April Fools Recap, YouTube Shorts Editor, TikTok Extension, and Mariah Carey Cameo

Good day, and welcome to April! Last week was a long one, so I'll keep it short this time, and just plug that you can support my tweets, posts, newsletter, and streams by subscribing for LESS than a Twitch sub! And with that, let's jump into the news!

Platform Updates

🟪 TWITCH

• Twitch updated the Terms of Service with new clarifying 'bubbles' and a clause about users' rights to use creator content if they have the Share function active. Worth reading.
• A new chat badge, Gone Bananas, was available April 1 - 4 as an April Fools reward.
• Dextero reporting says that viewers are still paying and subscribed to indefinitely suspended streamers. This goes against Twitch's guidelines, which say indefinite suspension subs are canceled before renewal.
• The Irvine Standard interviewed Partner Manager Lily Lewis.
• Mashable interviewed Head of Community Mary Kish about cozy games.

🟥 YOUTUBE

• YouTube is significantly improving the Shorts editor, including precision adjustments, edit timing, zooming, snapping, and rearranging clips. It's also introducing music-synced clips, new templates, and image stickers.
• A new test autoplays videos when you launch the app. The Tiktokification will continue until retention increases!
• YouTube highlighted the 10 ways you can monetize on the platform.
• "Gender Identity" was removed from YouTube's hate speech policy, but the platform claims it's just an edit to the copy, and discrimination is still against the rules.
• YouTube will offer six exclusive live streams from Coachella, AND they will be testing the new "Watch With" function, allowing some creators to co-stream it.

⬛ TIKTOK

• Amazon made a last-minute bid on TikTok. That said, their interests are evidently the retail impact rather than the social elements. AmazonTok Shop go brrrrrrrr.
• TikTok has added alt-text for image posts.
• China canceled the TikTok deal as a result of Trump's global tariffs. Trump has extended the non-enforcement of the ban for an additional 75 days.

🟦 TWITTER X

• Twitter will soon sell inactive usernames to Verified organizations for as little as $10,000.
• Parody accounts must now have their name say "Fake/Parody/Not" first. They also can't use the same profile picture as the person/company they parody. If only they had some kind of verification system...

⏹️ DISCORD

• Discord is exploring animated username paints with Nitro.

🔲 OTHERS

• Memecoin launchpad Pumpfun has reopened its livestreaming service after suspending it in November due to heinous streams.