All posts tagged: content creators

OnlyFans’ First-Gen Creators Are Retiring—and Some Are Begging You to Forget They Exist

OnlyFans’ First-Gen Creators Are Retiring—and Some Are Begging You to Forget They Exist

Published by skeptic

On April 28, just before noon, Win White logged onto X and posted a series of messages to his 65,000 followers who, until that moment, were mostly unaware of his past as an OnlyFans creator. “I’m asking humbly that we all refrain from sharing content from before. If you see it, save it … cool,” he wrote. “I know where I’ve been and I think I’m entitled to a life after that at least.” That morning White, 29, had received several DMs about an old clip of him making rounds. Though he has done his best to separate his old life from his new one—last year he deleted his OnlyFans account and the separate X account where he posted content—it often has a habit of catching up with him. “All that work that I did for OnlyFans, I did out in California. I don’t really talk about it on this page. So I panicked,” White tells WIRED. Still, he had a hunch how his request might be received, and how nasty the responses could get. …

Can Listening to ‘Subliminals’ Make You Beautiful? Plenty of Women Believe It

Can Listening to ‘Subliminals’ Make You Beautiful? Plenty of Women Believe It

Published by skeptic

“Do you think about me?” So asks a disembodied voice at the beginning of a TikTok from user @velvet.mind. The question is followed by hypnotic synth pulses, hissing static, and sped-up, garbled human speech. An accompanying visual: a montage of immaculately made-up and stylish women who could all be models—indeed, some of them probably are. The text overlaid on the video reads “extreme beauty subliminal.” The minute-long clip has nearly 300,000 likes and 1.4 million views. Why all this engagement for a bit of vaporwave ephemera? Because an online community of young women sincerely believe that sustained exposure to these sounds and images will improve their physical appearance. According to the creator, the indecipherable words are a series of affirmations that include “My face is naturally symmetrical, balanced, and breathtaking” and “I have flawless, poreless, glowing skin.” Listeners are meant to subconsciously internalize and manifest such ideals; they echo that language in their replies, speaking their beauty goals into existence. “I am drop-dead gorgeous,” one comment reads. Welcome to the world of “subliminals,” a subculture …

The Men Behind Your Favorite AI Gay Thirst Traps

The Men Behind Your Favorite AI Gay Thirst Traps

Published by skeptic

With his deep brown eyes, wide grin, and almost comically chiseled body, Jae Young Joon is the platonic ideal of a hunky male influencer. On Instagram, where he has more than 320,000 followers, he regularly posts himself trying on sheet masks at home, enjoying soju and karaoke with his friends, or posing in front of the Ferris wheel at Coachella. Occasionally, he’ll promote his music, including his recent LP Pressure Release, which features a BDSM-inspired album cover, his back muscles rippling underneath a harness and chains. It’s an impressive online presence, and Jae’s fans eat it up: his comments are filled with fire and heart-eye emoji and people praising his music. It’s not until you go back to his profile and look at his bio, which says “Human mind. AI generated,” that you realize Jae isn’t real. His friends aren’t real. His music career isn’t real. Even his trip to Coachella isn’t real. Jae is the brainchild of Luc Thierry, a soft-spoken Canadian man in his early thirties who has been growing Jae’s account for …

YouTube Terminates Clavicular’s Channels for ‘Repeated Violations’

YouTube Terminates Clavicular’s Channels for ‘Repeated Violations’

Published by Daniella Wilson

YouTube has terminated “Looksmaxxing” influencer and streamer Clavicular‘s two channels for “severe or repeated violations.” The controversial creator, whose real name is Braden Peters, took to X on Thursday to ask his fans to help recover his @LiveWithClav and @ClavLooksmax accounts. “Very sad news this morning. My YouTube channels @ LiveWithClav & @ ClavLooksmax were terminated this morning with no warning or explanation,” he wrote. “The channels consisted of livestream VODs and free courses created by me to help empower young men to be the best versions of themselves.” The streamer continued, “Me and my team worked hard to ensure we followed YouTube’s TOS very strictly, blurring out all inappropriate language and sensitive topics. Could you please help in recovering my accounts?” Though Clavicular claims YouTube didn’t give him an explanation for the move, in the emails he received from the video platform, it clearly listed community guideline violations as the reason. The platform also gave Clavicular the same explanation for removing both accounts. “We have reviewed your content and found severe or repeated violations …

Gary Lineker’s Goalhanger Launches Content Creator Fund (Exclusive)

Gary Lineker’s Goalhanger Launches Content Creator Fund (Exclusive)

Published by Daniella Wilson

Goalhanger, Gary Lineker’s media and podcast production behemoth, is launching a flagship initiative in collaboration with the U.K.’s top content creators. The Accelerator will support digital creators across entertainment, sport, politics, science, tech, and finance. “Designed as a high-impact, three-month creative business incubator, it provides investment, training and mentorship and access to Goalhanger’s senior editorial, creative and commercial leadership — alongside established on-air talent,” the company tells The Hollywood Reporter. Participants will be chosen by a selection committee comprising senior Goalhanger leaders alongside experienced execs from across the global media and cultural industries. The external panel brings expertise spanning commissioning, talent development, platform strategy, and commercial growth, with backgrounds across Spotify, Sony Music, YouTube, Web Summit, WME and beyond. Members of this committee include Alex Bewley, Alex Adey, Alex Mahon, Damaris Rex Taylor, Julia Errens and Conor Galvin. Each creator will receive up to £10,000 ($13,400) in content investment to elevate production standards and experiment with short-form storytelling across their social platforms. “But the program goes beyond funding. In a media landscape where most digital …

This Is the Next Wave of Political Fundraising

This Is the Next Wave of Political Fundraising

Published by skeptic

On Monday, streamer and content creator Hasan Piker helped raise more than $56,000 in one stream for Oliver Larkin, a former Bernie Sanders campaign staffer who is seeking to primary Jared Moskowitz, a moderate Democratic congressman from Florida. It was the most the campaign had raised “in a single day,” Larkin said on X shortly after the stream ended. Over the past few years, creators have become an essential piece of campaign messaging strategy. But Piker’s recent stream for Larkin is the latest sign that online influence is being leveraged for direct fundraising as well. Piker isn’t alone. Trisha Paytas, a YouTuber with more than 5 million subscribers and a long history of provocative stunts, isn’t known for her political activism, but in February she donated more than $10,000 to a campaign called Creators Against ICE. The campaign, organized by the creator collective Creators for Peace, is just one in a string of fundraisers organized by coalitions of creators turning social media followings into political fundraising machines. Unlike traditional fundraising models like super PACs that …

The Texas Senate Primary Was a Preview of Creator Wars to Come

The Texas Senate Primary Was a Preview of Creator Wars to Come

Published by skeptic

On Tuesday, James Talarico, a 36-year-old Presbyterian seminarian and state representative from Austin, Texas, defeated congresswoman Jasmine Crockett in what has become one of the most closely watched primary races so far this year. While both candidates boast immense social media followings—Talarico with 1.6 million followers and Crockett with 2.6 million followers on TikTok—it wasn’t just the candidates who drove the conversation. It was the creators around them, who offer a preview of the digital fights to come throughout the midterms and, ultimately, the 2028 presidential race. The Talarico and Crockett campaigns ran distinctly different digital strategies. Crockett has built her congressional brand on confrontation, going massively viral last year after calling out Marjorie Taylor Greene for having a “bleach-blonde, bad-built, butch body” and telling Elon Musk to “fuck off.” Talarico’s digital presence reads more like a populist sermon delivered over his own social media accounts. He’s carried these preachings to unconventional platforms, like the Joe Rogan Experience, that rewarded him with countless viral clips. But for the most part, the incendiary aspects of the …