Weekly social roundup

Are you ready for it?

What a day. What a week. What a year!!

Anyone else watching all the TikToks surrounding Jeff Bezos’ wedding, or is it just me? As someone who can’t even afford 1% of their wedding, I seem to have A LOT of thoughts on it. 🙃

I digress…

Social media is, once again, doing the absolute most. Meta had a great week in court (see below), Elon Musk is pushing hard for X to become the Everything App, and TikTok doesn’t seem to be going anywhere anytime soon in the US, but is that actually legal (hint: nope!).

But enough of my rambling at the top! Let’s get into it.

P.S. VEED is still offering 50% OFF the first 3 months for Talk Social To Me listeners.

Copyright who?

Meta AI won court case against authors it stole from 📚

It was a sad day for a lot of authors who sued Meta for using the authors’ work to help train Meta’s AI. 

Last week, a judge ruled in Meta’s favor, saying that Meta was protected under “the fair use doctrine of U.S. copyright law.”

The reason for the case is that these authors claimed Meta violated copyright law, as Meta didn’t ask for permission to use their work. However, according to the judge, the authors didn’t come up with a good enough case to show that Meta’s use of their works caused “market harm.”

If you ask me, if AI is being trained on actual work and keeps getting better and better (which it is), couldn’t that directly impact the market, thus causing harm?

I don’t know. I’m not a lawyer, but it feels like there is something there.

While this case was in Meta’s favor, it doesn’t seem like this will be the first or last against Meta’s AI using work that isn’t their own. 

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Top social media highlights from the week 🗞️

Meta

• New Story reactions are coming to Facebook.

• Instagram and TikTok are both creating apps TV apps.

• It looks like Meta’s biggest competition is trying to poach users using … WhatsApp? I’m into it.

• You can officially downvote comments on Instagram.

• A new Reels feed has been added, and it’s all the Reels your friends have liked recently.

• You can change the background color of your Instagram Notes to make it stand out amongst the crowd!

• You can now repost your past Instagram content to your followers inside the main feed.

• Threads is now allowing users to manage their hidden words even further with phrases, emojis, and blocking time limits.

• Not sure how to feel about this (probably not great). MetaAI has memorized large sections of novels, like 1984 and Harry Potter.

• Instagram is encouraging users to share Reels to Threads … even after Threads claimed videos don’t do well on the platform. Mmmk.

• Because ads are now coming to your WhatsApp, Meta is allowing you to update your ad preferences.

• Threads is suggesting prompts to users who haven’t posted in a while.

• There is a new tab in Instagram trending audio to show you which songs are trending most with your audience.

TikTok

• Is it possible that President Trump is breaking the law by extending the TikTok ban again?

• Oh, look! TikTok is stealing features from Instagram! Bulletin Boards (aka: Broadcast Channels) are coming to TikTok, where creators and brands can create a space specifically to chat with their audience.

• Like eBay but on TikTok? A new countdown bidding option has been added to Livestreams.

• TikTok moderators are speaking out about working conditions. Being exposed to graphic content day in and day out is taking a major toll on the mental health of the employees.

• Want advertisers to use your posts in their ads? You can now set that as an option in your videos, plus auto-remove unauthorized sounds.

• Apps sure do love gamification! TikTok has launched LIVE journey to help creators reach new milestones (and grow more!) when going live on the platform.

• Okay, I can get on board with this… TikTok Studio has added Smart Split, which splits long videos into short-form content.

X

• The Everything App is moving forward with new info dropping about X’s new physical debit card. Yes, physical debit card.

• Random. Elon Musk hates the “esthetic” of hashtags so much that they are now banned from X ads.

• You can now translate all posts on X with Grok.

• Uh, what? Apparently, X will start charging based on the size of your ad. Interesting. 

• GrokAI officially connects to Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive.

YouTube

• Why wasn’t this a thing before?! YouTube is finally increasing the minimum age for live streaming from 13 to 16.

• AI is being integrated more and more into YouTube. Now, you will get an AI overview when you search certain topics on YouTube.

• YouTube is making it easier than ever to sell and purchase on its platform with new product stickers on Shorts.

• YouTube is giving more users access to auto-dubbing, beat-matching, and so much more.

• YouTube is pitching itself for TV, telling producers and businesses that it’s the place for long content and episodic series.

• YouTube is going all in on subscriptions, saying that subscriptions will be bigger than ad growth on the platform.

• Video record your podcasts! 1 billion (yes, BILLION!) people stream podcasts on YouTube, with 400 MILLION hours being watched per month.

• Musicians! YouTube created an entire resource packet to help you grow on the platform (and it’s lengthy!).

• Want to know how YouTube’s algorithm works? They are letting you in on the secret.

Others

• Just something interesting I came across … Snap bought Saturn, a calendar app that helps students share and manage their school schedules. What could they want with that?

• LinkedIn is pushing hard on video content. You can now make your LinkedIn header image a video to really make it stand out.

• BeReal is back, baby (not that it actually went anywhere)! But will it capture its big viral moment again?

• Could Netflix be the next place for short-form videos?

• Seems like Linktree is pushing hard to reengage users with its new rewards program.

• Big ol’ YIKES! A massive data breach has happened across social media and compromised over 16 billion passwords. Change your password if you haven’t already!

• Woah. Brazil’s Supreme Court has ruled that social media platforms are liable for users’ posts.

Did yours get deleted?!

WTF happened to Facebook Groups this week? 🫣

Whoops-a-daisy. 

Did a Facebook group you run or are in suddenly disappear this week? Same. 

According to Facebook, there was a “technical error” that caused thousands of Facebook groups to be suspended.

Some admins were told the group was “dangerous,” and others didn’t get any message, but their groups of 600,000 people were just … gone.

While the mass Facebook group deletion/suspension happened last week, it seems this has been happening more and more often. There is even a Reddit thread where people are complaining about their accounts being deleted by Meta without explanation. 

While Meta denies that its AI moderation tools are causing these issues, people can’t help but point out that these problems only really started happening when AI became more of a thing on the platform. 

Even if the AI tools are the issue, they’re not going anywhere anytime soon, so you’ll have to keep fighting with Facebook to get your account back. 

Extras!!

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We live in the future!!!

Reddit will scan irises to verify users 👀

This feels like a scene from Mission: Impossible. 

Reddit is the latest social media platform to try and figure out how to verify users’ identities. 

And it seems like the company is interested in using World ID, a company co-founded by Sam Altman of OpenAI that scans your iris. 

While it’s not an official thing yet, it is something Reddit is considering as companies around the world might one day be forced to verify all of their users’ ages. Using a third-party tool like World ID would mean that Reddit wouldn’t store users’ data, and, apparently, they would “do [their] best to preserve both the humanness and anonymity of Reddit.”

The iris scanning is a bit complex, and you can read all about it here, but as our eyes are all unique, it would be like a fingerprint that you scan to use the platform. 

The future is here, folks!!

A curated list of fun things to read

My favorite reads of the week

Other reads I really loved and have been thinking quite a bit about:

1. Why brands are ditching big-time influencers and working with smaller influencers with niche audiences.

2. The meme taking over the world: Monitoring the situation.

Nominate Your Faves

Creator of the week

I’m going to be promoting a new account that I think everyone should follow! And, of course, I would love to give this opportunity to someone who follows Talk Social To Me first! 

If you or someone you know should be promoted, submit their info, and they could be posted here. 👀

Time to start recording

Trending audio of the week 🕺

inclusivesocialclub

12K followers

View more on Instagram

I Don’t Care What You Say Anymore (Billy Joel – My Life)

This classic Billy Joel line is back, baby!! Creators are using it to reclaim their life choices. Whether it’s quirky habits or unexpected life decisions, it’s all about proudly living your truth.

How it works: Add text over the clip with something someone criticizes or questions, then let the lyric take over to show you don’t care and are doing it anyway.

Examples:

• “When your friend questions if you have too many lipsticks”

• “When my mom asks if I really needed another houseplant”

Great for: Lifestyle & fashion creators, anyone with hot takes or guilty pleasures

Want 20+ trends broken down for you every single week? Sign up for Social Sound Report, a weekly newsletter bringing you all the current trending audio and how to tailor it to your brand and niche!

Annnnd, that’s it for this week.

Thanks for reading. I love you all, and can’t thank you enough for the support.

@talksocialtome_

Never not confused when it comes to Meta Business Suite #socialmediamanagermeme #socialmediameme #socialmediavsreallife #socialmediatips #... See more

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See you next week!

Mackenzie