Trump’s TikTok deadline is fake — and everyone knows it

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Trump’s TikTok deadline is fake — and everyone knows it

Trump’s “deadline” to ban TikTok is this Saturday. But spoiler: it’s not real.

He’s already hinted he might push it again, and legal experts say the whole thing reads more like a press release than actual policy.

“The 75-day deadline was always fake,” said law professor Alan Rozenshtein. “The law’s in effect, but they’re just not enforcing it yet.”

So we’re back in limbo. Trump says he wants TikTok to stay, and now there’s a bidding war playing out in public – Oracle, Andreessen Horowitz, and even a $47B pitch from some Wyoming guy claiming to be the “most Trumpian” buyer.

ByteDance is staying silent. TikTok’s future in the U.S.? Still very much a shrug.

Roblox wants to shove video ads into its games now

Roblox is rolling out “immersive” video ads – those watch-this-to-earn-a-reward promos you’ve seen in mobile games since forever.

They say it’ll boost “engagement.” But let’s be real: when has an ad ever made a game better?

Right now, Roblox makes bank from Robux transactions and billboard-style ads aimed at users 13+. It pulled in $3.6B last year, but now it wants more – and thinks players will sit through a promo to score a new hoodie or sword.

The gamble? Turning Roblox into a fancy mobile ad farm. Sure, other games run on ads – but those are low-budget phone apps, not multi-billion-dollar ecosystems trying to be the future of gaming.

Chase the revenue too hard, and the vibe might break.

No one knows what a podcast is anymore — and it’s messing with the money

Ask five people what counts as a podcast, and you’ll get five different answers.

A new Oxford Road x Edison report found that 52% of Americans say YouTube-only content counts as a podcast. That number jumps to 83% among video podcast viewers.

Advertisers hate this. They want clean formats, simple metrics, and to know whether they’re buying audio or video inventory. But with creators uploading to YouTube, Spotify, Apple, and Twitch, the lines are a mess – and so is the money.

“If you can mute it and it doesn’t make sense, it’s not a pod,” said one media exec.

It’s not just advertisers. Hosts are dealing with chaos too – more formats, more uploads, more backend headaches. And because some brands still discount YouTube views compared to podcast listens, creators are getting dinged on rates.

Still, the shift to video is inevitable.

• Influencer marketing pulled in $9.2B last year

• Podcasting brought in just $2.3B

The proposed fix?

• 🧠 If it works with your eyes closed, it’s a podcast.

• 📺 If the visuals shape the story, it’s video-first.

Creator upfronts are here — and they’re going big

📍New York is getting its own version of TV’s upfronts, but this time it’s all creators.

Spotter hosted the first-ever Spotter Showcase, featuring MrBeast, Colin & Samir, Dude Perfect, Kinigra Deon, and more. The goal? Convince advertisers to move big-budget spend to YouTube talent.

Spotter’s already well-known for giving creators upfront cash and building AI tools to optimize their content, but this is their full-on media network moment.

They’re not the only ones. LTK is hosting its own creator upfront on May 13.

Timing’s tricky, though. Ad budgets are tight, thanks to inflation, shaky markets, and Trump’s tariff chaos. These platforms will have to work hard to prove creators aren’t just a vibe – they’re ROI machines.

More updates

• Goldman Sachs says there are now 67M creators globally, up from 50M in 2022, and expects that to hit 107M by 2030.

• Runway launched Gen-4, a new AI video tool that builds more consistent scenes and characters, aiming to rival OpenAI’s Sora.

• Substack revamped its Media Tab into a scrollable video feed to court TikTok creators and partnered with FIRE to defend free speech for immigrant writers in the U.S.

• Roku partnered with Alan Chikin Chow to bring his hit YouTube series Alan’s Universe to The Roku Channel.

• ​Instagram is set to launch "Edits," a free video editing app, within the next couple of weeks, according to Instagram chief Adam Mosseri. This app aims to provide a comprehensive suite of creative tools for users. ​

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