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 Abandons Racial Diversity Programmes as Zuckerberg Woos Trump
Meta has announced that it is dismantling its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programmes across the company, marking another major shift in strategy as it aligns with politically conservative priorities.
In an internal memo to employees, the company outlined sweeping changes including the elimination of its diverse slate hiring approach and the disbanding of its DEI team. The move comes amid what Meta describes as “a changing legal and policy landscape” following recent Supreme Court decisions against programmes that allowed for increased diversity priorities at US universities.
That announcement echoed long-standing complaints made by Trump’s Republican Party and X owner Elon Musk about fact-checking and moderating hate speech on social media. US President Joe Biden has condemned Meta’s fact-checking shake-up.
2. Meta Tests eBay Listings in Facebook Marketplace
Meta is exploring a new partnership with eBay that would see eBay listings displayed on Facebook Marketplace, in among its existing posts and offers. Meta is looking to better align with EU competition laws, specifically related to marketplace listings, by enabling eBay to display items within its own marketplace.
Meta offered to publish listings from classified ads rival eBay on Facebook Marketplace in an effort to comply with a landmark European Union antitrust order. That antitrust order saw the company fined €797.72 million ($841 million) back in November due to breaches of EU antitrust rules related to the linking of Facebook Marketplace to Facebook, and the market advantages that provides for Facebook’s user-listed market service.
3. Regulating Online Hate Speech ‘Not Censorship’: UN Rights Chief on Meta
The UN rights chief has insisted that regulating hate speech and harmful content online “is not censorship”, days after Meta scrapped its fact-checking programme on Facebook and Instagram citing censorship concerns.
Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg had announced that the group would “get rid of fact-checkers” and replace them with community-based posts, starting in the United States, complaining the programme had made “too many mistakes and too much censorship”. Meta’s surprise announcement echoed long-standing complaints by Trump’s Republican Party and X owner Elon Musk about fact-checking, which many conservatives see as censorship.
4. Triller Launches App To Download Your TikTok Clips
With the deadline for a U.S. TikTok sell-off closing in, competitor platform Triller is taking the opportunity to boost its own data banks, by providing an option that enables TikTok users to back up their TikTok content in the app.
Now, at SaveMyTikToks.com, you can connect your TikTok account to a Triller profile, which then enables you to download your TikTok clips to the app. That’ll ensure that they remain accessible, even if TikTok ends up getting removed from the U.S.
5. TikTok Adds Post Scheduling to Studio App
https://web.swipeinsight.app/posts/tiktok-enhances-studio-app-with-post-scheduling-integration-13928
TikTok has added post scheduling to its TikTok Studio management tool, which will make it easier to manage all of your TikTok posting and analytics processes in one place.
Now, you will have all of TikTok’s post scheduling options within its management app, which it launched back in May last year. To be clear, post scheduling itself is not new, as you can already do this in TikTok’s video scheduler, and via various third-party tools. So functionally this isn’t a major addition, but for convenience, and ease of management, it’ll be handy to have full scheduling capacity within the tool, which already provides the capacity to edit and update your scheduled posts.
6. US Parents Believe a TikTok Ban Will Increase Safety for Kids
A recent survey by security.org that interviewed 1000 parents found that around 50% of parents believe a TikTok ban would improve children’s safety.
U.S. parents also view TikTok as the “most dangerous” app for youngsters, along with Snapchat. It’s worth noting that all social apps are viewed as concerns in this respect. The report also looks at which specific elements of TikTok and Snapchat are most problematic for parents, along with the best security and protection measures for teens in social apps.
7. Instagram Surveys Users on Paying for Engagement
Selected Instagram users have been prompted to take part in a new survey, which seemingly points to Meta considering an option that would enable creators and brands to pay for views, likes, or other engagement in the app.
The survey presents participants with various pricing options for additional engagement in the app. In this first query, the survey asks whether you’d be more inclined to pay $150 to gain 600 additional profile followers, and 2k messages, or if you’d prefer to pay $1,150 for more followers and comments.
Presumably, this is part of Meta’s next push to increase Meta Verified take-up, by focusing on the key elements of appeal to the users who might pay for an extra boost in its apps. And maybe, Meta has found that it can drive these types of response, on average, through improved reach bonuses afforded to those who pay for the program.
8. X Rolls Out In-Stream Labels for Parody and Fan Accounts
X has officially launched its new “Parody” account labels, which aim to reduce confusion around what’s being shared, and by whom, in the app.
X’s parody account markers will reduce impersonation and misinformation in the app, by ensuring that users are aware that this is not the official or actual profile of a celebrity or brand. X says that its parody labels will be applied to both posts and accounts on X “to clearly demonstrate the source of the content you’re seeing.”
The new labels will be mandatory for any profile that could be confused with another, to ensure that it’s clear that the information posted by these profiles is not actually from the entity they may be impersonating.
9. X Is Set To Come Under More Scrutiny in Europe
X could be facing new penalties in Europe, with EU investigators now exploring whether the Elon Musk-owned platform may have violated EU rules, due to its change in approach to allow more speech, including more harmful content, under Musk’s more open content policies.
EU officials are “energetically” pushing forward in their investigation into the app, with a view to presenting X with its findings as soon as possible. Under the EU Digital Services Act (DSA), social platforms are required to adhere to strict rules around content moderation, including the spread of misinformation in their apps. The Commission launched an investigation into X back in 2023, shortly after Musk took over at the app, in order to assess whether X’s “freedom of speech, not reach” approach breaches these guidelines.
10. Data Shows That X Premium Take-up Is Growing
While it still seems like X’s push to make people pay to use the app is never actually going evolve into a significant revenue stream for the company, there are some signs that its X Premium push is slowly driving more subscriptions.
In the lead-up to Christmas, coinciding with Black Friday, X launched a 40% discount offer for X Premium, which included full-screen, unavoidable promotions in the app. So major discounts, as well as the addition of an option to gift X Premium to others, saw X boost its subscriber count in November, while AppFigures further notes that it’s remained higher than usual ever since.
11. X Flags Coming Algorithm Update to Focus On Entertaining Content
Elon Musk, the tech mogul and CEO of Tesla, has announced a major algorithm update for X, highlighting the platform's focus on elevating content that users find truly engaging and valuable.
The flagged algorithm update actually sounds very similar to the changes that Meta has made to its own systems, which have reduced the reach of “political” content, in response, it says, to user feedback. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg noted back in 2021 that the most common Facebook and IG user complaints relate to divisive political posts taking over the in-app experience, which has prompted Meta to reassess this element.
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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