Thousands of Africans studying engineering and other subjects in Ukraine are desperate to leave as Russia invades the country. Many of them are using social media platforms such as Instagram and Twitter to keep people updated on their struggles to return back home. One Nigerian Twitter user said she and other students from the West African country were stopped by Polish border guards when attempting to flee. In her video, viewed over a million times, a crowd can be seen pleading with guards, who are standing with leveled weapons. Some,
British entrepreneur and YouTube star Jamal Edwards has died at the age of 31, his company has told the BBC, but his cause of death has not yet been revealed. He was the founder of SBTV, an online urban music platform that helped launch the careers of artists like Dave, Ed Sheeran, and Skepta. His YouTube channel, which was started in 2006 “on a £20 phone” while he was still at school, has given early exposure to almost every key player in the game including the much-loved Stormzy, Skepta, JME,
Black creators say they were excluded from a TikTok event for Black History Month, which featured the self-acclaimed ‘queen of rap’ Nicki Minaj.
Brand will lead the company’s Global People Team and inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility initiatives while working with executive management and the Board of Directors to support the company’s strategic direction. She joined the company back in 2018, most recently serving as vice president of People Experience and head of Inclusion and Diversity. Brand has become the second Black woman and third Black C-suite executive at Twitter since the company went public in late 2013. Her promotion is a pretty big deal – given the number of minorities – particularly
Lame, TikTok’s second most-followed creator with 130 million followers, has partnered with Hugo Boss to star in a campaign surrounding its re-brand. Lame will also co-design a capsule collection with the fashion label as part of a multi-year pact. BOSS’ Rebrand The iconic brand has drafted supermodels, social media sensations, and world-class athletes for a celebrity campaign designed to usher in a new era for core brand BOSS after nearly 50 years. Lame will appear in the campaign alongside Hailey Bieber, Kendall Jenner, model Joan Smalls, South Korean actor Lee Min-ho, rapper Future, boxer Anthony Joshua, tennis pro Matteo
The cohort includes 35 US creators who will get funding, training, and other resources through the program. The fund provides one year of support, including seed funding for channels, development programs, workshops, and networking opportunities. “Black creators have played an important role in shaping the culture on YouTube. From fashion and comedy to politics, learning, and wellness, Black creators have propelled our platform forward,” the company said in the announcement. A total of 26 African YouTube creators, including 10 Nigerian creators, were also picked. They were chosen to join a
Four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka was knocked out of the Australian Open in the third round Friday, losing in three sets to unseeded American Amanda Anisimova. Naomi, who returned to major tennis at the Australian Open after a short break in 2021 to address her mental health, competed against 20-year-old Anisimova. But immediately after the match, Osaka told reporters that her first step when she got back to the dressing room and checked her phone would be to get rid of several social media apps. Asked about her feelings towards her losses
Instagram has switched things up and has introduced a new way for creators to make money, kicking off a test of subscriptions for the social platform in the US. Announcing the news on Wednesday, Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder of Facebook and chairman/CEO of its parent company Meta, said: “This will help creators earn more by offering benefits to their most engaged followers like access to exclusive Lives and Stories. “I’m excited to keep building tools for creators to make a living doing creative work and to put these tools in more creators’
Youtube is going back to its core roots. The video-streaming giant has announced that it will return to the real reason it was created in the first place — to serve as a home to creatives with a focus on user-generated content. While the platform has spent the past six or more years building a hub for original programming with the likes of Patricia Bright hosting their own ‘Youtube Original’ shows – this news reveals that they will scale back and put the funds back into programs that were built with
With over 93,000 members, the Black Fathers group has grown into one of the largest groups of dads on Facebook. It was launched by Matt Prestbury in 2008 after he grew increasingly frustrated with the notion that ‘Black fathers weren’t around.’ He knew there were involved Black fathers across the US and the globe – so he set up a group so they could all connect with one another using Facebook. “When I got on Facebook, I figured that was the best opportunity for us to present positive images of black
