A deep dive into the White House’s Creator Economy Conference in this special issue, along with new rules from the FTC and more! Scroll down for your favorite QUIBIs and more! I’m Jim Louderback and this is my weekly creator economy newsletter. If you’ve received it, then you are either subscribed or someone forwarded it to you.
If the latter – and you want to subscribe, get it here!
Even if nothing happened at the White House’s first Creator Economy Conference, just doing it would have been a huge milestone.
But so much happened to make this not just an historic first, but one that showed the Creator Economy growing so powerful that it has nearly usurped the role of traditional media in the eyes of the administration.
In other words, what we’ve known all along – that we build communities, represent what real people are thinking and hold great power and influence – has finally been discovered by the most important and powerful people in the US and arguably the world.
Goldman Sachs’ projections of the global creator economy—$250B in 2024, doubling in four years—were cited as just one example of our outsized influence. And the attention from President Biden and other top leaders spoke even louder than their words.
The Biden administration has done more to recognize and elevate creators than any other administration – that much was abundantly clear. But the other key theme was only teased out over the 5 sessions and break-out sessions – along with a fun pep-talk from Creator Joe. The message? That creators and the creator economy need to band together to influence elected representatives along with our fans. Below are some of my key takeaways from the day.
THE DIGITAL TEAM’S SHORT TENURE:
The Biden digital team is doing a great job. Too bad they’ll all be out of a job in 4 months. Why? Because the executive staff serves at the President’s pleasure. If elected, Trump will clean house. But if history is any guide – based on when VP Bush replaced President Reagan back in 1989 – Harris will ask for resignations from everyone too. Many will stay, some will leave voluntarily, and others will be shown the door. The current team is tremendously talented, and hopefully many will continue to serve. But resumes are being sharpened even as we speak.
WHAT IS A JOURNALIST?
Even the White House struggles to define “journalist” vs. “creator”. I shared dinner after the Conference with @Kaya Yurieff, @ Phil Ranta and @Lindsey Gamble (thanks to @Kajabi for hosting). It was an impromptu newsletter creator support group – we write great ones and you should subscribe to them all. But one of us (Kaya) was relegated to the balcony and forbidden from mingling with the attendees – branded with a scarlet “J”.
Sure, Kaya works for a powerful news organization – the Information – and used to be at CNN. But the many of the other attendees worked in journalism previously too, including me at PC Magazine and TechTV, @Shira Lazar as a TV reporter, @Uptin at CNBC and Tiffany Wu at BloombergTV. But we were “creators”. Kaya (and Taylor Lorenz – also relegated) were not.
Biden said that as creators “the biggest thing you got going for you, and I hope you keep it, is you’re trusted.” – implying that traditional journalists were not.
The biggest drama of the day? Shortly after grudgingly allowing the White House press corp. in to watch his remarks, Biden dismissed them, saying “I’m not going to answer your question. I’m talking to them first — okay?”.
Big props to the White House digital team for bringing us in and truly recognizing our influence both stand-alone and compared to traditional media. But these blurry lines will create more awkward moments for the foreseeable future.
SPONSOR: WHALAR BUILDS ON FORTNITE!
In partnership with Sky Broadband and Guild Sports, Umi Games – Whalar Group’s cutting-edge gaming studio – launched an immersive brand experience in Fortnite called Sky City. Sky City brings together streamers and their audience in a first-of-its-kind tournament. Ready to unleash your speed? Check out Sky City: https://www.fortnite.com/@umigames/9674-9752-3343
CONFERENCE SESSIONS
Apart from President Biden turning a 5 minute drive-by into a 45 minute visit, there were 5 actual sessions at the Conference – four “fireside chats” and one panel. The sessions focused on key concerns in the creator economy, including mental health, AI, copyright, kids safety, fair pay and capital allocation.
They were all heavily scripted, with no Q and A – and the two creator-moderated sessions moderated were 100% planned out in advance with no deviations or digressions tolerated. Although not dissimilar what you might see at VidCon there were some interesting highlights:
Mental Health: Neera Tanden, Domestic Policy Advisor talked with creators Lexi Hidalgo, Kate Mackz and Joel Bervell. Tanden kicked the session off by sharing the administration’s focus on Care – Access where you are, Coverage – emphasizing that most insurance doesn’t properly cover mental health care, and Causes – aka cyberbullying, algorithmic issues and more. Biggest takeaway was when Joel Bervell compared social media to cars and guns, explaining that we teach kids to drive, we teach kids to use guns – but there’s no social media education in school. “How do we arm people mentally”, he wondered. Hidalgo took it a step further, wondering “how do we find the jerks and make them nice people.”
AI: Creator Gohar Khan interviewed Dr. Arati Prabhakar, the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy. This was perhaps the most informative of the sessions – while still being highly scripted. Prabhakar started by explaining that the administration had been building an AI policy for years. She joined the administration on October 2022 – and ChatGPT was released a few weeks later – which changed everything.
Her take? We have to manage both AI risks and benefits – with a focus on privacy issues, safety and security and algorithmic bias.
They’ve already made some headway, making it illegal to use AI to pretend to be a government or business, with a nod to extending protection to individuals as well.
AI has also refined the concept of a patent. Its purpose is to “reward and protect human ingenuity”, while allowing for AI to help you develop your invention.
She promised that copyright and deep fakes issues would be resolved by the courts. An optimistic hope in my opinion, as I worry that few judges the expertise to understand the issues.
She also lobbied for more disclosure and explainable AI, sharing chilling examples of how bias has crept into AI’s impact on medical, financial and law enforcement. We need know WHY a decision was made before we can trust AI in matters of life and death (along with more mundane situations).
The session finished on with a discussion about how AI mirrors values, and that we our American values of fairness and openness need to infuse the AI we build. Dr Prabhakar pointed to the first UN’s first resolution on AI, introduced by the US and ratified by 122 other countries, as an example of how the world looks to the US for technological leadership.
Safety And Community: OG creator Jackie Aina sat down with Tericka Lambert, deputy director of Digital Strategy. The session mostly focused on safety and security for creators and the community at large. Aina eloquently explained why we should eliminate anonymity on social networks, saying that it needs to be safer.
Financial Information: Creator Hannah Williams interviewed the number two official at the Treasury – Deputy Secretary Wally Adeymo. He started out with a plea to us – and to all creators: “So many Americans get information from YOU -and that’s an important thing…. I need your help and I need to work with creators for that transparency.” He called out a number of key points including:
- Healthcare is still too expensive for creators, even though the administration lowered premiums by $800 a month.
- Small businesses need support and creators are small businesses – today. Today’s biggest companies didn’t exist 40 years ago, and credit initiatives need to extend to creators business too.
- He explained how creators can access growth capital today, including through the administration’s focus on funding community banks – to the tune of $9 billion dollars – as well as Small Business Association loans that creators can tap into too.
I loved his enthusiasm and support, but I’d also love to talk to a creator who got a loan from the SBA, or from a newly funded community bank. I’m skeptical but open to examples.
Press Secretary: The last session of the day featured a sit-down with White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and Patrick Stevenson, Senior Advisor for Digital Strategy and one of the key architects of the Conference. It leaned into the differences between journalists and creators, as Jean-Pierre reiterated that our unique voice infuses our platform without risk of being stifled or shuttered by a larger organization.
She called out our passion, celebrating the powerful connection we have with our communities, and predicted that our impact would only grow over time.
She also leaned into the perils of social media lamenting how kids and teens lack safe spaces to connect and grow up together.
We also were treated to a new term – “Cheap Fakes” – when editors clip video snippets from different videos to falsely portray an individual as doddering, indecisive or confused – or to distort the truth. For some reason it made me imagine a slowmo version of Max Headroom spiraling out around the internet.
Break Outs: After five hours of mostly patient listening, we finally got a chance to share our opinions. We split up into four break-out sessions and trundled off to different conference. History was everywhere, as my group ended up in the room where the US summoned Japan’s ambassador – and declared war – right after the Pearl Harbor bombings in 1941.
Chatham House rules applied, so I can’t tell you what happened. But rest assured, we gave our hosts an earful.
TIKTOK
But what about TikTok Jim? Did that come up? Many attendees wanted to address the impending government action, but the topic was mostly avoided. It’s a national security issue, not an economic one, we were told. However, TikTok has done a great job framing it as a “BAN”, recounted one official, who insisted it was really all about ownership. Even Rupert Murdoch, they said, had to become a US citizen before being “allowed” to buy Fox. But if ownership doesn’t change, a ban is on the table.
THE THREE HOUR MEMO
One last tidbit. Apparently when President Biden goes off piste and turns a five-minute drop-by into a 45-minute collab (blowing off Panama’s President in the process), staffers spend the next three hours writing up a detailed explanation of how it happened and why.
Unfortunately, that task apparently fell on Patrick Stevenson’s shoulders, as he vanished shortly after the last session and didn’t make it to Palette Media’s “after party” across the street.
Stevenson and the digital team did a great job with this first conference, and I hope it’s not the last one. With over two-thousand creators applying to attend, clearly they could run a conference business as a side-hustle if they wanted. I’m available if they need any help!
But that’s not all that happened last week!
FTC BANS FAKE VIEWS AND SUBS
This is a big deal if you are in the US – and may spread worldwide. While we were hangin’ with Joe, the Federal Trade Commission banned buying or selling fake reviews and testimonials, along with companies creating “independent” websites to hawk their products. They also banned “Fake Social Media Indicators”, i.e. buying or selling followers or views. I jokingly called it “The Ozy Media” rule, because that’s clearly what they were doing. It’s a big industry, and at least now in the US it’s illegal. Although they will try case-by-case enforcement, the FTC believes offenders need to be slapped with real fines. Enforcement at scale it, if they can pull it off, will be a game-change for consumers and ethical creators as well. Consider the entire shadowy side of the Creator Economy on official notice.
QUIBIS:
YOUTUBE
- YouTube testing new ways to discover content, including Longs in Shorts.
- Mario Joos shares how to make a YouTube video in 40 steps. Exhausting but so insightful.
- Google threatens to ban creators if they positively compare the Pixel to other phones. This is not how you treat creators. Someone should have pinged @Rene Ritchie.
META
- Meta improves ad targeting with a new focus on optimizing for total or value-based conversions – with more targeting objectives rolling out soon.
TIKTOK
- TikTok adds group chat for up to 32 friends. But there’s no end-to-end encryption. You’re better off with WhatsApp.
- TiKTok’s new cash incentives incent users to invite creator friends to its app. It smacks of desperation. How about paying the creators you already have to stick around?
- TikTok pushing fake news and expired alerts to users.
- TikTok claims in court that it’s not controlled by China. I’m sure zillions of ex-employees would beg to differ. Also – as I learned at the White House last week – the goal here is a change in control, not an outright ban. TikTok’s blog post with their rationale here.
OTHER CREATOR ECONOMY
- Love this new initiative teaching 200 Jordanians to be Creators from the government and YouTube star @Ahmad Aburob!
- FINALLY – you can edit scheduled posts on LinkedIn!
- LinkedIn apparently has a new video-only carousel for you.
- India wants to register creators and influencers. If even 5% of the population think of themselves as creators (likely low), that would be 70 million people. Good luck.
CREATOR TECH – AI, WEB3, VR, MORE
- 4 cool new Sora videos published to YouTube – until it’s released, try Kling.
- Runway releases new AI video model – give it a try too.
- Anyone who has ever run an event will find the organizational chaos of a political convention fascinating – and fodder for nightmares.
- This is flabbergasting. The spouse of a guy killed at DisneyWorld can’t sue due to a mysterious clause hidden in the TOS of the Disney+ streaming service. Note to self – cancel all Disney-related services immediately (bye-bye ESPN+).
- Roblox is the biggest game in the world. So why can’t it make money?
RESEARCH
- YouTube is #1, TikTok is #36 and Instagram #56 out of 130 brands “tested”, according to a coolness study of kids 7-14 in the US. The methodology is rather opaque. They also have UK results on the site (TT up, IG down).
100% written by me – no human or AI ghostwriters were involved in the production (except for the cover art!).
Like this free newsletter? Buy me a coffee and say thanks! Or let’s do a meetup in your town.
I’ve built and sold multiple creator economy startups to top media companies – including Discovery and Paramount. Subscribe here on LinkedIn to get this newsletter every Monday.
Let me know what you think – email me at jim@louderback.com. Thanks for reading and see you around the internet.
