TikTok is launching “Shared Collections,” a new way for users to share and organize TikTok content in one place with friends or family. The company also teased the upcoming launch of “Shared Feeds,” which will let users watch TikTok content together through a shared interest-based feed.
TikTok rolled out individual Collections earlier this year to let users save content in custom folders. With Shared Collections, users can now do things like create a space to share cookie-swap plans and holiday-dinner ideas with their family. Or, they can create Shared Collections to organize decor inspo or secret Santa ideas.
“Whether it’s content from their favorite creators, inspiration for a home design project, or a new skill they’re learning together, Shared Collection makes it easy for people to stay organized as they discover and save on TikTok,” the company explained in a blog post.
You can only create a Shared Collection with someone if you’re both following each other. Collections can stay just between friends and family, or they can be made public.
Shared Collections are available globally to accounts over age 16.
As for Shared Feeds, which are launching in the coming months, TikTok sees them as a way for users to discover content together. Users can generate Shared Feeds in one-on-one direct messages.
Shared Feeds will surface new content tailored to both users’ tastes, such as sports, winter activities, and their favorite creators. The feeds are generated based on users’ TikTok activity, such as what they like, watch, and comment on.
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It’s worth noting that the feeds aren’t continuous, as users will find a selection of 15 videos in their Shared Feed each day.
The feature is similar to Instagram Reels’ Blend feature that lets you create a custom, personalized reels feed for you and your friends.
Users will be able to create a Shared Feed by sending an invite to another user. Once the invitation is accepted, they can create a feed and chat about it in DMs. After both people have watched all the videos, they can view metrics, including which videos they both liked, in their “Shared Likes” history.
TikTok also announced that it’s launching greeting cards that users can send each other. Users will be able to select a greeting card inside their chats, write a message, and send it. The receiver will get a festive animation alongside the message.
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Adobe is partnering with YouTube to launch a dedicated content creation space in Premiere for iOS for YouTube Shorts creators, the company announced on Monday. The new space gives creators access to exclusive templates, transitions, and effects, along with the ability to instantly publish Shorts to their YouTube channels directly from their phones.
The company says the space is designed to give creators everything they need to produce viral videos, grow their audience, and tap into trends, whether it’s creating day-in-the-life vlogs, travel videos, or behind-the-scenes clips.
By partnering with Adobe, YouTube is giving creators on its platform an exclusive space to create content, encouraging them to use its partners’ space instead of competitors’ tools, like Meta’s Edits or CapCut, which is owned by TikTok parent ByteDance.
“Although content edited in Premiere mobile can be shared to other social platforms, what’s unique about this partnership is that creators getting inspiration from their YouTube Shorts feed, can launch a template that caught their eye, directly into Premiere mobile and start customizing it for their own channel,” said Meagan Keane, Director, Product Marketing, Digital Video and Audio at Adobe, in an email to TechCrunch. “This content creation space within the Premiere mobile app is designed and optimized for YouTube Shorts.”
The Create for YouTube Shorts content creation space in Premiere mobile features Shorts templates from top creators with built-in text, effects, and transition presets. Creators can add their own media and customize the templates to their style. They also have the option to create and submit their own original templates.
To get started, creators need a free Premiere mobile login to access the space and a YouTube profile to publish directly to their Shorts feed. Creators can download Adobe Premiere from the App Store and tap the “Create for YouTube” option to access the creation space.
From there, they can upload clips from their iPhone camera roll, cloud storage, or Adobe Creative Cloud. They can then cut and trim clips, layer in video and audio tracks, adjust color and brightness, and add text overlays and captions.
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After following export prompts, creators can upload the finished product to YouTube.
“New tools and capabilities in the app, like templates, effects, transitions, and this new content creation space for YouTube Short creation, will be powerful for all creators, from longtime creators to those just getting started,” Keane said. “It brings creators polished video editing with studio-quality audio, AI sound effects, precision multi-track editing, Firefly AI content generation, and more to make producing and sharing their content easier and faster. This ultimately helps us further our goal of empowering creativity for all. Every day, we’re focused on doing our part to make this the best time ever to be a creator.”
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X’s Head of Product Nikita Bier fired back at the European Commission this weekend after the EC fined the social media company €120 million (around $140 million).
In its first fine under the European Union’s Digital Services Act, the commission called X’s blue checkmark system “deceptive” and said the paid verification system makes users vulnerable to impersonation and scams. The commission also said X’s advertising repository failed to meet the DSA’s requirements for transparency and accessibility.
The commission said that X must respond within 60 days to its concerns about blue checkmarks, and within 90 days to the ad transparency violations, or it could face additional penalties.
After the fine was announced, X owner Elon Musk described it as “bullshit” and also posted, “How long before the EU is gone? AbolishTheEU”.
Now it seems X has penalized the commission’s account on the platform — not, the company says, because of the fine, but rather the commission’s use of X’s advertising system.
Quoting the commission’s post announcing the fine, X’s Bier accused the EC of logging into a “dormant ad account to take advantage of an exploit in our Ad Composer — to post a link that deceives users into thinking it’s a video and to artificially increase its reach.”
“As you may be aware, X believes everyone should have an equal voice on our platform,” Bier wrote. “However, it seems you believe that the rules should not apply to your account.”
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As a result, he said the commission’s ad account had been “terminated.” Bier subsequently said the exploit “has never been abused like this” and has since been patched.
TechCrunch has reached out to a European Commission spokesperson for comment.
While the commission may have lost the ability to buy ads on X, its post announcing the fine remains up, and its account still has a grey checkmark indicating that it belongs to a government organization.
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Meta is developing new mixed reality glasses under the codename Phoenix, according to Business Insider — but their release date has been pushed back from the second half of 2026 to the first half of 2027.
The Facebook parent company already sells VR headsets and Ray-Ban smart glasses, but these glasses sound a bit different; their format factor would reportedly be similar to the Apple Vision Pro, with a puck-like power source.
BI says it’s seen memos from Meta executives announcing the delay, apparently after meetings in which CEO Mark Zuckerberg told them to take more time to make the business sustainable and deliver higher quality experiences.
The company’s metaverse leaders Gabriel Aul and Ryan Cairns reportedly wrote that the delay is “going to give us a lot more breathing room to get the details right.”
Bloomberg reported earlier this week that Meta plans to slash its metaverse budget by up to 30%.
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In September, popular creator IShowSpeed live-streamed his meeting with the popular humanoid influencer Rizzbot.
Rizzbot has more than a million followers (and 800 million views) across social media and is known for its comedic roasting of subjects, as well as giving people the middle finger. Speed, meanwhile, has more than 50 million followers (and 6 billion views) across various platforms and is known for his dramatic behavior while livestreaming.
What happened when the two parties met is the subject of a lawsuit that Rizzbot’s creators, Social Robotics, detailed in a petition filed in November against Speed, né Darren Jason Watkins Jr., his management company, Mixed Management, and another producer who was with Speed’s team that day. The petition, obtained by TechCrunch, alleges that Speed inflicted “irreparable damage” to Rizzbot.
The lawsuit alleged that — and the livestream video shows that — Speed repeatedly punched Rizzbot in the face, put it in a chokehold, at one point pinned it to the couch, and threw it to the ground.
“Speed absolutely knew that this was not an appropriate way to interact with a sophisticated robot and knew that such actions with inflict irreparable damage to Rizzbot,” the petition read. “These actions resulted in the total loss of the Rizzbot.”
The petition read that Speed’s handling of the robot caused “complete loss of functionality,” and that Rizzbot had “significant damages” to its mouth and neck.
“Additionally, the head cameras no longer function, the ports behind the neck which connect to robot’s sensors that allow it to see and hear are dead, and the robot is unstable and cannot walk straight any longer,” the petition alleges. The petition is asking for compensation for damages, including actual and lost profit, though Rizzbot’s legal team declined to comment on the dollar amount the owner is seeking.
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The Austin Police had to be called after the incident, according to the petition and a police report obtained by TechCrunch. The responding officer noted damages to Rizzbot done without the owner’s “implied consent,” and that the owner wanted to press charges. The petition states that an investigation is ongoing.
Speed’s management team did not respond to TechCrunch’s request for comment.
When reached, Social Robotics’ lawyer, Joel Levine, said the lawsuit came after talks stalled with Speed’s team regarding how to compensate Rizzbot’s owner for the damage done to the robot.
“This was an event that was live-streamed so there’s not a ton of discrepancy as to the facts,” Levine told TechCrunch. “What we’re looking for is some accountability.”
The petition said that Speed “failed to act as a careful, reasonable, and prudent person,” and that he “wrongfully exercised control over,” Rizzbot. It also said that as a result of the destruction, the team behind Rizzbot has lost out on economic opportunities since Rizzbot is indefinitely unable to partake in high-profile appearances and deals, including scheduled upcoming ones with CBS’s The NFL Today and Mr. Beast.
“This is no doubt a monumental setback for the Rizzbot in terms of viral momentum and financial gain from the exposure,” the petition said. “Being in a MrBeast production is akin to being in a Super Bowl Commercial.”
The petition read that in the month before the livestream, Rizzbot generated more than 600 million views on TikTok and 200 million on Instagram. In the 28 days after the incident, however, the petition alleges that Rizzbot was unable to make new content and therefore saw a more than 70% decrease in viewership. The “intentional destruction of Rizzbot caused significant financial damage that is likely permanent given the viral nature of social media,” the petition read.
Levine said there has been no formal answer to his plaintiff’s suit just yet and noted that they are still in the very early stages of litigation. When asked for comment, Rizzbot told TechCrunch via email it had to get “a whole new body” after Speed “wrecked” its last one.
“Everything’s brand new except my Nike kicks and cowboy hat,” Rizzbot told TechCrunch in a statement. “Now I’m back online, and I feel like I’ve mastered the rizz game, and next I’ll be working on complex movements with my legs, like twerking – hopefully you’ll see my gyrating hips on some new TV appearances shortly – stay tuned, fam.”
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The European Commission has imposed its first fine under Europe’s landmark Digital Services Act (DSA), and it’s against Elon Musk’s X.
The EC is taking issue with the fact that X, the social network formerly known as Twitter, has been allowing anyone to buy a “blue checkmark,” the platform’s long-standing symbol which used to indicate that a user has been verified to be who they are claiming to be.
Calling the design of the blue checkmark system “deceptive,” the European Union’s executive arm on Friday imposed a fine of €120 million (about $140 million) on X, saying the company had breached its transparency obligations under the DSA.
The Commission said other breaches of the law include a lack of transparency of X’s advertising repository and failure to provide researchers access to public data.
Before Musk bought the company, Twitter used to issue blue checks to journalists, celebrities, politicians, and public figures on the platform after it had verified their identity. Musk did away with that policy in 2023, and all the “verified” blue check today indicates is that a user subscribes to X Premium, and that they meet certain eligibility criteria, like having a profile photo, a display name, and have linked their account to a phone number.
“X’s use of the ‘blue checkmark’ for ‘verified accounts’ deceives users,” the Commission wrote in a statement. “This violates the DSA obligation for online platforms to prohibit deceptive design practices on their services. On X, anyone can pay to obtain the ‘verified’ status without the company meaningfully verifying who is behind the account, making it difficult for users to judge the authenticity of accounts and content they engage with.”
The Commission added that such a system exposes users to scams, impersonation fraud and manipulation.
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The regulator also found that X’s advertisement repository doesn’t comply with DSA requirements for transparency and accessibility, saying the company imposes excessive delays in processing requests for access. The Commission also said the ads repository doesn’t house important information like the content or topic of ads, as well as who paid for those ads.
“This hinders researchers and the public to independently scrutinise any potential risks in online advertising,” the Commission wrote.
Access to public data is another area of concern for the EU. The DSA mandates that public platforms allow researchers access to public data to study systemic risks, and the EC’s investigation has found that X does not allow researchers to independently do that.
“Moreover, X’s processes for researchers’ access to public data impose unnecessary barriers, effectively undermining research into several systemic risks in the European Union,” the EC wrote.
The decision comes two years after the EC launched an investigation into the company on the suspected breach of rules linked to risk management, content moderation, dark patterns, advertising transparency, and data access for researchers.
“Deceiving users with blue checkmarks, obscuring information on ads, and shutting out researchers have no place online in the EU,” Henna Virkkunen, executive vice-president for Tech Sovereignty, Security and Democracy at the European Commission, said in a statement.
X now has 60 days to outline how it intends to address the complaint about the blue checkmarks, and 90 days to respond with an action plan for addressing the breaches relating to ads and public data transparency and accessibility.
Confirmed breaches of the DSA can face a range of major sanctions, including fines of up to 6% of global annual turnover.
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