Valentine surprise! TikTok returns to US app stores

... And YouTube celebrates its 20th birthday 🎂

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Hello, geeks!

Welcome to a loved-up edition of Geekout. 🥰

Happy Valentine’s Day, folks ❤️

Also… RIP Duo 🪦 More on that in a moment.

Before we dive in…

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🔥 GEEKOUT HOT 5

Geekout’s pick of the hottest headlines in social this week:

  1. Elon Musk’s X to pay Donald Trump $10m to settle lawsuit over Capitol attack [APPEASING]

  2. YouTube users watch on TVs more than mobile for first time ever [SCREEN-SHIFTING]

  3. TikTok sued over deaths of children said to have attempted ‘blackout challenge’ [DISTURBING]

  4. Meta opens Facebook Marketplace to rivals in the EU [UNSHACKLING]

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🚨 EVERYONE’S TALKING ABOUT…

TikTok makes a surprise return to US app stores

While TikTok only stopped working entirely for a few hours in the US a few weekends back, it’s been missing from mobile and TV app stores in the country ever since.

That’s not a big problem in the short term, but it meant any bugs that might crop up would be unfixable for US users. And new users couldn’t get their hands on the app while a deal to keep the app active in the country was thrashed out ahead of the new early April deadline.

TikTok had a workaround for Android users, at least. More than 100,000 Americans used sideloading to directly download the app from TikTok itself, circumventing the ban.

But it was no dice on the app stores. Apple and Google’s lawyers very smartly realised that if they took Donald Trump at his word that they would be okay to offer it again, they could find themselves liable for enormous fines years into the future if he, or the next president, got other ideas.

So it was a massive surprise late on Thursday US time, when it emerged that a letter from new US attorney general Pam Bondi had changed Apple and Google’s minds. Her word that they wouldn’t later face prosecution was clearly more assuring than Trump’s, and the app is back.

But TikTok’s future in the US is just as uncertain as it has been for years. Trump has asked Vice President JD Vance to negotiate a sale of TikTok ahead of the new April deadline.

That deadline, it seems Trump believes, could be extended. That would appear to go against American law which allowed for one extension… but when has the law ever stopped Trump?

Seriously now though… can this whole TikTok saga just end? It’s the most long-running, slow-moving story I can remember in my long career in social media. Sort it out, guys.

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✨ NEW & NOTEWORTHY

Everything else you need to know from the past seven days…

Meta / Facebook 👥

  • Meta warned users not to fall for romance scammers posing as celebrities or military

  • Meta announced a partnership with Childhelp to help kids avoid online predators online

  • Gambling firms have been caught secretly sharing users’ data with Facebook without permission

  • Facebook is asking Page admins to confirm their content is not intended for children under 13 years old

  • Meta has curbed its privacy teams’ sway over product releases, adding more automation to privacy reviews

  • Meta is looking to cull around 5% of its global workforce (around 4,000 jobs), while hiring more AI engineers.

  • …but it’s ‘low performer’ layoffs have been disputed by fired staffers and criticised by experts

  • Meta is Arm’s first customer for an ambitious new chip project

  • Facebook now lets you reuse Reels audio in other Reels

Instagram / Messenger 📨

Instagram’s Valentine-themed fonts + text effect for Stories and Reels

WhatsApp 💬 / Threads 🧵

WhatsApp testing ability to add social media links to profiles

Twitter (‘X’) 🤡

YouTube 📺

Credit: YouTube [via r/youtube on Reddit]

  • YouTube turns 20 years old today. But the first video wasn’t uploaded for another two months

  • YouTube has expanded text-to-speech for Shorts and announced a new teen safety initiative⁠

  • YouTube is testing a new Quiz sticker for Shorts

  • YouTube is giving its TV apps better handling of Shorts, full-screen previews, and new parental controls

  • YouTube's new comment section UI on Android and iOS introduces a visual 'thread' indicator, but it doesn't actually thread replies 🤔

  • HMRC has warned UK YouTube creators they might have to pay tax on their side-hustle earnings

  • YouTube TV and Paramount have signed a short-term deal to avoid blackout following contract dispute

TikTok 📱

Telegram / LinkedIn / Discord / More… ⚡️

  • Telegram has new features including ‘copy video link at current time,’ saved progress for videos, and more

  • LinkedIn now offers improved post sharing options, including sharing with connections recently interacted with, and sharing to other platforms like WhatsApp and Messenger

  • Discord has added a feature to ignore rather than block users

  • Tumblr is set to join the Fediverse after its migration to WordPress migration is complete

  • Giphy has shared insights into romantic GIF usage all year round

🔥 Want to see more hot NEW features spotted in the wild this week?

Just head to the More news’ section below!

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🤖 SOCIAL A.I.

The newest social media A.I. features spotted this week:

Also spotted this week… 👀

  • YouTube is going to let you put AI-generated video clips in Shorts

  • YouTube has new AI updates including auto-dubbing expansion, age ID tech, and more

  • Reddit plans to integrate its AI-powered Reddit Answers feature into its existing search

  • TikTok LIVE now lets you add a label to disclose AI-generated content

  • Threads now labels posts containing digitally created AI-generated content that appears real

  • Meta is testing a new AI ‘Creator’s Assistant’ in Messenger 

  • Meta now warns users that its AI systems will scan your DMs when prompted (covering their ass!)

  • Elon Musk says xAI’s ‘scary smart’ next AI model chatbot Grok 3 is coming in weeks

  • Telegram has added AI-powered sticker search

  • Google Whisk, an image remixing tool, is now available in 100+ countries

  • ByteDance has released an open-source generative model called VideoWorld

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😆 LOL

OpenAI’s Sam Altman is in no mood to take Elon Musk’ bully-boy s**t 😀

You must know this feeling…

.

📈 MEMES

Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl performance instantly became a meme…

Get more Kendrick memes here!

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🌡️ VIRAL

RIP DUO: Super hero comic writers have known this for decades… if you want to juice more interest in your character, kill them off.

The ‘death’ of the Duolingo owl was a viral success this week.

As the internet mourned, with memes:

And of course, the brands got involved:

Of course, it was all a stunt. The owl lives on. 🦉🙌

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🪧 BRANDS

POPPI VENDING MACHINE DRAMA: Not all brands had as good a week on social media as Duolingo…

“It turns out people don’t want to see a bunch of influencers get vending machines in their houses.”

Also:

  • BURGER KING: Oof! What was this all about? Burger King denied terminating Dentsu’s contract as a post on their Instagram account suggested

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🏈 SUPER BOWL SOCIAL

Booking.com with the Muppets topped the list of most-watched Super Bowl ads on YouTube…

Also:

  • Congratulations to Tubi, the most-talked-about brand on social media during Super Bowl last weekend…

  • The NFL went after Gen Z fans by courting creators on YouTube, Instagram and Snapchat for Super Bowl content.

🙊 WHAT DID YOU SAY?!

“I don’t have any plans for what would I do if I had TikTok”

Elon Musk tries to scotch rumours he’s trying to buy TikTok

  • "Leave or disagree and commit"Meta CTO Andrew ‘Boz’ Bosworth says staff should quit if they don’t like the company’s new policies

  • Our brand and reputation and stock price may be harmed" if it goes overboard on DEI, Pinterest admits the reason so many companies have ben scared off DEI initiatives in the US recently

  • Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes says that Trump and his allies will “handicap government.”

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🦹 VILLAIN OF THE WEEK

Kanye West (AKA Ye) is no stranger to far-right outbursts, but he outdid himself this week.

First he said he was a Nazi and called on Donald Trump to free Sean Combs (WTF), then he deleted his account.

Now he’s back but with a content warning attached to his account

Friends star David Schwimmer called on Elon Musk to ban Kanye West from X once and for all:

“We can’t stop a deranged bigot from spewing hate filled, ignorant bile… but we CAN stop giving him a megaphone, Mr. Musk." 

Quite right, Ross from Friends, quite right.

Meanwhile…

  • A weird deepfake AI ad starring Mark Zuckerberg, Drake and more wearing "f**k Kanye" t-shirts went viral in protest to Ye's anti-Semitic posts

  • … But Scarlett Johansson was NOT happy about it.

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👀 MY FAV READS

YOUTUBE SEES RED: Did you notice? YouTube switched to a new shade of red for its logo late last year.

Here are the fascinating reasons why….

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😮 WTF?!

People sure seem to love AI slop…

Given a long enough time window - every possible thing you could do, no matter how weird, will become a TikTok trend.

Also this week:

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🤦 FAIL

“The bogus handle has since been deleted, but Myriam Spiteri Debono’s real account still doesn’t have a grey tick.”

Also failing this week:

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📲 NEW APPS

Buzzfeed is developing its own social media platform.

It’s being billed as a bold move to counter the current negativity on the internet.

Also in the news:

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👔 YOU’RE HIRED!

Hot new social media jobs worth checking out this week:

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👌 PRO TIPS

Also…

  • Snapchat has shared marketing tips for Valentine’s Day (they might be useful if you hurry!)

.

📊 SOCIAL STATS

116,000

– The number of accounts Meta has already taken down in 2025 that are associated with romance scammers posing as celebrities or military. Happy Valentine’s Day! ❤️

  • TIKTOK: 84% of songs that entered the Billboard Global 200 in 2024 went viral on TikTok first

  • THREADS: 57% of marketers currently post on Threads, with an additional 23% planning to establish a presence on the platform this year

  • INSTAGRAM saw a 16% growth in creator content after the TikTok ban, while TikTok experienced a slight decrease

  • REDDIT: AI licensing deals with Google and OpenAI make up 10% of Reddit's revenue

  • REDDIT: Daily active unique visitors on Reddit rose 39% to 101.7 million in Q4, but missed analysts' average estimate of 103.3 million

  • YOUTUBE: A Google lawyer says that less than 1% of views on YouTube come from Search links

  • PERPLEXITY: AI search app Perplexity's Super Bowl post on X increased app installs by 50%

  • SNAPCHAT: India’s AR Developer community has grown by over 50% in two years, now home to the highest number of Snapchat AR Lenses globally

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📈 CHARTED

How the Instagram algorithm works: charted…

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MORE META NEWS

  • Senator Dick Durbin has pressed Meta to explain why it can’t stop sending traffic to nonconsensual AI image generators that violate its policy. [404 Media]

  • US House Democrats have pressed Mark Zuckerberg on the timing of Meta’s recent policy changes. [Engadget]

  • Federal workers say they increasingly distrust platforms like Facebook. [The Verge]

  • Meta is reportedly in talks to buy a Korean AI chip startup founded by a former Samsung engineer. [Forbes $$$]

  • Meta’s laid off 'low performers' have been defending themselves on LinkedIn and Reddit. [Fast Company]

New features and tests:

Instagram:

  • Instagram has expanded teen accounts to India. [TechCrunch]

  • Instagram has added two new chat themes, Flirt and American Football. [@oncescruadu]

  • Instagram has added more fonts and text effects to Stories and Reels. [@oncescuradu]

Threads:

The rest: Creator Studio / Adtech / Quest and more:

  • Meta will soon move your saved payment information to Accounts Center and sync it across your other accounts. [@theahmedghanem]

  • Meta has expanded support for third-party ad placement blocklists. [Social Media Today]

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MORE X NEWS

  • Fake, viral conspiracies on X have overrun US politics. [Semafor]

  • X must release information enabling researchers to track the spread of election-swaying information on the network, a German court has ruled. [Reuters $$$]

  • Saudi Prince Alwaleed says he invested $3 billion in X and has never marked down his shares. [Semafor]

  • Morgan Stanley has kicked off its $2.97 billion X loan sale. [Bloomberg $$$]

  • …and demand is apparently high enough for them to increase the offering. [Bloomberg $$$]

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MORE TIKTOK NEWS

  • TikTok Shop is expanding into Mexico this month. [MediaPost]

New features and tests:

  • TikTok has moved the ‘Translate comment’ button next to the “Reply” button. [@oncescuradu]

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💥 EVEN MORE SOCIAL MEDIA NEWS & UPDATES

  • Channel 4 will launch Instagram and TikTok social content channels on back of its YouTube success. [Campaign $$$]

  • Former Facebook employees have launched a $60 million venture fund for influencers. [Bloomberg $$$]

  • Yahoo News has signed up nearly 100 YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram creators to its ‘Stories From Creators’ ad revenue sharing program. [Bloomberg $$$]

  • Trump and Musk have used social media posts to get journalists fired. [New York Times $$$]

  • The Bop House is an OnlyFans paradise that pulls millions per month. [Vice]

  • Reddit has announced a market insights partnership with Intercontinental Exchange. [Social Media Today]

New features and tests:

  • Snapchat’s beta app now lets you to test out and purchase digital wardrobe Bitmoji fashion for free. [@jonahmanzano]

  • Amazon has launched a Canva integration for creators to easily design and publish to storefronts. [Lindsey Gamble]

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📰 WEEKEND READS

Geekout’s pick of the best longer reads to sink into over the weekend:

“Once reserved for romantic partners and other loved ones, the heart emoji can now mean anything—which means it has no meaning at all.”

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😳 AND FINALLY…

When old trends come back to bite you… 💀

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📅 BACK NEXT WEEK…

Time for me to love you and leave you, because you’ve reached the end of this week’s Geekout.

I hope the one you love the most turns up the romance dial for you this weekend. 🎚️💗

And if you’re single… Trump is here for you 😁

Credit: Giphy

Goodbye, geeks!

p.s. This newsletter is edited by Martin SFP Bryant

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