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 Launches Updated Affiliate Link Displays in Posts and Comments
Meta is looking to expand its opportunities for creators to make money from affiliate links in their Facebook posts, by making supported product links more prominent within Reels, videos, photos, and text posts.
Meta has also improved its display of the same within the comment section too, providing even more exposure opportunity. Up till now, affiliate links could only be shown as URLs in the captions, so this is a significant advance in exposure for such partnerships. Finally, Meta is also rolling out a new auto-detection system for affiliate links from selected domains.
When an affiliate link is detected, Meta will give you a reminder to use the “paid partnership” label, while it’ll also pre-populate the affiliate link information when you click “add affiliate product link.” The simplified process will make it easier for more creators to participate in such programs.
2. Meta Fined $263M in Europe Over User Data Breach
Meta has copped another big fine in Europe, with the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) issuing the company a hefty penalty of $263M for a data breach that occurred back in 2017.
However, it is not even the biggest fine the company has been hit with from EU officials this year. Just last month, Meta received a $841 million (797.72 million euros) fine due to breaches of EU antitrust rules related to the linking of Facebook Marketplace to Facebook, and the market advantages that provide for Facebook’s user-listed market service.
Last year, Meta also copped a $1.3 billion fine from the European Data Protection Board (EDPU) related to the transfer of EU user data back to the U.S. without explicit permission or adequate protections in place. The company was also fined $414 million for illegally forcing users to accept personalized ads in its apps, while it remains under investigation over potential DSA and DMA compliance failures.
3. TikTok Shares Data on Account Removals and Government Requests in 2024
TikTok is getting more requests for content removal from different governments around the globe, according to the platform’s transparency reports on the matter for the year 2024.
According to TikTok’s latest report, Malaysian authorities submitted the most removal requests in the first half of this year (2,606 total requests), followed by Indonesia (778), and Australian authorities (522). Indonesia and Australia rounded up the top three list. Incidentally, Chinese regulators didn’t request that TikTok remove anything, at least based on this report.
4. US Supreme Court Will Hear TikTok’s Appeal Over Sell-Off Bill
TikTok has had a win in its ongoing challenge against the U.S. government’s forced sell-off bill, with the Supreme Court agreeing to hear its plea against the bill, after it was rejected by an appeals court earlier this month.
In what seemed like it may have been the final legal avenue for the company, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit recently ruled that TikTok’s argument, that the TikTok sell-off bill violates the First Amendment, is not valid in this case due to foreign adversary concerns and the potential for that adversary to manipulate U.S. citizens via the app.
5.Instagram Adds New Features for the Holidays
Instagram is adding some new features for the holidays, including Collages for Stories, seasonal “Add Yours” templates, new fonts, chat themes, and more.
First off, on Collages. Last month, some IG users reported seeing a new “Collage” option promoted in-stream. Now, Instagram is officially launching the tool, as part of its holiday season push. It is also rolling out some new “Add Yours” templates to encourage participation in the season. Add Yours templates prompt viewer participation in Stories trends, and these end of year templates aim to get you friends sharing their own takes and shots as a sort of recap.
Moreover, Instagram is rolling out a new “New Year” font and a “Countdown” text effect (you can see the “New Year” font in the example image above), while it has also got some new chat themes for the season. It is also adding new highlights for selected phrases in both Notes and DMs. So, for example, if you add a note which says “Happy New Year”, that will get a new purple highlighting in-stream.
6. Instagram Previews Coming AI Video Elements
Instagram chief Adam Mosseri has provided a glimpse of some video AI elements coming to IG.
Soon, via an integration with Meta’s Movie Gen engine, Instagram users will be able to create wholesale edits of their video clips in-stream, switching to different backgrounds, outfits, representations, Muppet versions of themselves, etc. Meta unveiled its Movie Gen AI video generator in October, which promises to “preserve human identity and motion” in the videos it creates or edits. The announcement was made months after similar models from competitors like OpenAI’s Sora and Adobe’s Firefly Video model, the latter of which is already powering beta text-to-video editing tools inside Premiere Pro.
7. Instagram Implements Screenshot Blocking for View-Once Media
After it was first spotted in testing back in August, Instagram is now implementing screenshot blocking for all DMs exchanged in “Vanish Mode,” or when “View Once” is active for content.
Originally added back in 2020, Vanish Mode is essentially IG’s version of Snapchat messages, with users able to set their messages to self-destruct as soon as the recipient leaves the chat. Users can also set their images and video to “View Once” in IG DMs, through which you can also allow replays or not, if you choose.
Instagram already has a feature that alerts the creator when a recipient has taken a screenshot in these modes, which acts as some form of disincentive and transparency. But disallowing it completely is a much more definitive measure, which could be particularly beneficial for younger users.
8. Snapchat Launches Streamlined Creator Monetization Process
Snapchat is integrating its monetization pathways for creators, by adding Spotlight videos into its Stories revenue share program, which will make it easier for creators to get paid for their various outputs.
Snapchat launched its Stories revenue share program back in 2022, which enables eligible creators to generate income from their content via mid-roll ads that are inserted between Snapchat Stories. It expanded access to this last year, by lowering the thresholds for entry (Snap creators with over 50,000 followers, 25 million views, or 12,000 hours of cumulative view time/month qualify for the initiative). And now, Spotlight videos will also be able to generate income via the same approach.
9. X Rolls Out Updates to Its Grok AI Chatbot
X continues to roll out updates to its Grok AI chatbot, which it recently made available for free to all users.
First off, X has further integrated X and web search data to improve Grok’s answers. Grok’s responses now include reference links and citations to help clarify and contextualize its outputs. It has also improved Grok’s image generation model, while it has also added an updated Grok button on X posts, which will make it easy to get more context on any X post in-steam.
You’ll also note the updated Grok icon for the new button. Grok’s switching from the box with a slash through it to a new logo design, further differentiating the function. X is also now testing audio queries for Grok, so you can vocally ask the app questions.
10. X Announces Expanded Content Partnership With the NBA
X has announced a renewal of its partnership with the NBA, which will see the NBA continue to share exclusive content to the platform.
X says that its new, multi-year partnership with the NBA will introduce “new, innovative experiences in 2025 and beyond,” with more info on these updates coming soon. That could see X add an NBA portal, similar to its NFL portal activation, which makes it easier to track matches in real time, and get the latest standings and stats info in-stream. The deal will help to ensure that X remains a key platform for discussing NBA news, which remains a key source of engagement for the app.
11. LinkedIn Tests Paid Boosting for Personal Updates
LinkedIn is trying out another ad option, with some users now able to pay to amplify their personal posts, in addition to their business page updates, in order to get more reach in the app.
The option is an expansion of LinkedIn's existing “Boost” option for business posts, providing a quick and easy way to get more reach for a post in-stream. And now, some users can also Boost their personal updates. As noted, “Boosting” is a more streamlined version of LinkedIn ads, with fewer targeting options, designed for quick amplification of your best performing updates. In its overview of boosting for personal posts, LinkedIn explains that the option is currently only available for text, image, article, video and newsletter posts. Job posts, events, documents, polls, or group posts can’t be boosted at this stage.
12. LinkedIn Tests New, Larger Video Display In-Stream
With video becoming a key focus on LinkedIn, the platform is now working on a new way to display video posts in the main feed, with larger video panels that’ll be shown between regular posts.
The new video format will also include rounded corners on the display, which will make video clips stand out even more in-stream. Though the main element is the height and prominence of the display, especially in the mobile app. Tap through on any clip and you’ll be taken to LinkedIn’s TikTok-like immersive video feed, which has seen 36% usage growth this year.
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.
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