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 Appoints New Public Policy Team to Align with Trump Administration
Current Meta global affairs chief Nick Clegg has announced that he is leaving the company, and will be replaced by his deputy Joel Kaplan.
Clegg, who at one time was the Deputy Prime Minister in the U.K., has played a key role in Meta’s government relations and negotiations over the past seven years, during a critical period in which the company came under intense political and regulatory pressure.
Kaplan, who’ll be taking over the role, is a former chairman of the FCC, and also served as the White House Deputy Chief of Staff under George W. Bush. He’s also, according to reports, long pushed for Meta to take a more hands off approach to political speech in its apps.
2. Trump Files Supreme Court Bid To Save TikTok
With only a few days remaining till TikTok is effectively forced out of the U.S., President-elect Donald Trump is seemingly looking to make good on his campaign trail pledge to save the app.
The Trump transition team has filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court which calls for a stay of execution for the app, so that Trump can use his “consummate dealmaking expertise” to arrange a deal that will appease both sides. Donald Trump’s brief states, Trump is “one of the most powerful, prolific, and influential users of social media in history,” which leaves him uniquely placed to assess the value and threat of TikTok personally.
3. Venezuela Court Fines TikTok US$10 Million Over Viral Challenge Deaths
Venezuela’s top court imposed a US$10 million fine on TikTok over viral challenges that killed three children and injured dozens of people in recent months.
The court said in its ruling that the social media company should pay the fine to the country’s telecommunications agency within the next 10 days. It also ordered TikTok, owned by Chinese tech giant ByteDance, to establish an office in Venezuela. The court summoned TikTok officials to appear to address the deaths of three children, aged 12, 13 and 14, after they took part in challenges that Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro said included ingesting, inhaling and spreading “dangerous mixes” of chemicals.
The judges said TikTok shared responsibility for its “lack of timely control” of the challenges on its platform. Money from the fine will go towards a compensation fund for victims, they said.
4. X Increases Premium+ Price by 30%
X has announced that the price of its X Premium+ subscription tier, the most expensive X subscription option, would be increasing by 30%, in order to fund the ongoing expansion of its offerings.
The new price adds an additional $6 per month to the X Premium+ price, rising from $16 to $22 per month, or $229 annually. X says that the higher price point will enable it to offer a completely ad-free experience for its top paying users, while also enabling higher usage limits for its Grok AI models. It’ll also give X more capacity to pay creators via its updated revenue share model.
5. X and Google Miss Malaysia’s Social Media Licence Deadline
X and Google-run YouTube are yet to complete the process which will require both platforms to run in the country after a bill was passed this month by Malaysia’s parliament that amended laws around social media.
The updated policies, implemented by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission, are designed to tackle online threats including scams and cyberbullying. Governments across Asia are taking aim at big tech companies for their accountability over content posted on their platforms.
X apparently claimed it did not need the licence as the number of users it has in the country does not meet the threshold of eight million, set by the regulator. Meanwhile, Google issued a statement to the commission stating it had concerns over the classification of YouTube’s video sharing features under the framework.
6. Elon Musk Baffles Internet With ‘Kekius Maximus’ Profile Name on X
Elon Musk has adopted the moniker “Kekius Maximus” on X, sparking speculation among his 210 million followers about his mysterious new handle that is a mash-up of an alt-right symbol, a memecoin, and the lead character of the movie Gladiator.
Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX and a confidant of US President-elect Donald Trump, also replaced his profile picture with one of “Pepe the Frog”, a popular cartoon character, wearing ancient Roman attire and holding a video game joystick. In typical Musk fashion, the billionaire tech mogul and owner of X – formerly Twitter – offered no explanation about the new username and avatar, but the move triggered immediate ripple effects.
The change roiled the cryptocurrency world, sending the value of a memecoin – a digital currency inspired by an internet meme – with the same name skyrocketing.
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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