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As anti-ICE protests intensify across the country, kids are turning Roblox into a protest ground online. Last week, thousands took to the streets to protest the Trump administrations immigration policies. Meanwhile, on Roblox, avatars faced off with players dressed in police SWAT gear in the popular Brookhaven roleplay world (based on the real city of Brookhaven, Georgia), as Taylor Lorenz first reported in User Mag. After her story published, Lorenz shared an update that Roblox protesters are now facing police violence. A screenshot of a text shared with Lorenz (which she then posted on X) reads: I was in a Roblox ice protest but then we all got shot. By the police. On Monday I reported on anti-ICE protests taking over Roblox. One of the kids I interviewed texted me this morning to share that the Roblox protesters are now facing police violence. https://t.co/bmGLJmKXd0 pic.twitter.com/0qvdZvwGv7— Taylor Lorenz (@TaylorLorenz) June 18, 2025 Players have been sharing updates across TikTok and Discord, posting dates and times for upcoming protests. Some Roblox players are even enacting their own ICE raids. One TikTok video shows a player dressed as an ICE agent, barging into another players Roblox home and violently arresting him. @riobandzblox Know your rights #iceraids #ice #scared #skit #besafe #robloxskit #dahood i was only temporary – my head is empty Roblox hosts around 85 million daily active users globally, about 40% of whom are under the age of 12. Brookhaven is Robloxs most-visited experience ever, with over 65 billion visits, and recently won two Roblox Innovation Awards 2024 categories: “Best Roleplay/Life Sim” and “Best Social Hangout.” A study published earlier this year in Cornell Universitys preprint server arXiv found that in-game roleplay and avatar customization help kids aged eight to 13 explore their identities. As the iPad generation grows up, gaming platforms like Roblox are becoming spaces where they process major world events. Virtual protests arent new. In 2016, young users took to Club Penguin to protest President Donald Trumps victory in an election they were too young to vote in, declaring not my president and penguins of color matter in the speech bubbles above their penguin avatars. In 2020, gamers staged virtual sit-ins in Habbo and held demonstrations in Toontown during the Black Lives Matter protests amid lockdown restrictions. These protests may be virtual, but that doesnt make them any less real. Gen Alpha has grown up online, and with many still too young to vote or take their activism to the streets, it makes sense theyre showing up in droves in the spaces they inhabit every day. As one TikTok user shared, her younger sister couldnt attend the anti-ICE protests in person because of safety concerns. Instead, her sister told her: Its ok I protested on Roblox yesterday.
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E-Commerce
More Americans are watching TV via streaming platforms than both broadcast and cable combined for the first time ever. The finding comes from Nielson’s monthly Gauge report, which was launched four years ago to provide insight on what viewers are watching, as well as how they are watching it. The latest report found that streaming accounted for 44.8% of total TV viewership in Maythe largest share on record. Meanwhile, broadcast and cable TV only made up 20.1% and 24.1%, respectively, for a total of 44.2%. Its fitting that this inflection point coincides with the four year anniversary of Nielsens The Gauge, which has become the gold standard for streaming TV measurement, said Karthik Rao, Nielsen CEO, in the report. Its also a credit to media companies, who have deftly adapted their programming strategies to meet their viewers where they are watching TVwhether its on streaming or linear platforms. Previously, the Gauge reported another big milestone for streaming platforms. In July 2022, for the first time, streaming topped cable viewership. At the time, it accounted for 34.8% of viewership while cable made up 34.4%. Broadcast made up 21.6%. However today, the combined total for both cable and broadcast viewing still falls behind the percentage of monthly streamers. Predictably, streaming usage has steadily been increasing in recent years. Since 2021, viewers streamed their entertainment 71% more than they used other sources. During the same time period, TV viewers watched (and binge-watched) 21% less via broadcast. Likewise, cable viewing plummeted by 39%. Per the report, free services have been a major part of the uptick in viewers streaming content over the past four years. YouTube, the most-used streaming platform, saw streaming surge by 120% over the time period. Last month, the platform accounted for 12.5% of all TV viewership. Netflix, the leading Subscription Video On Demand (SVOD) service, saw an increase in viewership by 27% since 2021. As viewers keep turning toward streaming platforms, the services are evolving to keep up with demand. In April, Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos explained the platform’s goals for expansion, which included becoming a trillion-dollar company. Sarandos explained that video podcasts could soon be viewable on the platform, saying, the lines are getting blurry between podcasts and talk shows, adding, as the popularity of video podcasts grows, I suspect youll see some of them find their way to Netflix. Streaming platforms have expanded to include some major events, too, which were once only available on cable or broadcast. In 2021, the Olympics were shown on Peacock, NBCs streaming platform. And this year, even The Super Bowl streamed on Tubi. Likewise, in 2025, the Oscars was viewable on Hulu, making it accessible to those without cable or broadcast TV for the first time.
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E-Commerce
At first glance, the pairing of Oscar-winning filmmaker Peter Jackson and Colossal Biosciences founder and CEO Ben Lamm is a bit odd. When its onstage at the worlds largest gathering of brands and marketers, it gets even more confusing. But Jackson has been a major investor in Colossal since last year, and he and Lamm were at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity to talk to Chaka Sobhani, president and global chief creative officer at ad agency DDB Worldwide, for a conversation that aimed to find common ground in the creative challenge between Middle Earth and IRL. Colossal, of course, made headlines in April for revealing its first de-extinction project, reintroducing the worlds first dire wolf in 10,000 years. After the stage presentation, Jackson told Fast Company that Colossal has significant storytelling potential, particularly in sparking interest and engagement on issues like environmental conservation. It’s stimulating curiosity, that’s the most important thing, says Jackson. I grew up imagining all sorts of things, imagining flying cars, imagining a woolly mammoth. And the phones, social media, and everything else have the danger of deadening imagination. And so I think that this is an opportunity. Jackson has had some significant input in how Colossal tells its stories. Lamm says that just before the dire wolf announcement, Jackson had a suggestion: He told me, When you announce this, you need to show the world the dire wolf howls, because it’s the first time in 10,000 years anyone’s ever heard that. That just made it so much better. Lamm says Jackson is an active investor. The director and his wife Fran Walsh invested $10 million into the company in October 2024. Peter gives us a lot of advice, says Lamm. Peter connects us to a lot of people in the world, including George RR Martin. Even though he didn’t make dire wolves, he made them famous. Peter actually wants to be involved. Its not about writing a check and then move on to the next deal. Theyre true partners. Jackson believes the real power is in the companys potential impact on conservation. It’s not just de-extinction, which is obviously exciting, but it’s also conservation, says Jackson. It’s saving species that are really endangered now, and using the technology that these guys have developed to create a larger gene pool, for example, the white rhino. There’s only two left.” The most common criticism Jackson hears about Colossal is that it should be spending its time and research on currently endangered species instead of de-extinction. Well, you can actually do both, he says. Both Lamm and Jackson say the de-extinction projects are what get people excited and interested in everything else the company does. Come for the dire wolf, stay for the red wolf. In April, Lamm told the Most Innovative Companies podcast that Colossal had cloned four red wolves that will be able to join the 15 left on earth. The red wolf project, to me, is as magical as the dire wolf, he said. Though sometimes even Jackson gets nervous. I was nervous about the woolly mouse, he says. The company spent 2.5 years editing mammoth genes, then applied its work to mice rather than trying to create a creature that has been extinct for thousands of years. It’s an important part of their research on the way to a mammoth, but I was saying, Do you really want to release it to the public? Because it could play to people’s idea of genetic engineering. Its like your Frankenstein. I was nervous about that. Lamm says the point of the woolly mice was to transparently show the process toward a full woolly mammoth. Its not taking woolly mammoth genes with 200 million years of genetic divergence and ramming it into a mouse. This is part of a gradual road map. Peter brought his concerns to me, but we just feel that if we’re doing radical things, we still need to be radically transparent, says Lamm. To Peter’s point, while some people could be like, Oh, why are they making woolly mice? We thought it was important to educate the public on this is the process of science, and this is also how we ethically get to a mammoth.
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E-Commerce
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