Creator Handbook

“SubwayTakes” has been nominated for Outstanding Short Form Comedy, Drama or Variety Series at the 2026 Primetime Emmy Awards. Host Kareem Rahma shoots the show on moving New York City subway trains, holding a MetroCard up as a microphone while guests deliver their hottest opinions. It launched in 2023 and has since pulled nearly 750 million YouTube views.

After a nine-month break from regular streaming, Kai Cenat returned with one of the biggest livestreams of the year, drawing more than 1 million concurrent viewers across Twitch and YouTube. It was also the first time he ran a stream on both platforms at once. For his first full broadcast since wrapping the record-breaking Mafiathon 3 in late 2025, Cenat skipped the expected gaming or “Just Chatting” return. He used the slot to reveal the roster for Streamer University 2026 instead.

Reckless Ben, real name Benjamin Schneider, announced that he is now free to release the third installment of his Bricks & Minifigs investigation after a U.S. federal court replaced a previous state court restraining order with a narrower preliminary injunction. The updated order removes restrictions that had prevented Schneider from publishing new videos or publicly commenting on the dispute.

YouTube creator Jon Prosser has formally responded to Apple’s lawsuit over leaked details of iOS 26. He denied allegations that he conspired to obtain the company’s confidential information, but acknowledged recording and publishing videos based on unreleased software shown to him during a FaceTime call.

A viral giveaway video by content creator Zachery Dereniowski took an unexpected turn after police were called while he was handing out cash to strangers. Dereniowski, who is known for creating videos that reward acts of kindness, was filming one of his usual giveaways when police arrived after someone reported the situation. In the video, the creator is seen approaching strangers and offering them cash gifts, a format that has become a regular part of his content.

Twitch has responded to concerns over ad lengths after reports suggested viewers were seeing pre-roll and mid-roll ads that exceeded the platform’s stated limits. While Twitch says no policy changes have been made, some users continue to report longer ad breaks. Zach Bussey, a Twitch commentator, shared screenshots of a conversation with Twitch Support. In the exchange, a support representative claimed that pre-roll ads could now last up to 90 seconds instead of the previous 30-second limit.

Instagram’s new “Your Algorithm” feature lets users customize the categories of content they want to see more or less of across the app, according to Meta. Instead of relying solely on likes, follows and watch history, people can now manually adjust their interests through a dedicated settings page. The idea is to give users a clearer understanding of how recommendations are generated, plus a more direct way to influence future suggestions.

YouTube Shorts is receiving a redesigned player that removes some of the interface elements that can distract from the video. A new Clear Screen option lets viewers temporarily hide captions, buttons, usernames and other on-screen controls so the video fills the display. Similar viewing modes are already available on other short-form video platforms. The goal is to make it easier to focus on the content itself. One of the biggest changes is the removal of the dislike button from the Shorts player.

More than 25% of responses generated by leading AI chatbots reference content created by YouTube creators, according to new research from digital marketing agency Jellyfish. Per data shared with AdWeek, the study analyzed millions of AI-generated responses and found that YouTube videos are now among the most frequently cited sources across several major AI platforms. The study examined responses from chatbots including ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity, Meta AI and DeepSeek.

Meta announced that Creator Studio is returning as a standalone app designed specifically for Facebook creators. The original Creator Studio was discontinued in 2023 and merged into Meta Business Suite. The new version revives the brand and adds AI-powered features to help creators make sense of analytics, manage community interactions and spot growth opportunities. At the center of the new app is Facebook’s AI Creator Assistant.