Social Media Buzz Weekly: Roundup of Social Media Updates

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 Joins AI Safety Collective To Ensure Responsible Development

https://www.digitalinformationworld.com/2024/05/meta-joins-hands-with-top-non-profit-ai.html

Meta has announced that it’s joining the Frontier Model Forum (FMF) , a non-profit AI safety collective that’s working to establish industry standards and regulations around AI development.

Meta, along with Amazon, will join Anthropic, Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI as members of the FMF mission, which will ideally lead to the establishment of best-in-class AI safety regulations. The FMF is currently working to establish an advisory board as well as various institutional arrangements, including a charter, governance and funding, with a working group and executive board to lead these efforts.

2. Meta Adds Video to Its Automated Catalog Ads

https://mobilemarketingreads.com/meta-enhances-catalog-ads-with-automated-video-integration/

Meta is rolling out a new, automated video ad option, with Catalog Product Ads now also able to utilize video assets.

Previously known as Dynamic ad, Catalog Product Ads enable advertisers to upload their entire product catalog into Meta’s system, with Meta’s ad display process then showcasing the most relevant products to each user. Catalog Product Ads can be targeted based on similar products that users have shown an interest in, or on specific products that a user has checked out on your website, via retargeting. Until now, these have only included still image placements, but now, video can also be included with your product listings, providing another way to expand your Catalog campaigns.

3. Lawmaker Seeks to Ban Tiktok, ‘Foreign Adversary-Controlled’ Apps in Philippines

https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1225432

A bill proposing a ban on TikTok and other “foreign adversary-controlled” social platforms in the Philippines was filed by a lawmaker in the House of Representatives.

According to Manila 6th District Rep Bienvenido Abante Jr in a statement on May 25, this was to protect Filipinos against malicious campaigns on the said apps. Under the bill, the country’s president will be the one to identify foreign adversaries, which are those that have adverse interests to the country, or those that threaten national security or the territory. The lawmaker added that one of the reasons why he filed the bill was to prevent foreign adversaries from collecting information from Filipino users and to protect the country’s communications.

4. Snap Launches Camera Extension for Chrome

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Snapchat-brings-AR-lenses-to-desktop-with-a-Chrome-Extension.840659.0.html

In a move to expand the reach of its popular augmented reality (AR) features, Snap has launched a public preview "Snapchat Camera for Chrome" on the Chrome Web Store. This browser extension allows users to apply playful and creative AR filters directly to their webcam feed during video calls, livestreams, and recordings.

To use the Snapchat Camera for Chrome, users will have to install the Snapchat Camera extension from the Chrome Web Store. Then, users need to log in to their Snapchat account and choose ‘Snapchat Camera’ as their camera for any app. Snap AR Lens has been a core feature of the Snapchat app since 2017, known for adding fun and interactive overlays to videos and photos. Now, the new extension aims to bring this same playful experience to video calls with friends, family, or colleagues.

5. Snapchat Announces Partnership With Data Management Platform Tealium

https://forbusiness.snapchat.com/blog/tealium-snap-partnership

Snapchat has announced a new partnership with data management platform Tealium, which will enable Tealium to provide a simplified process for gathering more data on your Snap campaigns, via Snap’s Conversions API.

Through this new official partnership, Tealium will be able to facilitate more access to customer data in real-time, incorporating web, mobile, and offline sources, helping to power your Snap ads. Essentially, Tealium will be empowered to get more Snap ad partners utilising more data insights, via the API and its own data resources. It seems like a good deal for both Snap and Tealium, with Snap looking to put more focus on building its ad business, and Tealium building its partnerships, making it a more valuable source for conversion data solutions.

6. Elon Musk Says X Now Has 600M Monthly Active Users

https://www.sarkaritel.com/x-platform-now-has-600-million-monthly-active-users-musk/

Elon claims that X is now up to 600 million monthly active users, and around 300 million daily actives.

A couple of months ago, X reported having 550 million monthly actives, and 250 million DAU in official data about its usage. X also reported reaching 500 million monthly users in March 2023. So, X seemingly added 50 million more users in a year based on these stats, but has now added another 50 million in just eight weeks. 

7. X Secures $6B in Funding for AI Projects

https://techcrunch.com/2024/05/26/elon-musks-xai-raises-6b-from-valor-a16z-and-sequoia/

xAI, the team building X’s Grok AI chatbot, and other elements within Musk’s family of businesses, has apparently secured almost $6 billion in additional funding from a variety of sources, including Lightspeed Venture Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital and Tribe Capital.

The new funding round sees xAI now valued at around $18 billion. Musk is one of the earliest and highest-profile entrepreneurs in the AI space. After forming xAI year, Musk released its chatbot ChatGPT-rival Grok 1.0 model in November. Later, the company made the model available through a chatbot to Premium+ users — who pay $16 a month — on X. In April, the company released the new Grok 1.5 model and also allowed Premium users on X to access the chatbot. Additionally, the Musk-owned company previewed Grok’s multimodal capabilities in April. Earlier this year, the company open-sourced the Grok model but without any training code.

8. X Will Require Ad Revenue Share Participants To Confirm Their ID

https://www.timesnownews.com/technology-science/x-introduces-mandatory-id-verification-for-ad-revenue-payouts-starting-july-2024-article-110361167

X has updated creator ad revenue share program documentation with a note that all participants will now need to submit a government-issued ID for verification.

Participants in the revenue share initiative will have till July to go through X’s ID verification process, which requires you to take a selfie and submit a copy of a Government ID to be checked. But it’s not going to be checked by an automated system, nor by a human working at X HQ. It’ll go through X’s third-party verification partner, Au10tix, to which X has outsourced its ID verification process to. Au10tix has been verifying X user profiles since September last year, as an added bonus for X Premium subscribers who want another marker of authenticity for their profile.

9. X Is Hiding Post Likes for All Users

https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/23/24163155/twitter-x-likes-hide-default

X is rolling out an update that will allow users to hide the “Likes” tab on their public profile.

The feature, which has been confirmed by the social media platform’s lead engineers, will result in users no longer being able to view posts liked by other users. The change comes following controversies where famous individuals were found to have liked NSFW posts on X. However, this freedom could lead to an uptick in controversial content being liked without restraint. Despite potential issues, the update is making waves as it grants users newfound liberty on the platform, which is widely being celebrated.

10. LinkedIn Adds Labels for AI-Generated Content

https://lightscamerasocial.com/blog/linkedin-adds-labels-to-ai-content/

LinkedIn is the latest social platform to add labels to AI-generated content in-stream, via a partnership with the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA), which uses data tagging to identify AI images.

AI-generated images posted on LinkedIn will now include a small C2PA tag in the top right of the in-stream visual. Tap on that icon and you’ll be able to see more info about the image. The tags will be automatically added, based on the code data embedded into the image, as identified by the C2PA process.

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.