Welcome to Social Media Buzz Weekly, your weekly bulletin of the latest social media updates. With the social media landscape evolving with each passing day, it can be challenging to keep a tab on the rapid developments. Well, not anymore, as we have taken it upon ourselves to keep you abreast of every happening in the social media space.
So, without any further ado, let’s look at some of the most significant developments from the last week in the world of social media.
1. Meta Is Developing an AI System To Detect Teens Lying About Their Age
Meta is developing a new AI-based system to detect users who are lying about their age in its apps, in an expanded effort to limit potentially harmful exposure to youngsters across Facebook and Instagram.
Meta initially flagged this coming technology back in September, noting that it will go into live testing on Instagram early in the new year. That’ll give Meta another tool in its efforts to protect youngsters, amid rising scrutiny of its apps, and their harmful impacts on teens.
Indeed, various regions are currently weighing potential age limits on social media access, in an effort to better protect youngsters from such harms. Regulators in Australia, Denmark, the U.S., and the U.K., among others, are exploring potential age restrictions, which, if enacted, would also eat into the user counts of Meta’s apps.
2. Meta Extends Political Ads Blackout Beyond Election Period
Meta has announced that it’s extending its restriction period on election-related ads beyond the U.S. election, as it gears up for what’s anticipated to be a long running, and divisive vote counting process.
Meta’s regular elections ads blackout period was set to be in place from October 29th till November 5th, but now, Meta is extending that for an undefined period to limit potential concerns. Already, various political commentators have raised the possibility of vote tampering, and party operators looking to cheat the democratic system, in various ways. That follows the 2020 election, when accusations of vote rigging carried on right through to inauguration day, and sparked various incidents of violent unrest.
3. Meta Opens Retail Pop-up in Los Angeles to Showcase Its Smart Glasses
Meta is making an expanded push to sell more of its Ray Ban smart glasses this Christmas, with a dedicated “Meta Lab” pop-up store now open in Los Angeles.
Meta’s stylistic retail experience is designed to showcase the advanced capacity of its device, while also providing a glimpse at the future of Meta’s hardware products. The retail space includes a range of try-on experiences, along with VR elements, and a customization shop. There’ll also be live entertainment to attract more visitors.
4. Canadian Government Orders Shutdown of TikTok’s Local Operations
The Canadian government has issued an order that TikTok dissolve its Canadian business, citing national security risks.
Canada is not going so far as the U.S., in pushing for a full sell-off of the app to separate it from its Chinese ownership, while the app won’t be banned for regular users. But Canada is forcing TikTok staff out of the nation, due to unspecified national security concerns. Canada banned TikTok from all government devices early last year, following the lead of various other nations that have raised concerns about potential spying activity.
5. Instagram Has More Users Than Facebook in the EU
Meta has reported that Instagram now has more users than Facebook in the EU in terms of monthly users compared to Facebook.
This trend is currently specific to the EU and could be due to stricter data privacy laws and changing user preferences, as Facebook growth remains steady in other regions around the world. Instagram now has 269.1 million monthly active users in the EU, versus 260.6 million for Facebook. In Meta’s first EU user report, covering the period between April to September 2023, both platforms had the same user count, at 259 million MAU.
6. Instagram Expands Boosting To Include More Post Types
Instagram has expanded its post boosting options, giving you more ways to maximize the value of your best-performing organic updates.
Previously, certain posts—particularly those using GIFs, stickers, or copyrighted music—were restricted from boosting due to limitations in Meta’s system and concerns about copyright issues. However, with the latest update, Instagram has removed some of these restrictions, allowing most GIFs and stickers to be included in boosted posts.
While this update broadens the options, it’s important to note that not all posts will be eligible for boosting—Instagram has not specified exactly which types of posts qualify.
7. Snapchat Adds Ad Placement Verification From DoubleVerify
Third party verification provider DoubleVerify has announced an expanded partnership with Snapchat, which will enable DoubleVerify to offer brand safety and suitability measurement for Snapchat campaigns.
DoubleVerify’s brand safety and suitability measurement provides insights into ad placement on platforms, and whether your ads are being displayed alongside objectionable content. That gives brands extra peace of mind around brand placement, while also ensuring that the platforms are upholding their own ad placement standards.
8. Pinterest Reaches New Record High for Users in Q3
Pinterest has shared its latest performance update, posting a solid increase in revenue, and reaching a new record high in usage.
First off, on active users, Pinterest added 15 million more users in Q3, taking it to 537 million MAU. This is a significant rise in its growth momentum versus Q2, where it only added 4 million more actives. In terms of overall revenue, Pinterest brought in $898 million for the quarter, representing 18% growth year-over-year.
Also, Pinterest’s research and development costs have increased by almost 25% this year, and it’s expecting them to continue to increase heading into the end of the year.
9. X Opens Merch Store To Sell Branded Clothing
X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, has now officially opened its own online apparel merch store.
The site currently has a limited number of items, offering just a unisex t-shirt and a trucker hat. Both are selling for $35 USD online and arrive in the black colorway. The t-shirt is a boxy fit silhouette and features a simple design that sees the “X” logo printed on the left chest. The trucker hat is also in black and has the “X” logo front and center and is constructed with breathable mesh lining and slightly curved visor. The inside of the hat sees a repeated pattern of the “X” logo. The sizes for the t-shirts range from XS to 3XL.
10. X’s Diluted Block Functionality Is Now Going Live
X is currently in the process of rolling out its widely unpopular update to how account blocking works in the app, which will mean that profiles that you’ve blocked will now be able to read your posts once again.
Traditionally, blocking an account on X meant that the blocked user could not see your tweets, interact with your content, or follow you. However, with the new diluted block functionality, blocked users can still view your public tweets. While they cannot interact with your posts or see your follower list, they can still see your public content. X CEO Elon Musk has explained that the rationale behind this change is to curb the misuse of the block feature. He believes that blocking is often used to silence dissenting opinions and limit the free flow of information.
11. X Touts Record High Usage on Election Day
Billionaire Elon Musk said his social media platform X has registered record usage amid the US electing Republican candidate Donald Trump as president for a second time.
For context, in September last year, X reported that it sees 500 million posts per day, while active mobile user seconds in the app reached a record of 339 billion in the app in January this year. So a big increase in posts, less of an increase in time spent, but still, a lot of engagement on X for Election Day.
12. X Experiments With Free Access to Its Grok AI Chatbot
X is looking to launch a limited, “freemium” version of Grok to all users, which would significantly expand the usage of its generative AI tool.
Grok is currently only available to X Premium subscribers, and with only around 1.3 million people paying to use the app, equivalent to 0.26% of X’s user base, that means that Grok usage is extremely limited. As such, there’s also not a heap of insight, as yet, into how valuable an addition it actually is, or isn’t, within the broader X experience.
A free version, albeit with limited usage for non-paying users, would at least enable more people to try it out, and could lure more X Premium sign-ups.
13. Australia to Ban Children Under 16 From Social Media: ‘Real Harm to Kids’
Australia’s prime minister has vowed to ban children under 16 from social media, saying the pervasive influence of platforms like Facebook and TikTok was “doing real harm to our kids”.
The tech giants would be held responsible for enforcing the age limit and face hefty fines if regulators notice young users slipping through the cracks, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said. Australia is among the vanguard of nations trying to clean up social media, and the proposed age limit would be among the world’s strictest measures aimed at children.
14. US Tech Firms Warn Vietnam’s Planned Law to Hamper Social Media, Data Centres
US technology companies have warned Vietnam’s government that a draft law to tighten information-protection rules and limit data transfers abroad would hamper social media platforms and data centre operators from growing their businesses in the Southeast Asian country.
The draft law, being discussed in the country’s parliament, is also designed to ease authorities’ access to information and was urged by the Ministry of Public Security, Vietnamese and foreign officials said. Vietnam, with a population of 100 million, is one of the world’s largest markets for Facebook and other online platforms, and is aiming to exponentially increase its data-centre industry with foreign investment in coming years.
Wrapping Up
And that was a wrap of this week’s Social Media Buzz. We’ll be back next week with more news and updates for you from the social media world. Till then, stay tuned!
If you want to read more on the latest developments taking place in the social media space, take a look at ClickInsights’ Social Media Buzz, wherein we bring to you monthly reports on everything going on in social media, ranging from platform updates to policy changes that influence the way we market.