The online creators holding Hollywood accountable

Simone Umba is one of many pop culture TikTokkers who have pivoted to strike content.

Embedded is your essential guide to what’s good on the internet, written by Kate Lindsay and edited by Nick Catucci.

Here’s a super interesting Ringer piece from

Justin Charity

that’s a great companion to my pickle post from Monday. —Kate

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Last week, pop culture creator Simone Umba was one of a handful of people who noticed something odd: Peacock, NBC’s streaming platform, was taking advantage of TikTok’s 10-minute video feature to upload chunks of the full first episodes of shows like Killing It and Love Island USA. This is a way for the network to hook new viewers and grow their social presence on the video platform of the moment. But writers and actors are currently on strike, in large part because of how the streaming model cut into their earnings from residuals, and Peacock amassed millions of TikTok views that paid out nothing to the show’s writers and actors. 

@simplysimone#greenscreen #peacock #wgastrike #sagstrike

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To Umba and others, it seemed as if the network was screwing their workers out of proper compensation, and she called it out as part of her series of strike updates that she shares with over 300,000 followers.

“I mainly focus on pop culture content, mainly movies and TV,” Umbas tells me over Zoom. “So right now my content has pretty much pivoted to strike coverage.”

The Hollywood union repping influencers

While many are not union members—although influencers can join SAG-AFTRA—creators have had to spend the past few months navigating their role in the Hollywood strike. If they were to accept brand deals from studios or networks to promote movies or TV shows on their platforms, they’d be crossing the picket line. Many pop culture creators like Umba are instead choosing to use this as a moment to educate, creating publicity for the strike and breaking down key issues with their followers. 

Influencer scabbing, peak girl, and Adam Jockle (again)

As I wrote about in a recent Sunday Scroll, this kind of creator solidarity suggests a previously mythical influencer union may not be so far out of reach, and it’s something Umba says fellow creators have started discussing in response to Hollywood’s negotiations. In this interview for paid subscribers, Umba and I chat about influencer unions, social media’s role in the strike, and how she battles strike misinformation online. 

I came across your work when you called out Peacock for uploading episodes of their shows to TikTok, and so I was wondering if maybe you could explain what’s happening with the strikes, streaming services, and TikTok.