Disney networks including ABC and ESPN have gone dark on Google-owned YouTube TV after the two corporate giants couldn’t come to terms on a new deal. And the two sides wasted no time pointing fingers.
A post on the YouTube blog says, “Last week, Disney used the threat of a blackout on YouTube TV as a negotiating tactic to force deal terms that would raise prices on our customers. They’re now following through on that threat, suspending their content on YouTube TV. This decision directly harms our subscribers while benefiting their own live TV products, including Hulu + Live TV and Fubo.
“We know this is a frustrating and disappointing outcome for our subscribers and we continue to urge Disney to work with us constructively to reach a fair agreement that restores their networks to YouTube TV.”
But a Disney spokesperson said in a statement that, “Unfortunately, Google’s YouTube TV has chosen to deny their subscribers the content they value most by refusing to pay fair rates for our channels, including ESPN and ABC. Without a new agreement in place, their subscribers will not have access to our programming.
” … Google is using its market dominance to eliminate competition and undercut the industry-standard terms we’ve successfully negotiated with every other distributor. We know how frustrating this is for YouTube TV subscribers and remain committed to working toward a resolution as quickly as possible.”
YouTube did say that if Disney content stays off YouTubeTV for “an extended period,” YouTube would offer subscribers a $20 credit.
Other Disney channels gone from YouTube TV for now include Nat Geo, FX and the Disney Channel.
YouTube is rolling out some updates aimed at making visuals look better on its TV apps, including automatic AI video upscaling. To begin with, YouTube plans to upscale videos that were uploaded in under 1080p to an HD resolution. It aims to support 4K upscaling in the future.
The platform will still retain the original files and video resolution options. Creators can opt-out of the AI upscaling feature, which it’s calling Super Resolution, as well as automated audio adjustments. The platform says it’s also working with select creators to test larger video uploads to allow for higher-quality footage.
Creators will soon be able to upload thumbnails in higher quality too. YouTube will increase the thumbnail file limit from 2MB to 50MB.
As for viewers, it seems like YouTube saw those annoying automatic previews Netflix has had for the last decade and decided to copy that playbook. “Viewers will be able to see and flip through their favorite YouTube channels with immersive previews on the homepage, enhancing content discovery and engagement,” Kurt Wilms, the senior director of product management for YouTube on TV, wrote in a blog post.
Elsewhere, YouTube has added a contextual search function to its TV apps. When you search for something from a creator’s channel page, videos from said channel will appear first in the results. That’s a smart, logical idea.
With people watching YouTube on TV more than on mobile these days, it only makes sense for the platform to invest in improving the experience there.
Kai Trump, President Trump’s eldest granddaughter, a high school senior and University of Miami commit, has secured a sponsor invitation to play in an LPGA Tour event Nov. 13-16.
The 18-year-old will compete in the Annika at Pelican Golf Club in Belleair, Fla. She currently attends the Benjamin School in Palm Beach and is ranked No. 461 on the American Junior Golf Assn. rankings. She also competes on the Srixon Medalist Tour on the South Florida PGA. Her top finish was a tie for third in July.
“My dream has been to compete with the best in the world on the LPGA Tour,” Trump said in a statement. “This event will be an incredible experience. I look forward to meeting and competing against so many of my heroes and mentors in golf as I make my LPGA Tour debut.”
Sponsor invitations have long been used to attract attention to a tournament through a golfer who is from a well-known family or, in recent years, has a strong social media presence. Kai Trump qualifies on both counts.
She is the oldest daughter of Donald Trump Jr. and his ex-wife, Vanessa, and has nearly 8 million followers combined on Instagram, Tiktok, YouTube and X. In addition to posting her own exploits on and off the course, she creates videos playing golf with her grandpa and chronicled their visit to the Ryder Cup.
She also recently launched her own sports apparel and lifestyle brand, KT.
“Kai’s broad following and reach are helping introduce golf to new audiences, especially among younger fans,” said Ricki Lasky, LPGA chief tour business and operations officer, in a statement.
The oldest of the president’s 11 grandchildren, Kai became known nationally when she made a speech in support of her grandfather’s campaign at the 2024 Republican National Convention. Her parents divorced in 2018, and her mother has been dating Tiger Woods for about a year.
YouTube is adding a timer to Shorts to help curb all of that incessant doomscrolling, . This feature is rolling out to all users after being spotted in an Android APK file earlier this year, which was originally .
Here’s how it works. Users set a daily time limit for Shorts via the app’s settings. Once reached, they’ll see a pop-up reminding them to take a break. This pop-up is easily dismissed with a tap, but it’s the thought that counts. At the very least, it’ll remind people of just how long they’ve been laying in bed and watching random Curb Your Enthusiasm clips.
This doesn’t currently integrate with parental controls, but that’s coming next year. At that point, parents or guardians will be able to set specific time limits on how long kids can scroll the Shorts feed. That pop-up will not be dismissible by children.
This isn’t the first move by YouTube to help improve digital well-being. There’s a way to set “take a break” reminders at various increments, and the same goes for a .
Why the renewed focus on limiting user engagement? Well, there are nearly 2,000 lawsuits floating around right now directed toward social media companies, . Many of these suits accuse the companies of intentionally designing their platforms to be addictive.
It’s been 26 long years since The Blair Witch Project popularized the found-footage horror genre (which arguably began with 1980’s Cannibal Holocaust). Many other films in the nearly three decades since have claimed their stake in the territory, some successfully, others less so. The latest is Shelby Oaks, a new film that seeks to incorporate found-footage frights with mockumentary trappings and, eventually, regular old narrative filmmaking.
In its opening stretch, Shelby Oaks — written and directed by YouTube movie critic Chris Stuckmann — positions itself as an unsolved-mystery documentary, of the sort that has grown massively popular on streaming services in recent years. A YouTuber who makes supernatural investigation videos, Riley (Sarah Durn), has gone missing while investigating the titular abandoned town, a wooded ruin in rural Ohio. Over a decade later, a documentary crew interviews Riley’s sister, Mia (Camille Sullivan), who is determined to keep up the search.
Shelby Oaks
The Bottom Line
More horror-movie fancam than something worth stanning.
Release date: Friday, Oct. 24 (Neon) Cast: Camille Sullivan, Brendan Sexton III, Keith David, Sarah Durn, Robin Bartlett, Michael Beach Writer and director: Chris Stuckmann
1 hour 31 minutes
The details of the case are chilling: The rest of Riley’s ghost-hunter crew was found brutally murdered in a remote cabin; mysterious forms appear fuzzy in the background of the last known footage of Riley. It’s an effectively eerie and intriguing set-up, and Stuckmann does a competent job of simulating the style and cadence of a real documentary. One doesn’t get the impression that anything terribly novel will be shown to us, but Shelby Oaks does, as it begins, promise something sturdy and entertaining, a ghost story cleverly told in modern vernacular — executive produced by revered horror auteur Mike Flanagan, no less.
But then, alas, a gnarly incident occurs while the documentary cameras are rolling and Stuckmann violently shifts gears. The doc conceit falls away, replaced by a shallow attempt at the eerily elegant, off-kilter horror style codified by 2018’s Hereditary. A newly traumatized Mia embarks on a solo quest for answers, delving into the mysterious past of Shelby Oaks and the area surrounding it, which Stuckmann has dubbed Darke County.
One cringes at that name, as it perhaps suggests some ambition to lay the groundwork for a cinematic universe, much as Universal tried to kickstart a Dark Universe franchise with 2017’s dreadful The Mummy. Stuckmann has stated no such plans, but given his long YouTube history as something of a franchise-movie geek, it wouldn’t be all that surprising if there was a hope to further explore the world of Darke County in the future.
Why an audience member would want to return, though, would be an even more vexing mystery than whatever happened to Riley Brennan. As Shelby Oaks moves further away from its original conceit, it grows ever clunkier, ever more derivative. Stuckmann’s dialogue is stilted and generic; his storytelling and world-building even more so. There are some neat little stylistic flourishes that one can appreciate — a gliding camera here, a sudden switch from day to night there — until one realizes that, wait a second, those are things that happened in other recent horror movies. It is increasingly apparent that Shelby Oaks is less the realization of an original vision and more the result of a dedicated film nerd clumsily stitching together things he enjoyed watching in the past.
The influences are obvious, from the contemporary to the more classic. There’s a witchy older woman, played gamely by the great Robin Bartlett, who brings to mind Ann Dowd in Hereditary and Ruth Gordon in Rosemary’s Baby. (And, no fault of Stuckmann’s, Amy Madigan in Weapons.) A creepy prison clanks and moans in the strains of Session 9, the MTV show Fear and myriad video games. Paranormal Activity-style jump scares abound, so much so that they become repetitive, expected, devoid of shock. (It doesn’t help that Stuckmann does way too much indicating of when they will arrive.)
There is a fine line between reverent homage and cheap pastiche; Shelby Oaks largely exists on the latter side. As the film hurries toward its muddled yet turgid conclusion, it becomes glumly apparent that there really wasn’t much of an idea here to begin with. At least, not an idea that at all distinguishes itself amid the film’s onslaught of tropes. The most frightening aspect of Shelby Oaks is the way it suggests what a fully AI movie might one day feel like: a mass of clichés molded into something resembling cinema but falling uncannily short.
It’s been reported that Stuckmann was at least partly inspired by matters from his own life, particularly his sister’s excommunication from the Jehovah’s Witnesses. But whatever personal motivation might lie behind the film is impossible to see in the final product — not in its boilerplate depiction of grief, not in its trite evocations of the occult. The many creaky, half-baked aspects of Shelby Oaks are all the more frustrating when one remembers the film’s solid start, the specific point of view that gradually gives way to Stuckmann’s plodding recitation of hoary horror-movie staples.
Far be it from this critic to suggest that our lowly, sniping cohort dare not transcend to the realm of creative expression. Stuckmann should be applauded for the effort. But he might have more sharply applied some of his critical faculties to his own work. Had he taken that time, he may have found ways to make his film distinct from the many he’s reviewed. Instead, there is Shelby Oaks as it is, a lumbering golem of hyped-up pull quotes about other people’s stuff.
When AI tools first began proliferating around the web, worries about deepfakes quickly rose alongside them. And now that tech such as OpenAI’s recently released Sora 2 is getting more capable and more widely available (and being used exactly as irresponsibly as you might have guessed), both famous and ordinary people may want more control over protecting their likenesses. After teasing the feature last year, YouTube is starting to launch a likeness detection tool to combat unwanted deepfakes and have them removed from the video platform.
Likeness detection is currently being rolled out to members of the YouTube Partner Program. It’s also only able to cover instances where an individual’s face has been modified with AI; cases where a person’s voice has been changed by AI without their consent may not be caught by this feature. To participate, people will need to submit a government ID and a brief video selfie to YouTube to ensure they are who they say they are and give the feature source material to draw from in its review. From there, it works similarly to YouTube’s Content ID feature for finding copyrighted audio, scanning uploaded videos for possible matches that the person can then review and flag infringing videos for removal.
The complexity of the U.S. healthcare system is only one reason it’s more important than ever for workers and employers to have a proper handle on workplace benefits. In a rapidly changing labor market, coupled with shifting employee expectations, the right benefits package can be a big motivator for workers, and a draw for highly qualified job applicants. But a new report suggests that many employers may not be adequately explaining their companies’ benefits to their employees. It’s a wakeup call for business onwers to drag their communications into the 21 century and educate people versus the social media platform that are the source of most of their online information.
According to a new survey from New York-based financial services outfit Equitable, younger members of the workforce are turning to online sources and social media to help them properly understand the workplace benefits they’re offered. You might think “great! Job done…less effort for the HR team!” but the data shows otherwise: some 40 percent of the 1,000 people Equitable surveyed said they didn’t feel confident in understanding the voluntary benefits their employer offered. And while the data show 55 percent of all workers “still rely on HR materials and information sessions from employers to understand their workplace benefits,” 37 percent of Gen-Z have used social platforms like TikTok, Instagram, Reddit and even YouTube (that great source of “how to” videos) to seek out benefits information — the highest percentage of any generation responding to the survey. Meanwhile, Millennials lead the age groups who use AI for the same info: fully 30 percent say they’ve used AI like this.
What’s driving the trend of people trying to figure out benefits on their own? It may be mostly about medical costs in the complex, layered U.S. health system. Equitable’s data show 80 percent of Americans think an unplanned medical expense — like an accident, or a sudden serious illness — could “derail” their long term financial planning. Younger workers are more anxious, with 89 percent of Gen-Z and Millennial workers feeling this way, compared to 65 percent of baby boomers. This could be thanks to the macroeconomic financial disparities between generations, with report after report showing how the boomer generation has money set aside in ways that’re inaccessible to younger generations.
The amounts of money concerned aren’t that onerous, either: Equitable’s data show that over a quarter of the people who say an unexpected bill could upset their plans pin the financially damaging limit at around $1,000.
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Why should you care about this?
Equitable’s report has a clear reason for you: it notes that a survey of over 500 small to medium-size businesses, nearly every respondent said voluntary workplace benefits are “key to attracting and retaining employees.” And nearly three in four small business owners think these benefits show that they’re caring and committed employers. Reputations like this, a recent report showed, are perhaps more important than they’ve ever been.
But the same survey said four in 10 employers said low participation was a barrier for them offering or expanding voluntary benefits. What may be driving this? Overly complex, old-fashioned pamphlets perhaps? Or a benefits education program that’s slightly out of date with current offerings from third party suppliers?
The big take-away is that younger workers really are looking for meaningful workplace benefits when they’re choosing which jobs to apply for — and emphasizing those that can benefit their mental health. As Gen-Z joins the workforce in increasing numbers, this is definitely something you need to plan for, lest you may miss out on excellent new talent.
YouTube has become the biggest platform out there, offering tons of opportunities for creators to earn a living. Back in June, the company reported that its creative ecosystem added over $55 billion to the U.S. GDP and created more than 490,000 full-time jobs.
However, many YouTubers have reduced their reliance on ad revenue and brand deals. There are several reasons for this shift. First, ad revenue can be unpredictable. With YouTube continually updating its policies, some creators find it challenging to secure ads for their videos, which can negatively impact their earnings. They’ve also realized that income from these streams can vanish unexpectedly.
Recognizing the volatility of platform-dependent revenue, many YouTubers are no longer just creators. They’re vertically integrated media companies with parallel businesses, including product lines, brick-and-mortar ventures, and consumer brands that can outlast algorithm changes and policy shifts.
In some cases, these side businesses are growing faster and more sustainably than their YouTube channels.
MrBeast
Image Credits:Beast Industries
Jimmy Donaldson, known as MrBeast, who has 442 million subscribers, isn’t just one of YouTube’s biggest stars — he’s its most aggressive entrepreneur.
What started with a merchandise store in 2018 — ShopMrBeast — has exploded into a business portfolio, including his now three-year-old snack brand, Feastables.
Feastables’ initial product was the “MrBeast Bar,” a chocolate bar that generated over $10 million in sales within its first 72 hours, selling over 1 million bars at launch. As of today, Feastables is more profitable than his YouTube content and even his “Beast Games” competition series on Prime Video. In 2024, Feastables generated roughly $250 million in revenue and over $20 million in profit, while his media business lost approximately $80 million.
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Other ventures include his packaged food brand Lunchly (co-founded with YouTubers Logan Paul and KSI), the toy line MrBeast Lab, MrBeast Burger, and the analytics platform Viewstats. He even attempted to buy the U.S. operations of TikTok by joining the American Investor Consortium, a group of investors led by Employer.com founder Jesse Tinsley.
Now MrBeast is venturing into new areas. He plans to establish a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), which could involve partnering with one of the major operators, such as AT&T, T-Mobile, or Verizon. Additionally, the YouTuber was spotted filing a trademark application for a mobile app that offers banking, financial advisory, and crypto exchange services.
Emma Chamberlain, who rose to fame as a teen vlogger in 2016, now has over 12 million subscribers and has found success in the beverage industry.
She launched her coffee brand, Chamberlain Coffee, in 2019, which offers a variety of products, including cold brew, coffee pods, ground and whole bean options, as well as tea and matcha. Notably, other YouTubers have followed suit, such as Jacksepticeye with his Top of the Mornin’ Coffee brand and Philip DeFranco with Wake & Make Coffee.
In 2023, Chamberlain Coffee had a significant year, introducing ready-to-drink canned lattes and reaching approximately $20 million in revenue, according to Forbes. The brand recently experienced even more substantial growth, opening its first physical location in January. Previously, it had only an online and retail presence at places like Target, Sprouts, and Walmart.
Although Chamberlain Coffee faced some challenges last year due to supplier issues, it’s expected to rebound, with projected revenue growth of over 50% by 2025, reaching more than $33 million, according to Business Insider. The brand is also aiming for profitability by 2026.
Logan Paul
Image Credits:Cliff Hawkins / Getty Images
Logan Paul (23.6 million subscribers) is now known for his wrestling career but was earlier known for numerous controversies, like an infamous 2017 video and an allegedly scammy NFT project, CryptoZoo.
He also gained attention through his energy drink brand, Prime, which achieved rapid viral success in 2022. The brand, co-founded by YouTuber KSI, surpassed $1.2 billion in sales in 2023, a figure far exceeding what most content creators earn from views, ads, and brand deals. However, it has since faced declining sales, regulatory scrutiny for its high caffeine content, and lawsuits from business partners. Sales have particularly cooled in the U.K., where revenue dropped by about 70% from 2023 to 2024.
His brother, Jake Paul, is also involved in various ventures, including co-founding the Anti Fund, which has touted past investments in OpenAI, Anduril, Ramp, and Cognition, among others. The younger Paul also owns a grooming line, called W, and a mobile betting platform called Betr.
Ryan’s World
Ryan’s World, hosted by 13-year-old Ryan Kaji, is another prominent YouTuber with a staggering following. Ryan rose to fame through his toy reviews and unboxing videos, which have captivated nearly 40 million young viewers.
In addition to his YouTube success, Kaji has expanded his brand through a line of toys and apparel that are sold in major retail chains and that reportedly generated over $250 million in revenue in 2020. Kaji and his family have since diversified their ventures, including launching a TV show and an app that provides educational content tailored for children.
Rosanna Pansino
Image Credits:rosannopansino.com
Rosanna Pansino is a popular baker on YouTube known for her baking tutorials and themed treats. With 14.8 million subscribers, she gained fame for her recipes inspired by pop culture, gaming, and movies.
Beyond YouTube, Pansino has released several cookbooks that have been well-received, expanding her Nerdy Nummies brand. She also sells baking tools at several retailers, such as Amazon.
Other YouTubers have ventured into cookware and food products as additional revenue streams. Notable examples include cook and author Andrew Rea, known by the pseudonym Babish, who launched his Babish Cookware brand in 2021, as well as comedy duo Rhett & Link, who sell MishMash Cereal.
Michelle Phan
Ipsy founders Jennifer Goldfarb (left), Marcelo Camberos, and Michelle Phan (right)
Michelle Phan gained fame in 2007 with her makeup tutorials, becoming one of the first beauty influencers to effectively monetize her content. In addition to her successful YouTube career, she co-founded the beauty subscription service Ipsy, which has become highly popular. Phan also has her own makeup line, EM Cosmetics.
Huda Kattan
Image Credits:Huda Beauty
Huda Kattan founded the globally recognized beauty brand Huda Beauty in 2013. She sold a minority stake to private equity firm TSG Consumer Partners in 2017 but bought it back in June after investor pressure to bring in senior leadership clashed with her vision for the fast-moving brand, which reportedly brings in hundreds of millions of dollars in sales each year.
Many influencers have created their own makeup brands. Other well-known makeup brands launched by YouTube influencers include Jeffree Star Cosmetics and Tati Beauty.
To be clear, it’s unlikely that MrBeast Financial would incorporate the same type of reality-show-on-steroids gimmickerythat has made the MrBeast YouTube channel a hit. Indeed, we know very little about what the personal finance app would look like, period—or whether it will even happen.
But a trademark application for MrBeast Financial that, according to data from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, was filed on October 13 under Beast Holdings—an umbrella companyowned by the eponymous YouTuber—indicates that the name could be used for a mobile app that might do anything from banking services to short-term cash advances to crypto trading.
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Also on that list are investment banking and management services; microfinance lending; insurance; financial advice; financial planning; and financial education. The trademark application makes additional reference to issuing credit and debit cards, as well as the “provision and financial administration of a debit card savings program.”
It’s not clear whether any eventual app would offer all of those services or just a subset of them. A spokesperson for Donaldson declined to comment, and the legal team cited in the trademark application did not respond to a request for details.
In addition to the trademark application, which is public, Business Insider reported in March that it had reviewed a pitch deck indicating that Donaldson had plans to get into financial services. The proposed service was at the time called a slightly different name—“Beast Financial”—but included a similar bevy of services, including student loans, insurance, credit cards, banking services, and financial literacy support.
The pitch deck indicated that MrBeast’s team had “engaged with leading fintech companies to white label their products,” Business Insider reported, “while avoiding regulatory, credit risk, and capital requirements.”
A parallel pitch had to do with creating a new platform for web content creators.
Financial services are a tightly regulated industry, especially compared to the wild west that is online content creation. But legal complexities aside, it wouldn’t be an entirely out-of-left-field move by Donaldson, whose videos tend to be built around eye-popping cash prizes (an exemplary title: “Survive 100 Days in Prison, Win $500,000”) and who’s already stretched his brand across various other verticals, including Feastables chocolate bars, Lunchly packaged meals, and the MrBeast Burger fast food concept.
Business Insider reported last month that the YouTube titan is also thinking about launching a mobile-phone service, seemingly in the same vein as the Ryan Reynolds-backed Mint Mobile—although a source close to the company said that there’s no specific timeline for the telecom project, and that it isn’t a top priority.
YouTuber MrBeast has filed a trademark application for what appears to be a banking app, according to filing data.
According to the application, filed on October 13 and seen by Newsweek, the social media star has filed a trademark for “MrBeast Financial”—a banking services mobile app that provides cryptocurrency, investment banking and other services. It has not yet been approved and there is little information about the full details of the venture.
Newsweek reached out to representatives for MrBeast and his legal team as well as the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to comment on this story outside of normal business hours.
Why It Matters
MrBeast, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, is the most popular YouTuber in the world, with 446 million subscribers on the platform as at the time of writing. The 27 year old regularly posts videos of him and others taking part in stunts—including being punched by former professional boxer Mike Tyson—and he also participates in charitable acts including distributing clean drinking water to people in poverty.
What To Know
According to the application filed with USPTO, the trademark is for “downloadable software in the nature of a mobile application for banking services, short-term cash advances, providing cryptocurrency exchange services, providing investment banking services and investment management services, providing consumer lending services and insurance services, providing financial advisory and consultancy services, providing financial planning services, and providing financial wellness education services.”
The trademark application is owned by Beast Holdings LLC and no other information about its purpose exists in the public domain.
It comes after Business Insider reported in March that a company owned by MrBeast was exploring the idea of building a financial services company that would offer loans, credit cards and banking services, as well as financial literacy content. The report was based on a leaked investor pitch deck which Newsweek was unable to verify.
Simon Taylor, a fintech expert with 60,000 followers, wrote on X: “MrBeast has proven his ability to branch out into consumer goods. And why shouldn’t that empire grow? I could see this being very brand-aligned if it helps consumers have good outcomes. MrBeast’s content is all about making good things entertaining. Or can we make entertaining things create good outcomes?”
What Happens Next
The application is being processed and has not yet been assigned to an examiner, USPTO information shows.
YouTube is bringing a wave of quality of life improvements to its platform. These visual updates and new features will roll out globally starting this week.
The main update to YouTube is a redesigned video player that has made the icons and UI elements to obscure less content. This new player design will appear on mobile, web and TV devices. Some users have had access to this feature for about a month, so it may not be brand new to everyone. The seek feature where a viewer can double-tap to skip has also been updated in a way that YouTube says is “more modern and less intrusive” and transitions between tabs have also been upgraded on mobile.
For those of you who spend a lot of time in the comments, you’ll see a new threaded approach to replies. This update aims “to provide a more focused reading experience within the replies panel.” The process of adding videos to playlists and the Watch Later queue has also been simplified and adjusted to be a “smoother and more visual” experience. Finally, some content will start displaying little animations when you hit the like button. The blog post gives music videos and sports videos as examples of where users may start seeing the flashier visual.
Did you find this article by typing in the name of a website associated with Elon Musk? Did it sound like you could invest in SpaceX, Neuralink, or one of Musk’s AI ventures like Grok and xAI? It’s fake. It’s 100%, without a doubt, completely fake.
I know you may not believe it, but please read on. Because this article could save you from losing a lot of money. Elon Musk is a very wealthy man. He’s worth $500 billion, according to Forbes, making him the wealthiest person on the planet. But Musk does not have a website dedicated to making other people rich.
You may have seen an ad on Facebook or maybe a video on Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube. It may have even looked like Elon Musk was talking about some amazing investment opportunity. Maybe it looked like Elon was raising money for a sick child. You may have even been asked to send money through gift cards or a bitcoin ATM. But it was fake. You need to believe us. Because it’s true.
Musk does not have a website selling cryptocurrencies. He doesn’t have a website for trading stocks. He doesn’t have a public website selling shares of his private companies like SpaceX, Neuralink, xAI, and X. The promotional video you saw is fake and probably used artificial intelligence tools to make it look like Elon Musk was saying something he never said.
People are losing millions
Did someone reach out to you on a social media site like Facebook or Instagram claiming to be Elon? Did they tell you to talk with them over Signal or Telegram or WhatsApp? That person is a scammer. Elon Musk does not reach out to people on websites and ask them for money. And if they haven’t already asked you to send money, that part is coming.
Again, you might be skeptical. A lot of people want to believe that Elon Musk is offering ways for the average person to become rich. But he’s not. Among other reasons, he doesn’t have time.
Here at Gizmodo, we’ve written about scammers impersonating Elon Musk for years.
There was the woman in Washington who lost $63,000 because she thought she was talking to Elon.
There was the person who lost over $18,000 watching a video livestream they thought was for Tesla.
There was also the Florida principal who sent an Elon Musk scammer a check for $100,000.
People have literally been losing millions of dollars to scammers over the years because they thought they were investing in something approved by Elon Musk. But it was all fake.
Scam AI Videos
It’s incredible what can be accomplished with AI these days. You can make people appear to say things they never said. For example, here’s an ad we spotted below. Elon never said any of that.
Fake Elon Websites
All of the websites below are scams. And while Gizmodo is often reluctant to advertise the web domains of scammers, because it risks inadvertently driving more people to scammy websites, using the names of the scams is the only way to help get the word out that these specific websites will steal your money.
And this list only scratches the surface. These are some of the domains that have been reported to the FTC, but there are so many more out there.
ceomusk.org [SCAM]
elonbitcoin.fun [SCAM]
elonchristmas.com [SCAM]
fastmars.net [SCAM]
investmuskspace.icu [SCAM]
marshome.us [SCAM]
marsway.net [SCAM]
marsyox.com [SCAM]
marsvalue.net [SCAM]
myteslatoken.com [SCAM]
official2xMusk.com [SCAM]
shippingteslamail.com [SCAM]
tesla-clubs.com [SCAM]
tesla-prize-x.com [SCAM]
teslaminingprogram.com [SCAM]
teslaminingplatform.aphatrad.com [SCAM]
teslaoption.com [SCAM]
teslapresale.net [SCAM]
tesla.token-presale.org [SCAM]
teslatoken-presale.online [SCAM]
telsaxmarketing.com [SCAM]
tsla-marketspro.com [SCAM]
teslgets.com [SCAM]
tsl-xspace.pw [SCAM]
x-coin-platform.io [SCAM]
Scam Names
There are also scams that you may know by various names that aren’t dedicated websites, but are being spread through social media platforms. Some of the common ones we’ve seen are below.
Elon Musk Fan Page Membership Card
Elon Musk x Donald Trump Crypto Giveaway
Space Stock Mining
Tesla Bitcoin
Tesla Token
Tesla Mining
Neuralink Crypto Token
SpaceX Token
Please believe us. It’s not real.
Maybe someone sent you this article. Maybe you found it through Google. Please know that visiting these websites and “investing” in them will only lead you to heartache and pain.
The people who’ve been scammed at these sites often feel foolish afterward. And we don’t want you to feel foolish. We want you to avoid just handing your money away for nothing.
If you’re interested in investing, there are plenty of reputable places to do that. You can even invest in Musk’s company, Tesla, if you want to buy stock in that company through a reputable stockbroker. All investing involves risks, but the websites we’ve featured here aren’t just risks where you might make some money or you might lose some money.
If you give any of these websites your money, you will only lose. We promise you.
Have you been scammed and want to tell your story? You can email the author of this article at [email protected].
CEO Ed Bastian said Delta has so far been unaffected by the U.S. government shutdown. Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
Between the U.S. government shutdown and ongoing economic uncertainty, it’s a turbulent time for airlines. But not for Delta, the largest American airline by market capitalization, which has emerged from the industry’s recent challenges largely unscathed as its investment in high-end travel begins to pay off.
Delta shares jumped more than 4 percent today (Oct. 9) after the Atlanta-headquartered airline reported better-than-expected revenue and profit for the July-September quarter. Quarterly sales reached $15.2 billion, up 4.1 percent year-over-year, while net income rose 11 percent to $1.42 billion. Strong demand for premium travel helped lift results: sales in Delta’s premium unit climbed 9 percent to $5.8 billion, even as main cabin revenue dipped 4 percent to $6 billion.
The airline could soon earn more from premium seating than from economy for the first time. Delta had previously forecast that milestone for 2027, but it may now happen as early as next year, according to the airline’s president, Glen Hauenstein. “We see that there are many, many more opportunities in premium in the coming years,” he told analysts today.
Some of those opportunities lie in Delta’s key markets like Los Angeles, Boston, New York and Seattle due to their concentration of a “considerable amount of premium” customers, CEO Ed Bastian said on today’s call.
The airline is also expanding its high-end offerings by outfitting nearly 1,000 aircraft with free WiFi and deepening partnerships with American Express, Uber and YouTube. Delta has even ventured into retail through collaborations like its recent lounge set project with Spanx.
Rebounding from the ‘spring swoon’
Back in March, things looked less promising when Delta slashed its profit forecast amid economic concerns tied to the Trump administration’s tariffs. The company refers to that period as the “spring swoon.” Since then, Delta has rebounded and offered stronger-than-expected guidance for the fourth quarter of 2025, projecting total revenue growth between 2 and 4 percent over the next three months.
Meanwhile, the U.S. travel industry faces headwinds from the federal government shutdown that began in early October. Flights across the country have been delayed as Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) facilities report staffing shortages. The country has also seen a “slight tick-up in sick calls” from air traffic controllers—who, like other essential workers, are expected to work without pay during the shutdown, said Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy at a recent press conference.
Delta has weathered shutdowns before. During the 35-day federal shutdown that began in 2018, the airline lost about $1 million per day in revenue, Hauenstein said. This time, the impact has been smaller, in part because Delta is less dependent on the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport—one of the hubs most affected by staffing disruptions.
“While we are monitoring potential impacts from the U.S. government shutdown, we have not seen a material effect to date,” added Hauenstein.
Last month, Alphabet told the House Judiciary Committee that it would allow some creators who were banned from YouTube for spreading COVID-19 and election-related misinformation to come back to the platform. Now, the company is outlining how that process will work, though it’s not clear exactly who will be provided that opportunity,
YouTube says that beginning today it will give “some previously terminated creators” the ability to “request” a fresh channel in an effort the company is characterizing as a bid for “second chances” on the platform. The update doesn’t reference its COVID-19 or election misinformation policies, which had come under fire from House Republicans. Instead, YouTube says that the “pilot program” will be available to some “qualified creators.” It doesn’t explain how it will determine who qualifies. Last month, far-right personalities Nick Fuentes and Alex Jones — both of whom were banned from YouTube years before the pandemic — attempted to rejoin YouTube after the letter was made public and were promptly removed.
“Our goal is to roll this out to creators who are eligible to apply over the coming months, and we appreciate the patience as we ramp up, carefully review requests, and learn as we go,” the company wrote. “Not every type of channel termination will be eligible.” Among the factors YouTube will consider are “whether the creator committed particularly severe or persistent violations of our Community Guidelines or Terms of Service, or whether the creator’s on- or off-platform activity harmed or may continue to harm the YouTube community.” People banned for copyright infringement won’t be able to apply.
All that is still remarkably vague compared to the language Alphabet used in its letter to the House Judiciary Committee last month. “YouTube will provide an opportunity for all creators to rejoin the platform if the Company terminated their channels for repeated violations of COVID-19 and elections integrity policies that are no longer in effect,” it said.
Importantly, YouTube isn’t giving previously banned creators access to their old channels and subscribers. Anyone who is let back on under the program will instead have the opportunity to create an entirely new channel, which means they’ll have to rebuild their presence from scratch.
Social media content creators and influencers are all over Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.
It’s estimated that thousands of them are living in North Texas. But how much are they earning from it, and could anyone be successful at it?
Meet the DFW content creators and influencers
You’ll find Courtney Stensland at the fair, on the field and and anywhere there’s good food.
You might find Krystyan Lazarin there as well, or promoting a sports line and skin care.
Cord Green is a chef cooking up classics and cashing in while doing it from the comfort of his own kitchen.
They are DFW social media influencers who took a big risk leaving behind 9-to-5 office jobs to build what have become successful careers in a growing industry.
“You know, I worked in corporate America, different jobs, and then, during the pandemic, is when I came back around to trying to do our YouTube,” said Green.
“I’ve been in that 9-to-5 job,” said Lazarin, a social media creator/influencer. “You know, I had a job where I was traveling an hour to and from work, and it was almost like, ‘wow, I’m making great money, but I’m not happy because I’m not able to use it.’”
“I actually was really scared to go, you know, more full-time,” said Stensland, a social media creator/influencer. “I quit my corporate job two years ago.”
Getting started: advice from content creators and influencers
These content creators say they are now getting by on the income from being online entrepreneurs. We spent time with them to find out how they do it and how you can as well.
In Green’s case, he’s now authored a popular line of cookbooks for his YouTube followers because he looks at them as more than just numbers.
“Focus on community is not about the number of followers that you have, but the quality of followers that you have,” Green said.
Stensland says the key to standing above others in her profession, as she has, is to know your audience and only promote what you actually like.
“Since I’m from Dallas, I want people to love Dallas as much as I do,” said Stensland. “It’s easy when you’re promoting things you use every day.”
Lazarin evolved from being a top amateur tennis and pickleball player, and now, with more than 400,000 followers, says he has more branding opportunities to make money than he can handle.
But he says you have to be willing to invest in quality equipment.
“So a lot of people don’t know, you know, like that will come out of my pocket, but I want to make sure I give the best quality content, whether it’s on my page or for a company I’m working with,” said Lazarin. “But I have probably four or five different editing apps that I will use in terms of video or photo.”
You might have to settle for just getting free products or services at the beginning of a content creator career.
But those who do it say, as their base grows, the $200, $500 and $1,000 payments for postings start adding up.
There are 50 million global content creators, according to research by the Wall Street Journal, which found that only 13% earn over $100,000 annually.
From side hustle to full-time job
But the money people make from it is expected to double in 2 years to $480 billion.
It started out as a side hustle for these North Texans who say if you post consistently and follow their paths, it can eventually pay off.
“You’re not going to know what you’re doing, but that’s the beauty of it,” said Green.
Clashes between security forces and Bangladesh’s indigenous community protesting the alleged rape of a girl left three people dead in late September. However, a video circulating in Burmese social media posts does not show soldiers shooting at demonstrators in the South Asian country’s southeastern region bordering Myanmar — the footage was in fact taken in the capital Dhaka during mass unrest that ousted former prime minister Sheikh Hasina in 2024.
“Now Bangladesh army shot the public in Guimara, Chittagong, Bangladesh. The video of Bangladesh army opened fire on protesters emerges,” reads the Burmese-language caption to a video shared on Facebook on September 29.
Guimara is an area in Bangladesh’s Khagrachari district, located in the Chittagong Hill Tracts region bordering Myanmar.
The 30-second footage shows soldiers lying in a row on the ground with guns pointed at people in the distance, while gunshots can also be heard.
Screenshot taken on October 6, 2025 of the false post with an X marked by AFP
The video was repeatedly shared on Facebook by users in neighbouring Myanmar with similar claims after three people were killed during clashes between security forces and protesters in Khagrachari district (archived link).
The unrest was triggered by the alleged rape of a schoolgirl in an area that has long been a flashpoint between Indigenous communities and Bengali-speakers, with clashes breaking out over land and resources.
However, the video is old and unrelated to the recent violence.
Reverse image searches and keyword searches on Google found the same clip in a report by Qatar-based broadcaster Al Jazeera, uploaded to YouTube on July 24, 2024 (archived link). The circulating clip corresponds to the YouTube video’s 30-second mark.
The title reads, “Bangladesh curfews, internet blackout batter economy amid quota protests”.
Screenshot comparison of the video from the false post (L) to the Al Jazeera video
Bangladesh’s student-led movement began in July 2024, with hundreds of thousands of anti-government protesters clashing with security forces in the worst unrest of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s 15-year rule (archived link).
Up to 1,400 people were killed between July and August 2024, according to the United Nations (archived link).
Further reverse image searches found a similar photo of the row of soldiers published on British photo agency Alamy, dated July 20, 2024 with a caption that states it was taken in the capital Dhaka (archived link).
The shops and buildings seen in both the Al Jazeera video and the photo on Alamy match Google Street View imagery of a Dhaka neighbourhood, 180 kilometres (112 miles) from Khagrachari (archived link).
Screenshot comparison of the Al Jazeera video (L) and the Google Maps’ Street View imagery, with matching features highlighted by AFP
Three people were shot dead after protests erupted in Bangladesh’s southeast border region with India over the alleged rape of a schoolgirl, but two videos showing protests scenes circulating on social media are not from the south Asian country. The clips were in fact taken during earlier demonstrations in Nepal and Indonesia.
“Attacking the army and Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) in violation of Section 144 and looting weapons,” reads the Bengali-language caption to a 4-second clip shared on Facebook on September 28, 2025.
It shows people filming and following a man holding a weapon along a street.
The same clip was shared alongside similar claims elsewhere on Facebook after protests by indigenous communities erupted in Bangladesh’s southeastern Khagrachari district over the alleged rape of a schoolgirl (archived link).
Three men were shot dead and dozens injured in the unrest, which prompted authorities to impose a law banning “unlawful assembly” for eight days until October 5 (archived link).
Screenshot of the false post, taken October 2, 2025
A second clip showing another chaotic nighttime protest scene, with explosions and police cars driving down a crowded street, also surfaced on September 27 on Facebook. The post claimed it depicted the unrest in Khagrachari.
Screenshot of the false post, taken October 2, 2025
The region has long been a flashpoint between Indigenous communities and Bengali-speakers, with clashes breaking out over land and resources.
Bangladesh’s interior ministry chief claimed weapons from “outside the country” were fuelling the violence, while the army’s public relations wing in a statement accused the the United People’s Democratic Front (UPDF), a holdout rebel faction, of instigating the violence and firing hundreds of shots (archived link).
On October 1, local media reported that no evidence of rape was found by a government medical board examination of the schoolgirl, but an indigenous group said the medical report was “fabricated” (archived link).
However, none of the circulating clips were taken in Bangladesh, they instead show scenes from protests in Nepal and Indonesia.
Screenshot comparison of the falsely shared clip (left) and the YouTube video (right)
The video’s caption links the footage to Nepal’s “Gen Z” protests, which began with demonstrations against a social media ban on September 8 and erupted into wider discontent over corruption and ultimately ousted the Himalayan country’s government (archived link).
Screenshot comparison of the falsely shared video (left) and Google Street View imagery of Kathmandu (right), with corresponding features highlighted by AFP
The second falsely shared video corresponds to footage shared in a compilation on Instagram on August 30, 2025 (archived link).
The Indonesian-language caption states the footage shows a protest in Solo, a city in central Java officially known as Surakarta, on August 29, 2025.
Screenshot comparison of the falsely shared clip (left) and the Instagram video (right)
Further keyword and reverse image search found another YouTube video posted on August 29 captioned “chaos at Solo protest”, showing the same incident from a different angle (archived link).
Protests broke out across Indonesia in late-August, sparked by discontent over economic inequality and lavish perks for lawmakers and intensified by the killing of a young delivery driver by a paramilitary police unit (archived link). At least 10 people were killed, and hundreds injured.
Peter Thiel, PayPal’s first CEO, turned his fintech fortune into a far-reaching empire of influence spanning venture capital, politics and power. Marco Bello/Getty Images
In 2007, Fortune magazine reimagined a classic mafia scene with a Silicon Valley twist: 13 male founders and early employees of PayPal, all long gone from the company, posed at a San Francisco café with slicked-back hair, poker chips and dozens of whiskey glasses. The crowd included some of the most recognizable names in today’s tech scene, like Elon Musk, Peter Thiel and Reid Hoffman. The magazine dubbed them the “PayPal mafia,” not for their time at the fintech company, but for their outsized impact on Silicon Valley through the companies they launched afterward.
PayPal went public in early 2002 and was acquired by eBay for $1.5 billion the same year. Most of its early employees left the company after the acquisition. They went on to found YouTube, SpaceX and LinkedIn, among other legendary names in Silicon Valley. However, like their cinematic namesake, the group hasn’t avoided controversy. These former colleagues have built billion-dollar businesses while also finding themselves in the crosshairs of public criticism.
For instance, Thiel has faced controversy over his political affiliations and, most notably, for funding Hulk Hogan’s 2012 lawsuit against Gawker Media with $10 million — a case that ultimately drove the online media company into bankruptcy. Musk has also faced criticism for his takeover of Twitter and his prior role in the Trump administration, where he led widespread federal employee firings.
Here’s what they are up to these days:
Peter Thiel: venture capitalist
Peter Thiel. Marco Bello/Getty Images
Peter Thiel, Max Levchin and Luke Nosek founded PayPal in 1998, originally as a software security company. After merging with Elon Musk’s X.com (unrelated to the social media platform he owns today), PayPal shifted its focus to digital payments.
Thiel served as CEO from 1998 until 2002, leaving after the company was sold to eBay. He then co-founded Palantir Technologies, a major U.S. government contractor providing data analytics services. The company now has a market capitalization of $439 billion.
Thiel is also known as a prolific angel investor. He co-founded Clarium Capital, Founders Fund, Valar Ventures and Mithril Capital. In 2004, Thiel became Facebook’s first outside investor after acquiring a 10.2 percent stake in the company for $500,000.
Thiel is among the many former PayPal employees who have entered political and high-profile public arenas. An active donor to the Republican Party, Thiel supported Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign but withheld donations during the 2024 election. He is also credited with helping JD Vance reach the Vice Presidential ticket.
Elon Musk: entrepreneur, the world’s richest person
Elon Musk. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
Elon Musk briefly served as PayPal’s CEO before being ousted by the board in 2000. He went on to build one of the most influential portfolios in technology, spanning electric vehicles, space exploration, social media and A.I.
Musk founded SpaceX in 2002 and has led Tesla since 2008. He also founded Neuralink and The Boring Company, expanding his reach into brain-computer interfaces and infrastructure. In 2022, Musk gained global attention for acquiring Twitter for $44 billion, later rebranding it as X.
His ties to A.I. run deep: Musk co-founded OpenAI with Sam Altman in 2015 but left in 2018 over strategic disagreements. In 2023, he returned to the field by launching xAI, a research venture focused on building A.I. that is more understandable for humans.
Today, Musk is the richest person in the world, with an estimated net worth of $400 billion. He is also perhaps the only PayPal alumnus to ascend into direct political influence. During the Trump administration, he led the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)—a name shared with his cryptocurrency venture—before stepping down in May after clashing publicly with the President.
Max Levchin: computer scientist
Max Levchin. John Lamparski/Getty Images
Position at PayPal: co-founder, chief technology officer from 1998 to 2002
As PayPal’s chief technology officer, Max Levchin helped lead the company’s anti-fraud efforts by co-creating the Gausebeck-Levchin test—the foundation for the widely used CAPTCHA security tool. After leaving PayPal, he launched the media-sharing platform Slide in 2004, which was acquired by Google in 2010. Levchin briefly served as Google’s vice president of engineering until Slide was shut down the following year.
In 2012, he co-founded Affirm, a leading “buy now, pay later” (BNPL) company, where he continues to serve as CEO. Today, Affirm has a market capitalization of $27.5 billion, with 21.9 million consumers and more than 350,000 merchant partners on its platform.
Levchin has also held board positions at Yahoo and Yelp. In 2015, he became the first Silicon Valley executive appointed to the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s advisory board, emphasizing the importance of collaboration between companies and regulators.
Reid Hoffman: entrepreneur, investor
Reid Hoffman. Kimberly White/Getty Images for WIRED
Before joining PayPal, Hoffman worked as a senior user experience architect at Apple, contributing to the company’s online social network eWorld. He later became director of product management at Fujitsu. After his online dating startup, SocialNet, folded, Hoffman joined PayPal in 2000 as chief operating officer.
In 2003, he co-founded the career networking site LinkedIn. Following Microsoft’s $26.2 billion acquisition of LinkedIn in 2017, Hoffman joined Microsoft’s board, a move that greatly increased his wealth.
Over the years, Hoffman has served on the boards of Airbnb and OpenAI, where he was also an early investor. Through the venture capital firm Greylock Partners, he has backed dozens of A.I. startups. In 2022, he co-founded Inflection AI with Mustafa Suleyman, who now serves as CEO. Earlier this year, he teamed up with cancer researcher Siddhartha Mukherjee to launch Manas AI, a startup focused on drug discovery.
David Sacks: investor, White House A.I. and Crypto Czar
David Sacks currently serves as the White House A.I. and Crypto Czar. JC Olivera/Variety via Getty Images
Position at PayPal: chief operating officer from 1999 to 2002
Since leaving PayPal, David Sacks has built a career spanning film, tech, investing and politics. In 2005, he produced and financed a political satire that earned two Golden Globe nominations. The following year, he founded Geni.com, a genealogy-focused social network that later spun off Yammer, one of the earliest enterprise social networking platforms. He went on to co-found Craft Ventures, the startup Glue, and the podcast platform Callin.
Jeremy Stoppelman joined Musk’s X.com in 1999 and became vice president of engineering after its transition to PayPal. In 2004, he co-founded Yelp, where he has served as CEO ever since. Under his leadership, the company turned down a 2010 acquisition offer from Google and went public two years later. Stoppelman’s net worth is estimated at more than $100 million.
Ken Howery: investor, U.S. ambassador
Position at PayPal: chief financial officer from 1998 to 2002
Ken Howery served as PayPal’s chief financial officer from 1998 to 2002. After PayPal’s sale to eBay, he became eBay’s director of corporate development until 2003. He later joined Peter Thiel at Clarium Capital as vice president of private equity and went on to co-found Founders Fund as a partner. Beyond investing, he is a member of the Explorers Club, a nonprofit dedicated to scientific exploration, and an advisor to Kiva, the micro-lending nonprofit founded by former PayPal colleague Premal Shah.
Howery is also among the former PayPal executives who have moved into politics. He has donated at least $1 million to Donald Trump’s campaign through Elon Musk’s political action committee. During Trump’s first term, Howery was appointed U.S. ambassador to Sweden and today serves as the U.S. ambassador to Denmark.
Roeloth Botha: venture capitalist
Roelof Botha joined PayPal as director of corporate development shortly before graduating from Stanford University. He later became vice president of finance and went on to serve as chief financial officer until the company’s acquisition by eBay.
Position at PayPal: software architect from 1998 to 2003
Companies later founded: Yelp, Learnirvana
Russel Simmons helped design PayPal’s payment system as a software architect. After leaving the company, he and fellow PayPal alum Jeremy Stoppelman set out to build a platform for restaurant reviews. With a $1 million investment from Max Levchin, they launched Yelp in July 2004. Simmons served as chief technology officer until his departure in 2010. At the time, Yelp said he would remain a “significant” shareholder, though the size of his stake—and whether he still holds it—remains unclear.
In 2014, Simmons co-founded Learnirvana, an online learning platform.
Andrew McCormack: entrepreneur
Position at PayPal: assistant to Thiel from July 2001 to November 2002
Companies later founded: Valar Ventures
Andrew McCormack began his career as an assistant to Peter Thiel at PayPal and followed him into subsequent ventures. From November 2002 to April 2003, he oversaw operations at Thiel’s hedge fund, Clarium Capital.
In 2010, McCormack co-founded Valar Ventures with Thiel and James Fitzgerald, focusing on fintech investments. He remains a general partner at the firm.
Luke Nosek: investor
Position at PayPal: co-founder and vice president of marketing and strategy from 1998 to 2002
Companies later founded: Founders Fund, Gigafund
In 2005, Luke Nosek joined Peter Thiel and Ken Howery to launch Founders Fund, a San Francisco–based venture capital firm that has backed companies such as Airbnb, Lyft and SpaceX. While his exact net worth is unclear, Nosek has made substantial investments through his venture firms. At Founders Fund, he led one of the firm’s earliest major deals with a $20 million investment in SpaceX, later serving on its board.
In 2017, Nosek left to co-found Gigafund, which went on to invest $1 billion in SpaceX, according to the company. He also sits on the board of ResearchGate.
Premal Shah: entrepreneur
Position at Paypal: product manager
Companies later founded: Kiva
Three years after leaving PayPal, Premal Shah co-founded Kiva, a nonprofit that provides loans to entrepreneurs in underserved communities worldwide. He also serves on the boards of other nonprofits, including the Center for Humane Technology, the Change.org Foundation, Watsi and VolunteerMatch.
Keith Rabois: investor
Position at PayPal: executive vice president of business development
After leaving his executive role at PayPal, Keith Rabois became an active investor, backing companies including Slide, YouTube and Palantir. He also invested in LinkedIn, where he served as vice president of business and corporate development, and Square, where he was chief operating officer.
Rabois joined venture capital firm Khosla Ventures from 2013 to 2019 and was a partner at Founders Fund from 2019 to 2024.
President Donald Trump has shared a message on Truth Social, pleading with Google and YouTube to bring back Univision before the 2026 Midterm Elections, writing, “Google, for the purpose of FAIRNESS, please let Univision back!”
Newsweek has reached out to Google outside of regular working hours via email for comment.
Why It Matters
In September, Google’s YouTube TV dropped Univision’s Spanish-language networks after both sides failed to come to terms on a contract renewal.
YouTube TV first launched in 2017, then costing $35 a month. The package of channels, which includes a mix of local networks, news channels, entertainment channels, sports channels, and children’s channels, now costs $82.99 monthly.
Univision is the largest Spanish-language broadcaster in the U.S., with 59 stations that are either owned or operated or both. YouTube also pulled TelevisaUnivision channels UniMas, TUDN, Galavision, FOROtv, De Película, De Película Clásico, Bandamax, Telehit, Telehit Música, and TLNovelas, in addition to the stations.
What To Know
YouTube issued a statement about dropping Univision, which read, “TelevisaUnivision has over 160 million subscribers and billions of views across YouTube, where they generate ad revenue from their content. On our paid live TV subscription service, YouTube TV, however, TelevisaUnivision only represents a tiny fraction of overall consumption. Since we have not reached a new agreement with them, their content is no longer available on YouTube TV.”
Responding to this, TelevisaUnion said in a statement, “Google’s YouTube TV has refused to ‘Do the Right Thing’ and dropped Univision from its platform—stripping millions of Hispanic viewers of the Spanish-language news, sports, and entertainment they rely on every day.”
The statement continued that “Google’s actions are especially tone-deaf and egregious on the eve of a potential government shutdown, disregarding the appeals of government officials and Hispanic organizations who urged them to keep Univision on the main bundle.”
Now the president has weighed in with his own plea. “I hope Univision, a great and very popular Hispanic Network, can get BACK onto the very amazing Google/YouTube,” he wrote on Truth Social on October 4.
“It has been taken out of their package, which is VERY BAD for Republicans in the upcoming Midterms,” the president wrote, adding that Univision has been “so good” to him.
The Univision outage came before the federal government shutdown, which was a story Univision journalists had been covering.
Univision has launched a campaign, dubbed “Do the Right Thing Google,” which involves outreach to politicians. The TelevisaUnivision chief executive Daniel Alegre wrote in an open letter, “Univision is a trusted voice for Hispanic Americans, especially in times of emergencies, elections and for other critical news and events.”
YouTube dropping Univision comes as it settled a lawsuit brought by Trump, after the platform suspended his account following the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol—it has agreed to pay $24.5 million, and comes after social media sites including X and Facebook settled similar suits over suspending the president’s social media accounts.
What People Are Saying
President Donald Trump, in a post on Truth Social: “I hope Univision, a great and very popular Hispanic Network, can get BACK onto the very amazing Google/YouTube. It has been taken out of their package, which is VERY BAD for Republicans in the upcoming Midterms. They were so good to me with their highest rated ever political Special, and I set a Republican Record in Hispanic voting. Google, for the purpose of FAIRNESS, please let Univision back!”
Senator Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican, wrote in a post on X: “Google/YouTube should not put Univision and Telemundo behind a paywall. Google shouldn’t be abusing its monopoly power by forcing millions of Texans & Americans to pay extra for Spanish-language programming. That’s not right and it’s not fair.
Senator Bernie Moreno, an Ohio Republican, in a post on X: “Just one week after getting caught red-handed censoring conservatives on its platforms at the behest of [former President Joe] Biden bureaucrats, Google is now attempting to jack up prices on millions of Americans who rely on channels like Univision. That’s wrong and I’m demanding answers.”
United States immigration authorities are moving to dramatically expand their social media surveillance, with plans to hire nearly 30 contractors to sift through posts, photos, and messages—raw material to be transformed into intelligence for deportation raids and arrests.
Federal contracting records reviewed by WIRED show that the agency is seeking private vendors to run a multiyear surveillance program out of two of its little-known targeting centers. The program envisions stationing nearly 30 private analysts at Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities in Vermont and Southern California. Their job: Scour Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and other platforms, converting posts and profiles into fresh leads for enforcement raids.
The initiative is still at the request-for-information stage, a step agencies use to gauge interest from contractors before an official bidding process. But draft planning documents show the scheme is ambitious: ICE wants a contractor capable of staffing the centers around the clock, constantly processing cases on tight deadlines, and supplying the agency with the latest and greatest subscription-based surveillance software.
The facilities at the heart of this plan are two of ICE’s three targeting centers, responsible for producing leads that feed directly into the agency’s enforcement operations. The National Criminal Analysis and Targeting Center sits in Williston, Vermont. It handles cases across much of the eastern US. The Pacific Enforcement Response Center, based in Santa Ana, California, oversees the western region and is designed to run 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Internal planning documents show that each site would be staffed with a mix of senior analysts, shift leads, and rank-and-file researchers. Vermont would see a team of a dozen contractors, including a program manager and 10 analysts. California would host a larger, nonstop watch floor with 16 staff. At all times, at least one senior analyst and three researchers would be on duty at the Santa Ana site.
Together, these teams would operate as intelligence arms of ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations division. They will receive tips and incoming cases, research individuals online, and package the results into dossiers that could be used by field offices to plan arrests.
