It’s been another chaotic week in the creator economy. We’ve had crypto scandals, emergency injunctions, and the arrival of controversial AI tool Sora.
As usual, we at Passionfruit have been on the front lines reporting it all, but our proudest achievement this week is our first full-length documentary. As two former MrBeast employees open up about the dark side of working for the YouTube giant, this isn’t something you want to miss.
So, keep yourself in the know as we run through everything you missed on Passionfruit this week.
The End of TikTok?
On Dec. 10, TikTok announced that it had filed an emergency motion for an injunction to stop the app from being banned in the coming weeks. As part of the “sell or ban” bill, which was signed in April this year, the US government demanded that TikTok cut ties with Chinese parent company ByteDance by Jan. 19, 2025. If the company doesn’t meet this deadline, the law dictates that the app should be banned from then onwards.
After the Appeals Court squashed TikTok’s claim that this violates users’ First Amendment rights, the company is aiming to take it to the Supreme Court. The purpose of the injunction is to stop the app from being banned in the meantime — but it doesn’t look likely to be successful.
You can read more here.
Sora Has Arrived
Sora is here, and we’re not talking about the Kingdom Hearts character. OpenAI’s latest tool, which generates AI videos, has finally been released publicly. Or, at least, to those with a premium ChatGPT subscription. The tool can generate up to 20 seconds of realistic footage from a text prompt. These videos can have up to 1080p resolution and be made in vertical, widescreen, and square aspect ratios.
However, there’s a caveat. Only a handful of invited testers will be able to make videos of humans with Sora in order to prevent issues like deepfakes and misinformation. Since coming out of its research phase, it’s garnered so much interest that OpenAI has had to temporarily stop the creation of new accounts.
You can read more here.
How To Create a Discord Server
Back in the day, Discord was exclusively for gamers. But now, it’s one of the most popular sites in the world. The app basically functions as a giant group chat. Features like group calls and screen sharing make it especially useful for hosting events; which, for a creator, can be invaluable.
For creators, Discord is a way to connect with your fans on a more personal level. As well as connecting with fans yourself, Discord enables fans to connect with each other, hang out, and build bonds. Gaining more fans and followers is obviously important, but the purpose of Discord is to nurture the relationship with fans that you already have.
To find out more about how to make a Discord for your fanbase, click here.
Hawk Tuah’s Crypto Scandal
When Hailey Welch first uttered the phrase “hawk tuah,” I don’t think anyone expected things to end up like this. Following in the footsteps of other creators like Logan Paul, Hailey Welch released her own cryptocurrency: a “meme coin” known as HAWK.
But things soon started going wrong. It surged to a $490 million market cap before it crashed by 93%. This led to accusations that the scheme was a “rug pull” scam, which is when developers abandon a crypto scheme after raising assets, leaving investors with worthless tokens. But the question is, what happens now?
In his latest column, Lon Harris examines this and more as he explores the implications of creators getting involved in the messy world of crypto.
You can read the full piece here.
OnlyFans Exists Because Men Pay For It
In recent months, more and more big names have been joining OnlyFans, with musicians Lily Allen and Kate Nash both turning to the content creation site. However, due to OnlyFans’ association with sex work, Allen and Nash have faced a lot of backlash for their decisions. However, as writer and podcaster Liz Plank argues, this is emblematic of a wider problem.
As she points out, just like any other job, sex workers on the platform are usually driven by financial motives. But as Plank argues, those who shame these women for going into sex work are overlooking one major thing: namely, that a there wouldn’t be a supply if there wasn’t a demand. The truth is, there’s a hell of a lot more men paying for OnlyFans than there are female sex workers on the site, so why is it only these women who attract criticism?
You can read the full article here.
Passionfruit on YouTube: MrBeast Employees Speak Out
For the past few months, MrBeast’s empire has begun to crumble. There have been allegations of sexual misconduct, exploitation, and difficult working conditions, along with many, many other things. Jimmy ‘MrBeast’ Donaldson has remained mostly silent about these controversies, but the scandals just keep coming. And now, it continues.
In Passionfruit’s first documentary, two former MrBeast employees, Matt Turner and Jake Weddle, share some insight into the dark side of the YouTube empire. Turner and Weddle both worked with Donaldson in the early days of MrBeast, long before he became a household name.
What’s uncovered in this documentary is nothing short of shocking, but in true clickbait style, you’ll have to watch the full video to find out what’s revealed. You can watch it above.
Rode Wireless ME Review
If you want to get serious about content creation, you need the right equipment. And the Rode Wireless ME microphone might be the perfect product to start with. It boasts specifications like a re-polarised pressure transducer acoustic principle, an omnidirectional polar pattern and a frequency range of 20 Hz – 20 kHz.
In his review of the product, John-Michael Bond cites the many benefits of the microphone, including its affordability, gain assist feature, its simplicity, adaptability, and its compact size: making it perfect for creators who are always on the move.
For the full review, click here.
