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 Implements New Requirements for Advertisers Targeting Singapore
Meta’s announced some new ad rules for marketers looking to reach audiences in Singapore, in order to align with the nation’s Online Criminal Harms Act (OCHA).
Singapore’s OCHA rules aim to ensure that online platforms, particularly eCommerce providers, implement safeguards to prevent the “propagation of malicious activities.” Within this, platforms must also take measures to proactively detect and address suspected scams. In line with this, Meta’s now implementing new requirements for ad partners targeting Singaporean consumers.
2. Meta Expands Use of Face ID for Security Purposes
After testing out new facial recognition features for account recovery last year, Meta’s now expanding the option to high profile users in some regions, in order to detect potential scams and enable faster account recovery.
With this new process, Meta matches the faces used in ads to the images that it has on file of high profile users. And where there’s a match, Meta confirms with the users’ official profile as to whether it’s a legitimate, endorsed promotion. Meta’s been testing this out with selected users since then, and now, it’s launching an expanded test of the process with users in the U.K., EU and South Korea.
3. Trump Says TikTok Deal ‘Coming Soon’
U.S. President Donald Trump has said that his administration was in touch with four different groups about the sale of Chinese-owned social media platform TikTok, and that all options were good. Trump also said that an announcement should be coming soon.
There are now fewer than four weeks remaining in the 75-day extension that he granted for the company to arrange a deal. As of right now, it’s against U.S. law for TikTok to be operating in the U.S. That’s because under the previous administration, the TikTok sell off bill (officially titled the “Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act”) was approved by the senate, and signed off by the then president, and even upheld after a Supreme Court challenge.
4. TikTok Looks To Move Into Services To Expand In-App Spending
TikTok is reportedly “eyeing an expansion of its local services business to the U.S.”, according to new job postings listed in some regions.
TikTok is currently hiring for people based in Seattle, Los Angeles and New York to evaluate opportunities to connect local merchants and vendors with TikTok creators and users, according to nearly two dozen jobs posted online. Some listings note TikTok is looking to onboard lifestyle creators across topics like food and travel, to help drive local services adoption and monetization opportunities.
5. Instagram Begins Live Testing of ‘Blend’ Reels Sharing Feature
Instagram is moving ahead with its testing of “Blend”, a new feature built into messaging that will enable you to view a co-operative feed of AI recommended Reels for you and a friend.
Instagram’s been testing Blend for more than a year, with this latest iteration now looking close to final, with a full onboarding explainer and dedicated graphics. Some users are now able to access Blend in their DM feed. When activated, you can invite people to join your Blend feed via message.
6. Instagram Previews More Features of Its Edits App
Instagram’s new video editing app is getting close to launch, and it’s shared some new info on the feature set of the app, including in-development elements that won’t be available on release.
Instagram’s “Edits” app will enable you to manage multiple video projects at once, all easily accessible via a “Projects” tab. It’s also got a “Cutouts” editing tool, so you can isolate specific elements within any clip, while Instagram has also previewed its “Made with Edits” tag that will be displayed on clips on IG. These add to the already announced features that IG has previously previewed, including AI-generated background editing, still image animation, and collaboration tools.
7. Pinterest Begins Labeling Generative AI Content
https://80.lv/articles/pinterest-will-now-use-your-content-personal-info-for-generative-ai-training/
Pinterest has said that it has been building labeling of AI-generated or modified content to provide relevant context to users about what they see on the platform.
The Pinterest “AI generated” or “AI modified” tags are overlaid at the bottom left of the image, so they’re not watermarks, but they do stand out, which should help to highlight AI-created content. Pinterest is moving to better tag and highlight AI-generated images within the Pin feed, in order to help users avoid clicking through on these junk peddlers.
8. X Suffers Major DDoS Attack as Backlash Against Elon Musk Grows
X has been intermittently down, in many regions, due to what X owner Elon Musk has claimed was a cyber attack on a large scale.
Later, in a televised interview on Fox Business, Elon blamed a Ukraine-based group for the alleged DDos attack. However, it seems a little unlikely, that a Ukraine-based group, a region not known for cyber attacks on foreign entities, which is in the midst of a massive territorial conflict, has decided to go after Elon’s businesses, in order to seemingly get him back for his recent comments on the conflict.
9. X Shares Latest Info on Content Removals and Government Requests Showing 19% Decline in Spam
X has shared its second Transparency Report, showing all of the enforcement actions that it took in the second half of last year, based on rule violations, government requests, and more.
X says that there was a 19% decline in spam reports versus H1. Also, X removed 1.16m fewer posts due to “Abuse and Harassment” in the second half of the year (-43% versus last report), yet there were only 164k fewer account suspensions in the same time frame (-15%). There’s also been a huge drop off in posts removed due to “Child Sexual Exploitation” (a decline of 80%) versus a much smaller decline in accounts suspended for the same (-35%).
10. X Adds Feed Sorting Options for Communities
X has rolled out its latest update for Communities, providing you with more options to sort posts within a community feed, which could encourage more active, topical engagement.
X has added several new feed sorting options within the community display, so you can arrange group posts by trending and popularity (Likes), along with chronological sorting options. You can also drill down to only your own posts and replies within that community, while you can also now sort posts by popularity over variable time frames. The new sorting options are more like Reddit, giving you more ways to interact with different elements of the community, or get a better handle on each group.
11. LinkedIn Opens New Experience Center in London
inkedIn has opened its first-ever IRL experience center in London, which LinkedIn describes as “an innovative space that will bring together customers, social impact organizations, and industry experts across hiring, B2B sales and marketing.”
The new center aims to provide a centralized space for professional interactions and events, which will invariably be tied back to LinkedIn. The design of the space is supposed to foster enhanced collaboration and engagement, “through the power of connecting in-person and the intrinsic value of shared experience.”
12. Social Media Giants Bristle at Australia’s Plan to Exempt YouTube From Social Media Ban
Australia’s plan to exempt YouTube from a world-leading teen social media ban is “illogical” and a “mockery”, rival tech giants Meta and TikTok have said.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese last year unveiled landmark laws that will ban under-16s from social media by the end of 2025. While popular platforms such as Facebook, TikTok and Instagram face heavy fines for flouting the laws, Australia has proposed an exemption so children can use YouTube for school.
TikTok’s Australian policy director Ella Woods-Joyce said YouTube had been handed a “sweetheart deal” that gave it an unfair advantage. Meta – the parent company of Facebook and Instagram – made similar arguments against the exemption.
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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