May 2026: Vine, Vylit, and Vindication
Written and curated by Stop Content Theft.
Do you know where your content is?
TL;DR
DMCA requests surge on GitHub
YouTube teams up with SiriusXM for audio ads
TikTok creators can now sell personalised videos through Cameo
Meta launch ‘Instants’ as standalone app
VINE IS BACK and it’s ‘diVine’
Musicians and YouTubers fight AI in the courts
AI art platform Picsart rewards creators for creativity, not followers
Unilever recruits creators to promote their brands
Pinterest fights AI with AI…and fails
7 free webinars!
Platform News
GitHub Reports DMCA Takedown Record and Surging Anti-Circumvention Claims
GitHub is receiving a record number DMCA takedown requests. More significantly for creators, takedown claims for anti-circumvention tools are also rising. Many widely-used open source tools for circumventing social media platforms and software are available on GitHub, leading rights holders to ramp up their takedown efforts.
GitHub's protection of developers, however, has been bolstered by the Supreme Court's 2025 landmark determination that platforms are not automatically responsible for the content being posted on their platform.
YouTube turns to SiriusXM to sell audio ads
YouTube have made a deal with SiriuxXM Media allowing them to sell YouTube’s “audio-first” ad inventory in the US. This is especially relevant for creators posting music, podcasts, and background-listening content who were missing out on ad revenue as users listened to their content with their screens off, making it difficult for YouTube to serve them ads. As YouTube adjusts to these habits, users will be fed more audio ads, but whether this extra revenue will trickle down to creators remains to be seen.
Cameo are capitalising on TikTok’s wealth of creators and fans by enabling creators in the US to offer personalised Cameo videos direct to their audience within the TikTok app. It provides TikTok creators with another engagement tool and a revenue stream that has the potential to be quite lucrative if leveraged effectively.
Threads will add Broadcast Channels-style feature
Instagram and Facebook Messenger’s ‘Broadcast Channels’ feature is coming to Threads. The read-only feature helps users to keep up with the latest news and events from their favourite creators without having to trawl through their entire feed – a useful way for creators to keep in touch with their audience and stay present in their mind.
X introduces rebuilt AI-powered ad platform
X has launched its rebuilt ad platform. Its new Ads Manager uses AI to make campaign creation simpler and more intuitive, make ads more precise and relevant, and giving advertisers more control with greater insights.
Subscribe now
New Platforms
Meta launches Instagram spinoff ‘Instants’ as a standalone app
Meta have rebranded their ‘Shots’ feature, previously on Instagram, as its own standalone app now called ‘Instants’. Like Snapchat, it allows users to easily take and send photos that disappear after being viewed. It is their latest attempt to usurp Snapchat, following efforts like ‘Poke’, ‘Slingshot’, and ‘Quick Updates’ that all followed Snapchat’s rejection of Meta’s attempted acquisition.
While it is not yet monetisable, creators can use the app in a similar way to Snapchat, providing a more intimate and unfiltered glimpse behind the scenes.
Former OnlyFans CEO’s new platform fills adult industry gap with ‘Vylit’
Looking to close the gap between seven-figure OnlyFans creators and upcomers, Vylit intends to focus on “body-positive expression” and risqué content without going full frontal. As a new platform in a crowded space, it has its work cut out, but if it genuinely enables creators to more accurately target their audience (using Vylit’s plethora of AI tools) and boost their revenue, it could be a strong competitor.
Vine is back! But no AI allowed.
Many of us want to return to the happier 2010s, before AI and the enshittification of technology, and former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey is making that happen by bringing back Vine in the form of ‘diVine’. It will contain almost 500,000 videos from the original app, and users can post new content, six seconds or shorter of course, as long as it’s made by a human. With its anti-AI stance and its nostalgic value, it could attract a whole new audience for creators.
Monetisation isn’t available yet but it may be coming soon in a creator-direct revenue model similar to Patreon rather than a platform ad-share model.
Artificial Intelligence
Musicians are finding AI-generated copies of their work being posted and monetised on Spotify and TikTok. They are fighting back by demanding that these platforms take action by removing infringing copies of their works and implement steps like ‘Verified’ check marks to differentiate human-made content from AI-generated content.
Three YouTubers are filing class actions to fight back against AI
Three large YouTubers have filed a cluster of class action lawsuits against Meta, Nvidia, ByteDance, and Snap, among others, training their AI models on the creators’ content without permission. Last month, they also filed lawsuits against Apple and Amazon. The creators recognise that these platforms may not have created the dataset themselves, but they have trained their AI models on datasets that were compiled from YouTube videos without permission from the content’s creators.
Believe/TuneCore block distribution of Generative AI tracks made on ‘pirate studios’
The French music distribution company Believe and its platform for self-publishing artists, TuneCore, are automatically blocking releases that are partly or fully AI-generated using studios they consider unlicensed – those that have trained their AI models on music they haven’t licensed. They have also signed a deal with two Gen-AI companies, ElevenLabs and Udio who have been licensed by some of the major record labels to train their models on music owned by the labels.
They are the first distributor to take this step and it’s an indication of how the AI issue can be tackled, pushing other distributors to take similar steps.
Tools and Opportunities
AI-Powered Design Platform, Picsart, Expands into Creator Monetization Category
AI-powered design platform, Picsart, have launched ‘Earn with Picsart’, an “open, pay-for-performance monetisation program” that aims to reward creative output and performance rather than the traditional follower count. The program is open to all creators, with no follower thresholds, and it offers transparent payments and metrics – a rarity in the creator economy.
Its focus on AI-generated art is bound to be controversial, but its revenue model is refreshingly different for an industry that traditionally prioritises quantity of followers over quality of output.
Billion Dollar Boy and FiveTwoNine have attracted Patreon as a sponsor for the second year of ‘The Creator Fund’. The fund is designed to select and support entrepreneurs in the creator economy, connecting them with industry giants at Cannes Lions 2026 and supporting them afterwards.
GRIN Opens the Door to Self-Serve Creator Marketing
GRIN, a marketplace connecting content creators and brands, is lowering the barrier to entry into influencer marketing by allowing brands to explore the platform on a 30-day free trial and continue on a month-to-month basis. This allows brands to test the platform and build campaigns with creators with minimal administrative friction.
Featured Article
Unilever’s 300,000 Creators Signals a Founder-Led Consolidation
This article provides an insight into the potential future of the content creation industry as corporations like Unilever have built a global network of approximately 300,000 creators in their shift toward social media-driven advertising. By doing this, companies are able to reduce their reliance on agencies and utilise the distribution infrastructure established by the creators beforehand, accessing their audience more directly than traditional advertising methods can.
What this means is that we will see more deals like Logan Paul and KSI made with Prime, where they weren’t just ambassadors but were co-owners of the company. Unilever has many, many subsidiaries – relative market minnows – that can be massively boosted by bringing select content creators on board, using their distribution to promote the company and its products, allowing the creator to become genuinely invested in the brand’s success rather than simply being paid to promote it.
Explainer of the Month
Creator Economy News: April 2026 Trends and What They Mean for Your Career
Media Bistro have published a helpful round up of changes in the creator economy in April. It’s worth a read for monitoring new platforms, how AI is reshaping the industry, which genres of content are trending, and how brands are utilising creators.
Disaster of the Month
Pinterest: How NOT to Handle AI
With the rise of AI Slop, platforms are being judged by how they handle it and protect against it. Pinterest have failed by that metric in three different ways, as identified by Plagiarism Today: A rise in AI Slop (particularly in adverts), attempting to moderate AI content…using inaccurate AI models, and training its AI models on ALL content uploaded to the site. It’s a masterclass in how to mishandle AI and lose your avid users simultaneously.
Subscribe now
Free Webinars
May 5 - So, You Made a Video. Now What? A Guide to paid media video promotion
Find out how to get the most out of your video content with paid media. Scott Diebel, Associate Director of Paid Media at Be Found Online, takes you along a video's journey - not from concept to creation, but from publishing to amplification (and then some).
May 6 - Inside SMA’s Sponsorship Pricing Model
A rare, one-hour crash course in sponsorship pricing. We’re revealing the exact model SMA developed to give properties the confidence to charge what they’re worth — and give brands the clarity to know they’re getting a fair deal.
May 7 - Social updates from April social media managers should know
During this webinar, you’ll discover: The biggest social media updates from Instagram, X, Facebook, TikTok and more, trending audio from Reels and TikTok and examples of how you can use them, and industry news you may have missed and what the top headlines mean for SMMs.
May 8 - The State of Social Content and Commerce in Canada
This session brings together diverse perspectives from brands, agencies and platforms to surface the challenges, opportunities, and blind spots that will shape the year ahead for influencer marketing in Canada. Whether you're optimising existing creator programs or building your social commerce strategy, you'll leave with actionable intelligence and practical takeaways you can implement immediately.
12 - 14 May - Game On: Sports Streaming
Experience a dynamic lineup of sessions packed with practical advice, inspiring thought leadership, actionable insights, and lively debate. Learn how leading organisations are using innovative approaches to tackle today's challenges for sports streamers, including fan engagement, monetisation, efficient content delivery, live streaming, and content protection.
13 May - The Creator Effect Vol. 4
Creators have moved from your feed to the center of culture and commerce — but as the category matures, the threats are real: audiences want to get offline, AI is reshaping how content gets discovered, and a sea of sameness is eroding attention. The game has changed. A creator's value is no longer about the size of their audience — it's the quality of their perspective.
Join us for The Creator Effect Vol. 4 as we unpack what's driving this shift and what it means for the next wave of creator influence.
May 20 - How to Win Attention in AI Search
You'll learn:
How AI decides which companies to cite and which to skip. What the top-ranked companies have in common.
Where the biggest visibility gaps are and what's causing them.
Steps you can take this quarter to improve your AI search visibility share.
May 27 - Navigating the AI Discovery Shift: Measurement, Gaps, and What Comes Next
This webinar brings together industry experts to explore where traditional discovery measurement models are falling short, what’s driving the confidence gap, and how enterprise teams are investing in new AIO solutions to connect AI-driven discovery to profitable business outcomes in 2026 and beyond.
Did we miss a story or event?
Want to tell us how awesome we are?
Click below and fulfil your dreams.
Contact UsDealing with content theft? Contact us today.
This newsletter is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice.
Written and produced by a human. All opinions are my own.