Latest / Mini Scroll / MINI SCROLL: Swifties take over Bluesky, Chappell Roan calls out Billboard + Australia's under-16 social media ban

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MINI SCROLL: Swifties take over Bluesky, Chappell Roan calls out Billboard + Australia's under-16 social media ban · Mini Scroll

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  Hi everyone, welcome to Mini Scroll, the daily Internet
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  culture podcast bringing you the biggest stories from social
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  media, the creator economy and the digital space every Monday
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  through Thursday. I'm your host, Lauren Meisner,
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  the founder of the youth digital media brand Centennial World.
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  Welcome back to Mini Scroll, everyone.
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  Happy Tuesday. Before I get into it, Please
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  remember to rate, review and subscribe.
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  Please rate US on Spotify with just a star rating.
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  We are trying to get our ratings up.
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  Subscribe to us on YouTube and leave us a review if you feel so
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  inclined. All right, let's just get right
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  into the stories for today. So the first story that I have
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  for you guys is that Swifties are moving on Mass to Blue Sky.
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  So according to Internet culture reporter Adam Sissel, Swifty's
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  are apparently migrating on mass off of X and moving to blue Sky.
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  So Blue sky, for anyone that's unfamiliar, it was slated as a
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  strong Twitter competitor early on after Elon Musk took over,
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  but it never really found the same cultural relevance or
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  strongholds. I think part of that was the
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  launch strategy. They did a good job in the sense
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  that they kept it small for a bit so they could kind of like
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  work out I think the different bugs and tweak the platform
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  before they opened it to the public.
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  However, they kind of announced the introduction of Blue Sky
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  when Elon Musk took Twitter over and they weren't quite ready
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  yet. You could only join if you had a
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  specific code, if you were like invited.
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  And I think the excitement around Blue Sky died down really
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  quickly. However, this might change
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  things. So this started to happen post
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  US election and part of how it worked was on Blue Sky you can
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  have your own unique domain name at the end of your handle.
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  So a Swifty set it up where fans could add themselves to the
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  Swifty domain to show that they are a stand.
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  And so far nearly 8000 people have added their username to
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  Swifties dot social. So it would be like Lauren
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  Meissner dot swifties dot social instead of just like at Lauren
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  Meissner on Twitter or whatever. So as Ryan Prodrick writes for
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  Garbage Day Quote, even cooler Swifties are using a Blue Sky
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  labeler to tag one another. This is the kind of user
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  behavior I've been waiting to see.
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  It's totally unique to the platform and opens up a lot of
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  different use cases going forward.
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  And apparently since all of this started, the activity on Blue
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  Sky is going way up. So I feel like maybe this is the
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  Blue Sky moment. This is like the Twitter
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  replacement moment that we have been waiting for.
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  So watch this space and get on Blue Sky because I don't think
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  it's invite only anymore. OK, the next story that I have
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  for you guys is that Chapel Roan has called out Billboard for
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  reporting on her split with her management team.
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  So earlier this week it was reported that Chapel Roan had
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  parted with her management team, whom she's been with since 2018.
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  Now this was a topic of discussion.
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  People have been saying that it seems like her management team
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  isn't necessarily serving her anymore or like protecting her
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  in the ways that she needed to be as she enters this new phase
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  of her career, which is like global superstar, right?
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  If you think about her career from 2018 to now, it is so
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  different. And that difference happened
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  within what, maybe like six months.
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  So this was big news, right? This was big news given the
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  context. And Billboard reported on it and
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  they posted this story to their Instagram.
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  So the caption that they posted read Chapel.
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  Rhone has split from her management team, sources
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  confirmed to Billboard. The news comes after the
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  breakout star scored her first slate of Grammy nominations,
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  including in all of the BIG4 categories.
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  Rhone's nods were notably left off.
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  A congratulatory post shared from the Instagram account
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  account for state-of-the-art, the company Roan was previously
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  signed to with Nick Bobteski as her manager.
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  So OK, that happened. And then shortly after that was
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  posted and that made news. Chapel saw this and she
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  commented y'all suck for this on the Billboard Instagram.
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  And that has, of course, caused a lot of discussion about like
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  her response to this. I think, OK, first, I think it
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  makes sense that she has split with her management now.
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  I think the same team that helps you grow and build your brand
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  to, you know, what it has become for her.
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  I don't think that's necessarily going to be the same team that
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  is able to help you navigate global superstardom.
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  Now. It reminds me of like the
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  founder journey, you know, like some founders are like startup
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  founders and some founders are like middle of the road or like
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  kind of later stage founders where they can run the business,
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  like the business administration, they can run
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  that really well, you know, as the CEO or whatever, once the
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  business is scaled. But the person that scales the
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  business isn't always going to be the right person to run the
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  business once it is at a certain level.
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  And I think that's probably what happened here.
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  I think Chapel, I have like no idea my opinion on why Chapel
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  commented this. I'm thinking it probably has
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  something to do with the Grammy side of it all.
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  I think she's kind of saying like, stop trying to infer bad
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  blood between us. Stop trying to like put this
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  wedge between myself and my former management team.
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  Obviously she was with them for six years.
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  That's a long time. They probably, I'm assuming, had
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  a decent relationship. You know, so I think she was
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  probably pissed about how this was spun.
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  I don't think she was necessarily pissed that this was
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  reported on because in billboards defense, you know,
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  they are obviously one of the biggest music news outlets in
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  the world and a global superstar, somebody as famous
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  and important and influential as Chapel Roan to music right now.
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  Like her changing management teams like that actually would
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  make news no matter who it was. So I don't necessarily think she
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  was mad that they reported on it because it is normal to report
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  on that. I guess it's like if an athlete
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  changes teams or they get a new coach or I don't know, like an
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  an actor moves to a new management like we see all the
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  time. There's news stories all the
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  time when actors or public figures move to like get signed
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  with UTA or like, you know, big agencies like that is normal to
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  be reporting on. It's like industry news, right?
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  It's industry news. So I don't think she's mad about
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  that. I think she's probably mad about
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  the inference of like the drama, possibly the Grammy side of it.
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  All right. And the last story that I have
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  for you guys, it's a little more Australian news.
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  Also, I did want to say sorry. So when I reported on the Bonnie
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  Blues story yesterday, there was a big important piece that I
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  missed. And this is like my, this is
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  like my cross to bear because I do a daily podcast.
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  I can course correct like the next day, like I'll see feedback
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  and I'll be like, Oh my, or I'll be editing.
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  This happens to me all the time and editing.
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  I'm like, Oh my God, I missed that point.
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  I didn't say, you know what I wanted to say where I didn't
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  articulate it well. And so sometimes the next day
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  I'll come on here and I'll like correct myself.
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  And I'm actually trying to do that less because then it's just
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  like me constantly like trying to reiterate what I wanted to
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  say from the day previously, which just like makes no sense.
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  But I did want to say with the Bonnie Blue story, the piece
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  that I did miss talking about was in relation to the fact that
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  like she is marketing herself as somebody who is like, you know,
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  creating content with barely legal men.
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  And there is that hypocrisy because women have been part of
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  this kind of like barely legal category in sexual content for
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  decades, right? So there is like this hypocrisy,
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  this like double standard there where we have this like outrage
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  when she's trying to appeal to these young men who are barely
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  really legal, but like the content for barely legal women
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  in porn and you know, different types of content like that has
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  been around forever. So that is a piece that I
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  missed. Absolutely.
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  OK. But yes, So some more Australian
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  news. So Australia is to ban social
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  media for kids under 16. Last week, Australia's federal
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  government announced that in under 16, social media ban
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  policy was underway. So according to Business
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  Insider, quote, Albanese, who if you guys don't know is our Prime
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  Minister here in Australia, told reporters that the proposed law
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  would put the onus on social media companies to show that
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  they are taking reasonable steps to keep children off of their
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  apps and not on parents. There will be no penalties for
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  users. Albanese said the ban wouldn't
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  start for at least a year. So this would give social media
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  platforms 12 months to figure out how to implement stronger
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  age gating before the law is enforced.
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  OK, so something to note here which I think is sometimes
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  missed in the reporting on this specific ban is how Australian
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  media and their relations with Meta, specifically Meta, like
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  social media but specifically Meta, have played somewhat of a
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  role here. Basically, in February of this
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  year, Meta announced it would not be renewing its news deals
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  with Australian publishers under the News Media Bargaining Code.
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  So for anyone that does not know what that is, three years ago
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  Meta signed deals with Australian news outlets
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  following the introduction of the News Media Bargaining Code.
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  This code required tech giants like Meta to pay for displaying
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  news on their platforms. So basically what that means was
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  these tech giants like Meta were paying Australian publishers.
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  Obviously not everyone. We have never seen a dime, you
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  know, we're too small for that. But a lot of the really big
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  publishers were getting money from the social media platforms
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  as part of this code. So according to the government,
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  these deals provided Australian publishers with up to $200
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  million. Obviously Meta saying that they
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  won't renew. This was a huge blow to these
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  publishers who were under this code and getting money from
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  Meta. Now there are like a lot of
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  other like ramifications to Australian media and the whole
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  industry because of this, but that is for another day.
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  How this impacted the social media bans.
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  So understandably, a lot of publishers started going after
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  Meta. And in May, News Corp, which is
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  one of our biggest media companies here, launched a
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  campaign called Let Kids be kids, quote, calling on the
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  federal government to raise the age limit to access social media
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  216 to stop the scourge. Sorry, I don't know how to say
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  that word. Scourge of social media and give
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  our kids back three years of childhood.
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  So that's not to say that this campaign by News Corp led to the
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  ban, but it definitely played a role in how Australians
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  perceived the idea. So like I said last week, last
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  Thursday it was announced that this policy would be put in
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  place. So the reception to this has
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  been very mixed. Some people think it's a great
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  initiative, others think it's basically like a Band-Aid
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  solution to a much bigger problem.
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  On the plus side, I guess the the effects of social media on
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  teenage brains, mental health, probably social development,
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  probably a lot of things I'm sure is not great.
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  But of course, on the flip side, like I always say, Internet
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  culture and culture are one in the same, especially for younger
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  generations. Like you cannot separate what is
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  happening in their online world or in our online world even.
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  Like, I'm obviously not Gen. Z, although so many of you guys
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  were so nice yesterday saying that it looks so young.
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  But yeah, like, you can't separate what happens online
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  with what happens in real life because they are just so
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  intertwined at this point for most of us.
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  Millie Bannister, founder of youth mental health charity All
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  Kind in Australia, says this is, quote, not a sweeping win for
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  young people. This is a Peace of Mind Band-Aid
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  for parents. We cannot replicate the Gen.
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  X childhood. We live with the Internet and we
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  grow up online. Therefore we need education, not
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  prohibition. I think it's a band solution in
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  the sense that, yeah, like we all need, like there needs to
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  be, I don't know, maybe this is starting to be implemented, but
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  there absolutely needs to be like social media literacy
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  courses taught in schools, but also taught to parents and
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  government officials, policy makers, so they can understand
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  what they're even making policies about.
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  I don't need to explain all of the examples that we have now of
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  the people who make the laws and make the policies, just having
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  no idea what they're talking about when they're speaking with
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  these tech giants. I mean, I think we none of us
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  will ever forget. Do you commit to banning Fensta?
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  It's like the best example. So yeah, I think of course it
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  does come down to educating young people, but it also comes
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  down to the people who are making these policies like they
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  need to understand like what to actually specifically push back
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  on the platforms for. And that feels like too big of,
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  I guess, a project and ask. And therefore, this is like a
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  sweeping Band-Aid. And I also think because this
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  hasn't happened from the start, kids have been living online on
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  social media. They're not going to give that
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  up. They're just going to find ways
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  to work around this, which I think is going to lead to like
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  greater risk for the children, the parents.
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  But I don't have children. So I'm actually really
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  interested to hear from you guys, especially if you do have
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  kids, like what you think of this because I think in theory,
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  yeah. Do I think kids under 16 should
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  be on social media? Not necessarily.
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  But I also think it's unrealistic to expect that they
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  won't be at this point. And I think creating this ban is
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  especially since, like I said, they've all been like, they've
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  all had social media. They're not just going to give
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  it up. I think it is not going to have
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  the desired effect. Anyways guys, that's it for mini
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  scroll today. Thank you so much for listening.
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  Please remember to rate review and subscribe.
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  It helps me so much. It helps us grow.
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  It helps us keep going. I love you guys and I will talk
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  to you tomorrow. Bye.