Good morning. Hot Ones celebrated its 300th episode yesterday, solidifying itself as one of the most-watched shows on YouTube with nearly 2 billion views. It’s also a staple in the celebrity promotional circuit—right alongside Amelia Dimoldenberg’s Chicken Shop Date.

As Rolling Stone staff writer Brittany Spanos put it, “Can’t believe two of the most critical elements of any press cycle now involve eating chicken.”

— Hannah Doyle & Nate Graber-Lipperman

Ironmouse Tops Streaming Charts

VTuber Ironmouse, a pink-haired music and pop culture streamer, topped her own subscriber record in a subathon this week to reach over 172,000 active subscriptions on Twitch.

FYI: One Ironmouse subscription costs from $5–$25/month, and the creator and Twitch split the revenue evenly. A portion of Ironmouse’s recent subathon proceeds will go to the Immune Deficiency Foundation.

The achievement makes Ironmouse both the most-subscribed-to female streamer on Twitch and the most-subscribed-to VTuber on the platform.

• From June 20–26, Ironmouse gained over 1 million hours of watchtime on Twitch.

• During the same period, the next closest female streamer was Karubi Akami with 481,000 hours of watchtime.

• Other top female streamers include Baghera Jones, Nihachu, Boze, and Lululuvely, according to trending data from Famous Birthdays.

Zoom out: Ironmouse’s peak of 172,093 subscribers puts her in fourth place for Twitch’s most-subscribed streamer of all time, behind Kai Cenat, Ludwig, and Ninja.

To note: Of the above widely popular streamers on Twitch, only two still stream regularly on the platform. Ludwig left Twitch for YouTube in 2021, citing better pay and flexibility, while Ninja started streaming on other platforms like Kick and YouTube more often after Twitch banned simulcasting earlier this month.

News Roundup: TikTok Under the Microscope

This week, TikTok found itself at the center of several stories regarding its potential ban, internal shakeups, and more. The highlights:

• TikTok to pay for five Montana users’ lawsuit. Montana banned TikTok last month, and a group of creators is suing the state over an alleged violation of the First Amendment. TikTok will foot the bill for the legal proceedings after originally declining to reveal their involvement. “We support our creators in fighting for their constitutional rights,” a TikTok spokeswoman told The New York Times.

• TikTok forms a “youth council” to help create safety tools. The group of teenage users will share feedback with the company to inform how TikTok handles issues like digital wellbeing and literacy, TikTok shared in a blog post. It appears to be the first platform to implement teenage users’ voices in its strategy so publicly.

• A confidential internal company memo labels journalists as “anti-TikTok.” A lawyer at TikTok claimed that the “negative media cycle” was part of a “disinformation campaign” against the company. The lawyer argued that TikTok should form a team to “drive external statements, policy positions, and media/regulatory responses…to promote trust and credibility for the TikTok brand,” Forbes reported.

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Shein’s Creator Controversy, Explained

Amid reports of forced labor abuses at its factories in China, fast-fashion giant Shein flew out several creators—including AuJené Butler, Marina Saavedra, and Destene Sudduth—to tour its facilities and speak with employees.

After claiming that working conditions appeared “normal” in videos following the trip, the creators faced prompt backlash from viewers who accused them of “pushing propaganda.”

One of the attendees rebuked her comments section: “I know who I am…to be a pioneer, you gotta take a lot of s**t sometimes,” beauty creator Dani Carbonari said in a now-deleted TikTok.

🔥 Press Worthy

• Alix Earle announces a scholarship in her name for the University of Miami.

• Snapchat+ reaches 4 million paid subscribers.

• The Black Forager collaborates with Rainn Wilson.

• Slow Upload is a weekly newsletter exploring creator-first companies: how they're built, underwritten, and financed—read insights from VidCon covering the current and future state of investing in the creator space here.*

• Rainbolt gets an official Geoguessr avatar.

• Hot Ones releases a special menu with GrubHub.

_{*This is sponsored advertising content.}

📚️ Thank You For Pressing Publish

The content we’re looking forward to reading, watching, and listening to this weekend.

• Read: Sean Evans has eaten roughly 3,000 chicken wings on the road to becoming one of the entertainment world’s most beloved interviewers. Variety sat down with the Hot Ones team to learn how the show became an original digital media success story.

• Watch: Dodford’s latest video tells the tumultuous tale of Drew Barrymore’s career in Hollywood—and how she persevered to become a pop culture icon.

• Listen: In April, former combat medic and NPR investigative journalist Tim Mak launched what he calls “the first Substack dedicated exclusively to war correspondence.” In a recent episode of The Press Box, Mak explained what it’s like running an independent newsletter publication from the ground in Ukraine.

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