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Being funny pays. Just look to TikToker DeMarcus Shawn as confirmation. Beginnings Growing up on the outskirts of Chicago, IL, he recalls always being funny, often creating skits or playfully imitating his family members. His humor translated well to the camera, and he would toss around various skit ideas with his two older brothers. With the rise of social media, leaning into it was natural for Shawn. Ultimately, he landed on TikTok as his breeding ground for content though initially his Instagram was geared towards his creative interests. @artbydemarcusshawn #fyp ♬ original sound – DemarcusShawn “I grew up doing music and learning how to sing and photography. I’m a guy that’s heavy on drawing and painting,” he told AFROTECH™. “ Those are my hobbies that I like to do. Outside of that, when I came into TikTok, it was more of what I’ve been doing with my siblings, but on a larger front.” Full-Time Content Creation Shawn was working on building his online presence while also employed...
The Israeli government reportedly commissioned a campaign in 2023 that included social media accounts targeting Black U.S. lawmakers. The New York Times reported that, in October 2023, Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs paid $2 million to Stoic, a Tel Aviv, Israel-based political marketing firm, to push pro-Israel content on social media at a time when many Americans were concerned for Palestinian civilians during the war in Gaza. The outlet details that Stoic created fake accounts in support of Israel across X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, and Instagram that focused on over a dozen majority Black and Democrat U.S. lawmakers, including Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York and U.S. Senator Raphael Warnock of Georgia. ChatGPT was mainly used to create the fake accounts’ posts, which asked for the politicians to fund Israel’s military, per the outlet. In addition to fake social media accounts, Stoic reportedly created fake websites and articles. In May 2024, NBC News reported...
Not everyone is born to be a full-time content creator , but these days it’s rare to meet someone who isn’t a user on at least one social platform. Twitter’s transition into X caused it to lose millions of users and the fate of TikTok in America is still up in the air, yet still, people around the world rely on apps like Instagram, Facebook and YouTube to get their news, connect with loved ones and express their own feelings. The positives are great – but what about the negative aspects of social media , such as doomscrolling? We have access to more information than ever before at the tips of our fingers, and all day, notifications bring us updates that can send your nervous system on an unpleasant rollercoaster ride. If we’re not careful, we can become addicted to this cycle which is both mentally and physically damaging. Keep reading to better understand doomscrolling, and what you can do to combat the digital disease plaguing us. What Is Doomscrolling? Before you try to break a...
Fanbase is on a mission to get creators paid, and the company’s latest news is proof. According to information shared with AFROTECH™, the social media platform has officially reached its $10 million equity crowdfunding goal. It’s a historic feat as Fanbase Founder Isaac Hayes III is now reportedly the first Black man in history to raise this amount of money in a seed funding round on StartEngine in a Regulation Crowdfunding campaign. “We have a plan, and we’re going to be able to scale and build the business in real-time without having to stop and start and stop and start,” Hayes told Will Lucas on “Black Tech Green Money” podcast. “This is a scale-up opportunity because there are so many things that people want out of Fanbase, and I myself do not like to not be able to deliver on what I want to give to the community.” He added, “This raise is definitely putting us in a position to not only catch up to the current apps that are out there but surpass them because of my understanding...
TikTok and Universal Music Group (UMG) have agreed on new licensing conditions to bring the group’s tunes back to the social media platform. According to the TikTok newsroom, the joint agreement between the two entities “marks a new era of strategic collaboration.” “By harnessing TikTok’s best-in-class technology, marketing, and promotional capabilities, UMG and TikTok will deliver improved remuneration for UMG’s songwriters and artists, new promotional and engagement opportunities for their recordings and songs, and industry-leading protections with respect to generative AI,” read the report. What’s more, fans will see a return of UMG’s recorded music and publishing catalogs on TikTok, thus allowing users to go back to creating content with sounds from some of the culture’s biggest musicians. “Music is an integral part of the TikTok ecosystem and we are pleased to have found a path forward with Universal Music Group,” TikTok CEO Shou Chew said. “We are committed to working together...
Rejection is simply redirection, and this was the case for TikTok creator MiriTheSiren. The Chick-fil-A employee is known for her countless reviews of the restaurant’s food, which have helped her garner thousands of loyal followers since January 2024. Her most recent video filming the fast food chain’s Cherry Berry drink gained 323,400 likes and 3.4 million views since sharing it on April 8, 2024. In total, she has gained 3.7 million likes for her various Chick-fil-A food combinations using her employee meal. “Since January, every day, I went to work at Chick-fil-A. I have been reviewing my employee meal since I started in January. I have garnered tens of millions of views, some of my individual videos, getting up to 3.4 million in just a few days,” MiriTheSiren expressed in a video. “And it’s been a beautiful experience. It’s been so great. I’ve inspired people to try new things at Chick-fil-A. I’ve been able to connect more with my community and the people that I serve because...
A TikTok rapper will be going against Sony Music Entertainment in court. According to Billboard, 20-year-old rapper Dantreal Clark-Rainbolt, more commonly known as Trefuego, had a viral hit on TikTok thanks to his release of “90mh.” The songs was featured in at least 155,000 videos on the platform. Additionally, it has been streamed a minimum of 100 million times on Spotify. The outlet also reported he has garnered significant earnings from the song’s popularity, with estimates reaching almost $700,000. However, it appears the rapper won’t be able to roll in the dough for much longer. He is now in troubled water for utilizing a copyright sample from Toshifumi Hinata’s 1986 song “Reflections,” according to Rolling Stone. “Trefuego brazenly sought to ride the coattails of Hinata’s creativity and popularity without regard to the United States copyright laws or the rights of plaintiffs,” Sony’s attorneys wrote per Billboard. “He used and copied plaintiffs’ work without so much as...
Pay equity is a constant fight for Black creators, and this was a daunting reality for TikTok creator Keandre Dre Hopkins. In February 2024, Hopkins, otherwise known as Dre in Dallas, took to the platform — which now shows he has 1.1 million followers as of this writing — to highlight Crumbl Cookie’s latest lineup, which included a purple sandwich cookie in partnership with pop star Olivia Rodrigo. His comedic input when critiquing the cookie turned into a viral sound bite: “Olivia Rodriguez, that lil Mexican girl that be crying. Zero out of 10.” The TikTok video has garnered 19.7 million views and 2.4 million likes so far. Furthermore, the sound was later used by Rodrigo in good humor on March 6, 2024, via TikTok and racked in 50.1 million views and 6.8 million likes as of April 5, 2024. @dreindallas @Crumbl Cookies ♬ original sound – Dre To no surprise, it appears Crumbl Cookie took wind of the viral video and reached out to Hopkins. In a TikTok video, he claims they were looking...
In a significant shift, the social media platform Twitter has officially rebranded. Twitter is now “X” as the company seeks to encompass a broader range of services and better reflect its evolving identity. Since Elon Musk’s takeover of the platform in 2022, the social media app has seen significant changes as it appears to re-engage with users who have since moved on to Tiktok. “Twitter was acquired by X Corp both to ensure freedom of speech and as an accelerant for X, the everything app,” said Musk in a “tweet.” He adds, “The Twitter name made sense when it was just 140 character messages going back and forth – like birds tweeting – but now you can post almost anything, including several hours of video. In the months to come, we will add comprehensive communications and the ability to conduct your entire financial world.” Much like the super app WeChat , Musk’s rebranding of Twitter to X aims to do everything a consumer can think of. From listening to podcasts, shopping online,...
The aftermath of Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter is continuing to change the platform as we know it. As previously shared by AfroTech, the Tesla CEO’s revamp has included a mass termination of employees, getting rid of employee resource groups (ERGs), charging for the verification process, and more.
“Capitalists are gonna capitalize.” Following social media backlash, which included the aforementioned comment, Walmart has removed a red velvet and cheesecake ice cream from its shelves that was meant to celebrate the upcoming Juneteenth holiday. I better not see yall buying this. Capitalists are gonna capitalize, but this is ridiculous. pic.twitter.com/ngBPZDzWKk — CHUCK JIGSAW CREEKMUR (@chuckcreekmur) May 22, 2022
Well known for his viral TikTok videos surrounding the Millennial and Generation Z experience in the corporate world, DeAndre Brown has been named Adweek’s Career Creator of the Year. “I am so blessed to be in this position,” Brown told AfroTech exclusively. “When I started creating the videos, I didn’t realize that I would reach so many people and they would relate to the content that I put out. It just really means a lot to me that I am able to connect to such an audience and also to give back and build such a strong community in such a short period of time.”
The saga between Twitter and Elon Musk continues. The founder and CEO of Tesla , recently purchased a 9.2% stake in the popular social media site, Twitter. After declining the opportunity to be a part of Twitter’s board , Musk made an unprecedented and unsolicited appeal to buy the social media company for $54.20 a share. This equates to an estimated $43 billion buy-out proposal. In a letter disclosed in an SEC filing for the sales offer, Musk wrote a letter to Twitter Chairman, Bret Taylor, describing the platform’s need to be redeveloped and transformed. “However, since making my investment I now realize the company will neither thrive nor serve this societal imperative in its current form. Twitter needs to be transformed as a private company. As a result, I am offering to buy 100% of Twitter for $54.20 per share in cash, a 54% premium over the day before I began investing in Twitter and a 38% premium over the day before my investment was publicly announced. My offer is my best...