Instagram’s latest growth hack could earn you $20,000

...but Meta’s bid to cancel its trial fails

Author

Matt Navarra
May 23, 2025

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Hello, geeks!

This week has been full of brand social drama.🔥

Duolingo is battling AI backlash, losing thousands of followers in the process

Chilis and TGI Fridays are trading insults… over mozzarella sticks

And HBO is still getting roasted over its re-re-rebrand

Meanwhile, The FTC’s antitrust case against Meta spilt more tea.

And Instagram is offering up to $20,000 to creators to hack new growth.

Plus 50+ new social media platform features spotted in the wild.

Also…

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🔥 GEEKOUT HOT 5

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

Instagram is offering creators up to $20,000 to bring people to the app

Instagram is testing a limited-time monetization program called "Referrals" in the US.

  1. Judge rejected Meta’s request to dismiss FTC antitrust case early [DISMISSING]

  2. France, Spain, and Greece back new EU proposal to ban teens from social media [SHIELDING]

  3. EU started investigation into TikTok’s ‘SkinnyTok’ content for risks to teens [PROBING]

  4. Instagram teen accounts flooded with harmful content, independent research found [ALARMING]

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Geekout Newsletter Stats: 

  • 30,000+ subscribers

  • Open Rate: 55%+

  • Ad CTR: 1.5%-4%+

  • Read by social teams at: Apple, Disney, Redbull, McDonalds, Nike, Netflix

  • Previous advertisers: Google, Morning Brew, Hootsuite, Sprout Social, Meta

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🚨 EVERYONE’S TALKING ABOUT…

Meta gets its chance to hit back

FTC v. Meta: The antitrust battle over WhatsApp and Instagram

Well, it was worth a try. Meta this week failed to get the judge in its big trial to throw the case out.

The company had argued that the FTC had not successfully made a case against the company: "The FTC has no proof that Meta has monopoly power… and therefore the court should rule in favour of Meta," the motion stated.

But with the case near to its close anyway, and Meta set to plead its case in detail, the trial continued this week.

Meta put across a concise set of arguments against the idea it’s a monopoly and that user experience is being harmed by ‘enshittification’ due to no competition.

I mean, you read Geekout. You KNOW Meta has competition. And Meta knows it too. The company argued it faces tough competition from TikTok, YouTube, and iMessage—not just Snapchat and a little-known app called MeWe that the FTC brought up in its case for some reason.

To defend itself, Meta said Facebook and Instagram benefitted from India’s ban on TikTok, with both apps seeing a 20% increase in time spent on them within two weeks on the ban taking place. This means, the logic goes, that Meta has fierce competition from TikTok and users only switched when they were forced to drop their preferred app.

WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton also spoke in Meta’s defence, saying his app had no plans to compete with Facebook. As Bloomberg reports:

“We had no ambition to build Facebook-like functionality like a feed or any Facebook-like features,” Acton said Tuesday during testimony at a federal courthouse in Washington. He also said that WhatsApp could have stuck with a subscription business instead of selling targeted ads if the service had remained independent.

Of course, just because WhatsApp’s motivations to sell to Meta (then Facebook) fit Meta’s narrative, it doesn’t mean Meta hasn’t used WhatsApp’s dominance in the messaging space around the world to its benefit since then.

This week in court revealed more interesting insights into Meta’s business, such as that Reels now account for the most time spent on Facebook, while the feed and Stories are in decline.

How the judge will interpret the FTC’s case, and Meta’s defence, remains to be seen. But looking in from outside the courtroom, the idea that Meta has a monopoly seems ridiculous.

Is there enshittification in its apps? Maybe. But if so, you can easily put that down to a strong motivation to increase ad load. That’s not driven by monopoly, simply by sticky apps users that want keep using, and executives keen to keep to take advantage of that to make Meta’s revenue numbers go up.

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✨ NEW & NOTEWORTHY

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

Meta / Facebook 👥

  • Meta will begin deleting political ads from its Ad Library this weekend, following its original seven-year retention policy

  • Meta got the EU green light to train AI on user data — but still faces opposition

  • Meta appears to be gearing up for more layoffs, according to a leaked internal memo

  • Meta and Blumhouse are launching Horrorverse, a VR horror world inside Meta Horizon

  • Meta locked in another 650MW of solar to power its AI ambitions

  • Facebook was slammed for an ‘attack on local journalism’ after it put restrictions on a third UK news page in a month

  • Facebook added a poll feature to Notes

  • Facebook made it easier to share posts

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Instagram ✨

Instagram’s new ‘Shared Access’ feature | Image: @ihammod_oh

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WhatsApp 🟢 / Threads 🧵  

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Twitter (‘X’) 🤡

  • Elon Musk now only lets verified accounts reply to his X posts (Elmo tired of the trolls his platform breeds?)

  • X has implemented new measures to detect manipulation of Community Notes

  • A fire in a battery room at X’s Oregon data centre triggered hours of emergency response, and has been linked to platform outages

  • Trump’s FTC is probing liberal group Media Matters over its involvement an X ad boycott. Chilling.

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YouTube 📺

YouTube’s Quiz sticker is rolling out to more users

  • YouTube Shorts creators can now add quiz stickers to videos, while voice replies are rolling out on Android, letting creators post audio responses to comments

  • YouTube Premium Lite, the budget ad-free tier, is expanding to Canada, the UK, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, and more

  • YouTube’s Foundry programme has returned for its 9th year to boost emerging independent music artists.

  • YouTube TV will now let you pick channels to create your own multiview experience

  • YouTube hosted its first event to campaign for Emmy recognition for creator-led shows including Hot Ones

  • YouTube urged advertisers to think beyond tentpoles and invest in creator-led, always-on culture

  • Disney is suing YouTube for hiring its top media and sports exec, accusing it of poaching him mid-contract

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TikTok 📱

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Bluesky / LinkedIn / Reddit / More… 🦋

You can now apply for blue tick verification on Bluesky

  • Bluesky now lets ‘notable’ users apply for a blue tick, much like old-school Twitter… Which is why critics say it will reintroduce a Twitter-style clout hierarchy.

  • Bluesky is testing a new NBA playoff feature showing a “live” red border on posts from the NBA account

  • LinkedIn’s updated Revenue Attribution Report shows how multiple people at a target company engage with your ads

  • Reddit plans to require users to verify they’re human, as bot-driven manipulation spikes

  • Reddit has rolled out its Dynamic Product Ads to all advertisers

  • France has barred Telegram founder Pavel Durov from US travel amid his ongoing criminal case

  • …but Telegram turned a $173m loss into $540m profit last year, with revenues hitting $1.4b

  • Snapchat has feature called ‘Snaps Mode’ for Plus subscribers, allowing you to customise how your Snaps are experienced by friends

  • CapCut is revising its paid subscription plans and pricing

  • Surf, Flipboard’s open social web app, now offers Starter Sets for custom feeds.

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🔥 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:

TikTok Adds a Dedicated AI Assistant for In-App Sellers

TikTok's new "Seller Assistant" will provide guidance to help optimize your TikTok Shop listings.

Also spotted this week 👀

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💬 YOU CAN QUOTE ME ON THAT

When I’m quoted in the news, you’ll find it here:

I spoke to NBC News about the potential impact of KOSA on social media platforms (quote image)

Republicans seek to boost AI while tightening grip on social media and online speech

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😆 LOL

INSTA-FURY: This is over a year old but it’s doing the rounds again, and it very funny to read… 💀

Meanwhile, back at the office…

File this one under ‘brand spat cringe’…

Chili’s and TGI Friday’s have been exchanging insults this week — over mozzarella sticks

And Soren Iverson has another brutally amusing idea for a new LinkedIn feature…

“LinkedIn show what they actually contributed to a project when they post about it”

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🌡️ VIRAL

What does your Reddit username say about you? ChatGPT has the answer…

ChatGPT is turning Reddit usernames into images, and the results are unhinged

The results range from cute and quirky to unhinged nightmare fuel… 😳

Also:

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🪧 BRANDS

If you thought Duolingo could do no wrong online, well…

Facing heavy backlash online after unveiling its new AI-first policy, Duolingo went dark over the weekend on the social media channels where it cultivated an enormous following with quirky posts…

“Let’s just say we’re experimenting with silence,” a spokesperson for Duolingo told Fast Company over email. “Sometimes, the best way to make noise is to disappear first.”

If that last line sounds like a cryptic Don Draperism, it recalls one of the more famous pieces of advice from Mad Men: “If you don’t like what is being said, change the conversation.”

Duolingo deletes all its TikTok videos after AI backlash—and then returns with a strange message

Also:

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🙊 WHAT DID YOU SAY?!

“The last social identity you have to create”

– Bluesky CEO Jay Graber on her ambitions for the social internet

Also overheard this week:

  • “You could think of sharing in-feed as standing on top of your roof, yelling something at a hundred people and hoping that 20 people hear it. There's some things I would do that for. But the average thing — the amount of things I would say to you on a phone call, my wife on a phone call, my best friend on a phone call — there's a lot more of those things.” 

    - Adam Mosseri on why private sharing has overtaken public sharing on Instagram

  • “We saw what happened in the 1980s when our manufacturing sector steeply declined. Now it is our office workers who are staring down the same kind of technological and economic disruption.”

    – LinkedIn’s chief economic opportunity officer, Aneesh Raman thinks AI is coming for white-collar jobs, starting with entry-level roles

  • “YouTube is the next best thing to an in-person conversation” 

    – YouTube’s Brian Albert’s pitch to brands is “Think YouTube first,” not TV-first, across AI, Shorts, and cultural sponsorships.

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👀 MY FAV READS

How HBO MAX nailed the art of turning a branding blunder into a social media win…

the art of the rebrand

what to steal from HBO MAX's identity crisis 🥸

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🎧 MUST LISTEN

Instagram bossman Mosseri says IG users now share more privately than publicly, shifting from feed posts to DMs and stories

This "paradigm shift" is shaping Meta’s growth strategy: Reels drive both views + private engagement, creating a loop that supports ad revenue.

Mosseri reveals a lot in this podcast interview…

Meta's Adam Mosseri explains how Instagram really works - and how he wants to build Threads

🤦‍♂️ FAIL

TikTok’s algorithm pushes women’s content to hostile male audiences.

“Female creators are getting barraged with misogynistic comments, and taking matters into their own hands.”

Why TikTok's For You page isn't a safe space for women

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😮 WTF?!

Telegram fan who shares Pavel Durov’s resentment of WhatsApp? Has he got a contest for you….

Telegram CEO Pavel Durov launches $50K viral video contest to expose WhatsApp’s 'cheap copycat' moves

Also this week 👀

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👔 YOU’RE HIRED!

Hot new social media jobs worth checking out this week:

Instagram is looking for a Social Media Manager [Remote, USA]

More top social media jobs spotted this week 💼

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👌 PRO TIPS

An Overview of Each Platform’s AI Tools for Advertisers

AI tools are driving better response for many advertisers.

More pro-tips worth checking out ✨

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📊 SOCIAL STATS

$8 BILLION

- The figure OnlyFans is reportedly in talks to sell off its p**n empire for

Even more social stats: 📈

  • UNFRIENDED: Friend content viewing on Instagram fell from 11% to 7% for US users over two years

  • REEL GOOD: Reels now dominate Instagram use, 51% of time spent on short videos.

  • INSTA-SWITCH: When users were paid to spend less time on Instagram, nearly 19% switched to YouTube, while just 2.2% went to Snapchat

  • BIG MONEY: 

  • TUBING-UP: YouTube TV ads have overtaken mobile spend for the first time. In Q1 2025, TV ads claimed 43% of spend, edging out mobile at 42%.

  • POST-ARREST SPIKE: Telegram shared data with authorities on 22,777 users in Q1 2025, up nearly 4x from last year, following Pavel Durov’s arrest

  • SPIKING: India’s TikTok ban triggered a 20% spike in time spent on Facebook and Instagram within two weeks

  • HAPPY SHOPPERS? 75% of US adults who believe social shopping encourages impulse spending. Over half say hosts feel more entertaining than trustworthy

  • SOCIAL BOOM: Social media budgets have jumped 9% YoY

  • FLAGGED: YouTube processed 2.2 billion copyright claims in 2024 — a new record. 99.43% were flagged by the automated Content ID system

  • BRANDS VS. CREATORS: Consumers report following nearly 2x more creators (13) than brands (7) on social media

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📈 CHARTED

The FTC’s antitrust trial revealed the extent of Meta’s video takeover…

Meta revealed in court that Reels now drive the most time spent on Facebook, while Feed and Stories decline.

And public posting is fading fast with users sending 63x more DMs than posts to feed.

More charted social insights spotted this week: 👀.

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💥 EVEN MORE SOCIAL MEDIA NEWS & UPDATES

Social media use may cause depression among young people, new study finds

The study's author explains what parents can glean from the data.

  • Social media use may cause depression among young people, new study finds. [Mashable]

  • A federal court dismissed a lawsuit against Lil Nas X claiming he copied Instagram photos from freelance model Rodney Woodland. [Rolling Stone]

  • Researchers have scraped 2 billion Discord messages and published them online. [404 Media]

  • TikTok has offered to meet with Brazil’s government after Lula and First Lady Janja raised concerns about its impact on kids and women. [Bloomberg $$$]

  • Netflix has announced ‘House of Streams’ — an interactive reality show with streamers and a Bitcoin prize. [Variety]

  • Google has shown off its own prototype smart glasses to take on Meta’s Ray-Bans. [The Verge]

  • Meta has scrambled to deliver a bugfix after a Quest 3 update tanked frame rates. [Road to VR]

  • Snapchat has opened a 4,000m² office in Paris to boost its presence in France, its biggest European market with 27 million users. [Social Media Today]

  • TikTok has hired a new consumer and B2B comms chief from Warner Bros Discovery. [Deadline]

  • Reddit says that subreddits influence every stage of the buying funnel—from discovery to decision. [Social Media Today]

New features and tests:

  • TED’s new AI-powered video feed is basically TikTok for intellectuals. [@MattNavarra]

  • WhatsApp is testing the ability to mark channel updates as starred. [@WABetaInfo]

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📰 WEEKEND READS

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

“Two visions for social media’s future pit real connections against AI friends…”

Meta hypes AI friends as social media’s future, but users want real connections

Another great weekend read:

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😳 AND FINALLY…

Hot mating action in your area… “To celebrate National Endangered Species Day, the Quick Response Fund for Nature (QRFN) launched an OnlyFans account.”

This OnlyFans Account Is Saving Endangered Species With Mating Content

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📅 BACK NEXT WEEK…

That’s everything you need to know this week, folks.

I’m heading off to get an early night…

My teenage daughter has sweet talked me into getting up at 6am to drive her the 6 hour round-trip from Cardiff to London tomorrow morning (Saturday), to queue up for the ‘Edikted’ pop-up event in Covent Garden.

Apparently it’s a big deal.

I feel so old.

Have a great weekend.

Goodbye, geeks!

P.S. This newsletter is edited by Martin SFP Bryant

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