Keep scrolling for the man who exploited TikTok’s true crime obsession for app downloads. (Allegedly).
According to The New York Post, MrBeast— real name Jimmy Donaldson— is building his own version of the (highly questionable) company town.
The YouTuber, who recently surpassed 150 million subscribers, has reportedly purchased five homes in Greenville, North Carolina, where he grew up.
He apparently plans to purchase all houses on the cul-de-sac but has yet to convince all neighbours to sell to him.
According to the real estate agent who sold MrBeast his home last year, the creator plans to move his family and employees into these houses.
While his plan may seem philanthropic at face value, it is currently unclear whether MrBeast plans to hand over the property titles of these houses, or if his family and employees will live in these homes rent-free.
This is an important distinction, as company towns have historically led to increased worker exploitation
MrBeast’s brand of philanthropy-for-content (AKA philanthropy for profit) has been criticised in recent years as the 25-year-old continues to gain power as YouTube’s most-followed creator.
Read the full story via The New York Post.
TikTok “detective” Ken Waks faces fallout after claiming to crack a serial killer case
TikToker Ken Waks went viral for “investigating” the alleged murders of several men around the United States. Now, his followers are convinced he faked the whole thing.
Ken reached over 1 million followers in the past two months. He launched on the platform as a pop culture commentator, but pivoted to true crime by investigating his own theory there was a serial killer (or possibly a group of killers) targeting men walking at night and dumping them in rivers across America.
His series garnered support from followers helping him track down evidence and put the pieces together.
However, viewers started to get suspicious last week after Ken posted videos claiming that a private investigator had shown up to his house and recruited him into a team looking into the “Smiley Face Killers.”
Creator Meredith Lynch was amongst the first to address the holes in Ken’s story.
Meredith noted that Ken had mentioned Foresyte, a social planning app where he worked as chief marketing officer, in videos about his sleuthing.
She brought a now-deleted post from the CEO of Foresyte to TikTok, in which he praised Ken’s organic integration of Foresyte into his recent viral content.
This led many to question if Ken’s “investigation” into the deaths of these men across America was a pre-planned marketing campaign to help Foresyte get downloads and raise funding.
Following the backlash, a spokesperson for Foresyte said that the company had parted ways amicably with Ken.
Ken has since taken to TikTok to announce he will stop posting about his “investigation,” though he maintains it was legitimate.
Read the full story via NBC News.
Maureen Kelly, founder and CEO of Tarte Cosmetics, has taken to TikTok to address the controversy surrounding two recent brand trips.
Last week, the beauty brand came under fire when creators of colour spoke out against their treatment on recent brand trips.
Influencer Bria Jones accused Tarte of being misleading in their communications leading up to a brand trip in Miami to watch Formula 1.
She claimed that Tarte invited her on the influencer trip and told her that she would be sitting in the front row on race day, Sunday, May 7th. Bria said that she later noticed her plane ticket home had been booked by Tarte for Saturday, May 6th— one day before the actual race. She said she reached out to other influencers invited on the trip to ask what day they were flying home and confirmed they were all booked on flights for Monday, May 8th.
“I’m being treated like a second-tier person or like I’m being ranked. It just feels like a sorority situation and I’m not doing that shit. I don’t care if it means that I no longer have a relationship with the Tarte team,” Bria said in her video. “I don’t agree with how they’re doing this.”
Around the same time that Bria posted her video, creator Shawtysin spoke out about unequal treatment on a Tarte brand trip to the Turks and Caicos.
Two weeks ago, Tarte hosted an influencer trip in the Turks and Caicos called “Tarte Island” (a play on the reality show Love Island). The brand split the trip into two “seasons”, where one group of influencers attended the first half of the week and another group of influencers attended the second half.
Though she prefaced her video by saying she is grateful for the opportunity and understands it sounds like a first-world problem, Shawtysin’s assigned room was significantly smaller than those of the other influencers on the trip.
“I’m a brown minority creator […] and a lot of the time, I get the short end of the stick. Whether it’s getting paid less for the same advertisement or not getting paid at all. I 100% agree that [my] room [was] more than enough. I don’t even have a bedroom myself that is the size of the room I got. However, I do believe I am worth what I am worth,” she said. “It was never about the size of the room. It was just about getting treated equally to my counterparts.”
In a follow-up video, Shawtysin said she only found out about the incoming “season two” cohort while on the trip. However, she later realised that some influencers were asked to stay for the second half of the week, while others, including Shawtysin, were sent home.
With two creators of colour having accused Tarte of unfair treatment in relation to influencer trips in the past week, the brand is facing intense backlash from the TikTok beauty community. This led Maureen to address the accusations in a video.
In a get-ready-with-me style video, Maureen said her priority when planning these brand trips is to be able to host as many influencers as possible.
She clarified that each cohort of influencers invited on the F1 Miami trip would spend one day at the race track, attend one dinner event, and party for one night at a club. Each group was invited for the same number of days and included a mix of “big creators and up-and-coming creators and nothing was decided based on the follower count,” she said.
Maureen explained that some influencers expressed wanting to attend the Sunday race, so the Tarte team “quickly adjusted” and acquired extra tickets so that every creator can attend “whichever day that they want.”
On May 9th, Maureen took to the platform once again to apologise for her initial TikTok video. Many users found Maureen’s TikTok insufficient, as it centred her as the victim rather than addressing what the creators were bringing to light.
“I wanted to address a mistake that I made recently. I take full responsibility for a TikTok video that I posted responding to claims by a respected and valued Tarte creator. It was about a recent Tarte event that was meant to be informative and conversational from me, but it definitely missed the mark” she said about her get-ready-with-me style TikTok. “My choosing a light-hearted approach to a topic that deserved a serious response was definitely a wrong approach.”
The Tarte founder went on to say that she should have used her TikTok as a time to address the “unequal treatment of Black creators within beauty creator programs” before admitting that the brand has fallen short “in matters of diversity, inclusion, and equity in the past.”
Read the full story via Centennial World.
TikTok users react to HBO Max’s Bama Rush trailer
The release of HBO Max’s long-awaited Bama Rush documentary trailer is here. But not everyone’s excited about lifting the veil on one of America’s longest-running rituals.
The almost three-minute-long trailer begins with clips of students preparing for the sorority recruitment process, better known as Rush. As the trailer progresses, it delves into the nitty-gritty of Greek Life at the University of Alabama, leaving no stone unturned.
In addition to exploring the excitement of joining a sorority and the Rush process, the trailer explores the unsettling reality of Greek Life, particularly how racism and misogyny impact the student experience.
While shedding light on the dark underbelly of sorority recruitment, students appeared apprehensive about discussing “The Machine” in the teaser – a “not-so-secret” society of fraternities and sororities that act as a lobby group for on-campus politics.
TikTok users like @sethtaylornelson have come forward to explain the group to viewers unfamiliar with Alabama’s political culture.
“I am a graduate of the University of Alabama, I was not in a fraternity, but it is not an exaggeration to say that all the corruption that’s infused into Alabama state politics can be traced back to the Machine,” he begins. “[The Machine] is controlled by historically white fraternities and sororities… they influence how Greek members vote in student elections using intimidation tactics to force them to vote for Machine candidates.”
In another TikTok video, Seth explained how even though the existence of the Machine is “pretty well documented” in Alabama, students and members “just don’t talk about it” – offering insight into why the Bama girls immediately shut down the topic in the trailer.
Many sorority girls are now claiming that HBO Max’s take on Bama’s Panhellenic organisations is inaccurate and hyperbolic.
Shelby Rose, a creator who documented the Rush process on TikTok last year, reflected on her experience starring in the documentary. Taking to the platform to share her story, Shelby explained how the trailer shocked her and how she feels “blindsided” by the version of Greek Life portrayed in the documentary.
Bama Pi Phi Alumna Madison Westbrooke also took to the platform to share her reaction to the trailer, noting that the documentary sensationalises the recruitment process.
While it is safe to assume that the documentary’s trailer is designed to be gripping, some viewers have pointed out that the reaction of sorority girls in the teaser is indicative of the serious issues within Bama’s Panhellenic culture.
“But what are y’all hiding that y’all reacting this bad to a trailer? The documentary ain’t even out yet; at least save all of that smoke for when the documentary gets dropped,” said @llaureynsimon in a video.
Read the full story via Centennial World.
Tarte Cosmetics brand trip drama (Pt. 2) x TikTok’s F1 gatekeepers: a full breakdown
This week's infinite scroll podcast dives into the latest Tarte Cosmetics brand trip dramas (again) before exploring TikTok's reaction to influencers like Alix Earle and Xandra Pohl attending the F1 Miami Grand Prix this weekend. We look at how these controversies are related and consider how and why fans have reacted differently to each of these dramas.
Listen to the full episode on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube.