Richard Lawler
L
Lauren Feiner
TikTok moves to settle a major social media addiction case shortly before trial.
It follows Snap in reaching an agreement to resolve the first of several cases slated to go to trial this year about social media’s alleged harm to users, an attorney for the 19-year-old plaintiff confirmed. That leaves Meta and YouTube as defendants in the case going to jury selection today.
2026 is the year of social media’s legal reckoning
Lauren Feiner
David Pierce
R
Richard Lawler
TikTok is still struggling in the US due to a “cascading systems failure.”
TikTok’s US service crashed early Sunday morning, and as of late Monday night, it still hasn’t fully recovered.
After finally announcing the problem started with a power outage at an unnamed partner’s data center, TikTok USDS followed up with an updated statement saying, “While the network has been recovered, the outage caused a cascading systems failure that we’ve been working to resolve together with our data center partner,” and listing some of the bugs users are experiencing. There’s still no ETA for a full fix.
Image: TikTok USDSJV (X)
Richard Lawler
R
Richard Lawler
Is New TikTok banning the word “Epstein” in DMs? Not really.
Despite claims floating around social media, the truth is a bit more complicated, not least by the fact that TikTok in the US is still largely down, about a day and a half after its data center power outage problems started.
While tweets from random users, the governor of California, and PopBase claimed TikTok US DMs now censor “Epstein,” testing it from our end showed that its messaging feature bans many innocuous single-word messages, like “test.” Using the convicted sex offender’s name in a sentence, however, goes through unbanned.
E
Emma Roth
TikTok’s new owners and your FYP.
Oracle and a group of investors now control TikTok in the US, and promise to retrain the app’s algorithm on US user data. Though TikTok blames some of the issues users experienced over the weekend on a power outage, many are still concerned about how their feed could change.
Dominic Preston
Lauren Feiner
R
Richard Lawler
TikTok is breaking down.
Whether this is just a regular outage or a result of this week’s changes in management, reports tracked on Downdetector and Reddit confirm many people are having trouble loading TikTok right now.
If the mobile app loads, it’s not consistently showing comments or other features, and the algorithm managing the For You page doesn’t feel like it’s working correctly.
Update, January 26th: TikTok is still having problems in the US, which it says are connected to a data center power outage.
Screenshot: Downdetector
Jess Weatherbed
Richard Lawler
L
Lauren Feiner
Lawmakers want to give creators a way to find out if their work was used to train AI.
A pair of bipartisan lawmakers introduced the Transparency and Responsibility for Artificial Intelligence Networks (TRAIN) Act in the House, letting copyright holders see if AI models were trained on their work. It’s already been introduced in the Senate, and counts the Recording Industry Association of America and SAG-AFTRA among its endorsers.
Dean, Moran Introduce Bipartisan Bill to Protect Creators from Unauthorized AI Training
[Congresswoman Madeleine Dean]
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Terrence O'Brien
The TikTok deal could finally close this week.
It’s been a long, confusing, and at times tiresome saga, but according to Semafor, the Chinese and U.S. governments have given the green light for ByteDance to sell TikTok’s American arm. The target closing date set back in December was today, January 22nd, 2026.
J
Jess Weatherbed
Comic-Con boots AI from its art show.
The San Diego convention previously allowed AI images to be displayed under certain conditions, but has now banned any partially or wholly AI-generated materials entirely, following backlash from artists. The policy change has been welcomed, but without reliable AI-detection methods, enforcement may prove challenging.
Comic-Con Bans AI Art After Artist Pushback
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