warning! twitter jailbreak in progress…

Hello, geeks

Last week, Twitter was in chaos.

Next week? It’s gonna get crazy. 

Elon is about to unlock the cell doors of Twitter’s jail. 

Or as Casey Newton more aptly describes it, "the Joker is freeing all the inmates in Arkham Asylum’" But sadly, Batman is not here to save us.

Shit is about to get real. 

I give it a week before we start seeing a lot more advertisers pull the plug on their Twitter ad spend. Starting a new ad campaign next week be like…

Meanwhile, social media managers are looking at each other asking ‘WTF should we do here? Some more thoughts and ideas worth checking out here.

If you’re wondering what Twitter 2.0 (Elon edition) will look like in 2023, someone made a demo. Watch this 😆

There’s been a LOT of talk about Twitter alternatives, but IMO, I still think it's too early to get off the Twitter crazy train just yet. This week, Hive got a lot of attention. 

BTW… You can find me here on Mastadon and Post.

Annnnnyway… More on yet another crazy week at Twitter in a moment, plus the other big stories making headlines in social media land.

But first…

• Meta’s jaw-dropping 3D billboard ad in London 😲 

• The NEW scariest thing on Twitter 😱

• The freaky AI-generated Matt Navarra 🤖

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Alrighty… Let’s get into it. Let’s take a look at the hottest headlines in social this week:

🔥 GEEKOUT HOT 5

1. Twitter Reinstates Donald Trump’s Account Following Sketchy Poll [DUMB]

2. Elon Musk Invites Worst People on the Internet Back to Twitter [DUMBER]

3. Twitter to Relaunch Verification With Multi-Coloured Check Marks [CHECK AGAIN] 

4. Facebook Reveal Algorithm Update To Reduce Trashy Top Posts [TOP TRASH]

5. Meta to Prevent ‘Suspicious’ Adults Messaging Teens on Facebook + Instagram [NEW BLOCK]

It’s been an unusually quiet week for social media updates this week. 

The U.S. winding down for Thanksgiving, I suspect. 

Here’s everything else I spotted that’s new and noteworthy:

Mark Zuckerberg has been pushing WhatsApp as Meta’s new moneymaker (gotta feed that Metaverse cash vacuum somehow)... Facebook made a bold design change to its iOS app… And it’s dividing opinion… Facebook is rolling out Story Comments to more users. 

Facebook Group admins got a new ‘Content Explorer’ tool to help discover things to share into their communities… Instagram now shows a count of total shares on Reels… Instagram’s new communities feature has started to appear for some users… And Facebook has added a new ‘Share to Instagram Direct Message’ button.

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Twitter has made a BOLD change this week (I'm not a fan)... TikTok now lets you request verification (and get declined) in-app… LinkedIn added several new features including auto captions for videos, an emoji picker tool, and more… Twitch announced new child protection features… and a bunch of other new stuff including ‘reactions’... Spotify has a new one-click audio enhancement feature for its anchor podcasting tool.

If you’re a fan of (or just fascinated by) MrBeast, you’ll enjoy this profile piece in The Guardian… And this breakdown of MrBeast’s business empire… Wondering why Donald Trump hasn’t made a return to Twitter since being un-banned? This is probably why… Google launched a new Google Search ranking algorithm explainer and updates hub… 

And finally… Now even Microsoft Powerpoint has a portrait mode!

DID YOU SEE… 👀

• ⚡️ EXCLUSIVE: The Geekout Group On FB Now Has 30k Members[REQUEST INVITE]

• ✨ PRO-TIPS: The Golden Rules of Personal Branding [TELL ME]

• 📒 EXPLAINER: Everything You Need to Know About Hive Social [SHOW ME]

• 🎨 DESIGN: 12 Graphic Design Trends Worth Knowing About in 2023 [REVEAL]

• 🤳🏻 TIKTOK: How To Optimise Video Discoverability on TikTok [HELP ME]

Time for us to dig into the top stories everyone’s talking about. 

Keep scrolling, analysis of the hottest headlines is coming up next. 👇

– Matt

P.S. THE GEEKOUT WEEKLY DEBRIEF hits Twitter Spaces today at 4pm UK / 11am ET / 8am PT. Join us as we set the world to rights about Musk and the rest of the week's social media news. LISTEN LIVE / PLAY BACK

🚨 Everyone's talking about...

Elon Musk just decided to bring the worst people on the internet back to Twitter

There goes the neighbourhood. Elon Musk's promise to form a content moderation council turned out to be just another lie. He's decided (via the highly scientific medium of a Twitter poll) that most of the worst people on Twitter will have a chance to return.

Last Friday he started reinstating previously banned accounts. First up were Kathy Griffin–banned for impersonating Musk–and Jordan Petersen and the Babylon Bee, both banned for misgendering trans actor Elliot Page. 

More reinstatements followed, but the real bombshell came over the weekend as he let Donald Trump back in after a pretty evenly split Twitter poll that Musk himself admitted was manipulated by the very bots he claims he wants to rid Twitter of. 🤷‍♂️

Reinstating banned accounts isn't necessarily a bad thing in every case, but it's the way he's doing it that is the problem. Without a clear process for bans and reinstatements, Twitter users are living in the court of Elon Musk, tweeting at his pleasure. If he wants you gone, you're gone. Twitter is his company now, so on one level that's fine. But he can't pretend it's a 'global town square' if he's running it like a party at his house.

For example, many people would say Twitter is better off without Infowars firebrand Alex Jones on it. But the only reason Jones isn't being reinstated is because Musk personally doesn't like him. Even if a content moderation council does eventually emerge, Musk seemingly reserves the right to ignore them.

Throw in Musk doing things like mocking Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor for quitting Twitter for the good of his mental health, and it really does feel like the billionaire is just trying to copy Trump's playbook by creating as much of a stir as possible. Reinstating Trump was just a publicity stunt. And for various reasons, Trump is not tweeting even though he can. The reinstatement was just noise.

But copying the Trump trick doesn't work so well when you own the space you're vandalising. Lots of people will happily watch you trash your own house, but that doesn't mean it's a good idea.

Hate speech is on the rise and civil rights leaders are not happy. Is Musk's endgame just being able to "own the libs" endlessly? It's a power play if you want a certain kind of cultural clout, but if you turn the hottest bar in town into a den of bad behaviour it quickly loses its appeal and you lose all that clout.

No wonder wannabe rivals like Post and Hive are generating a buzz (if people found the right app to sign up to). Even some journalists are launching an alternative home on Mastadon. Don't expect any of the tech giants to seize the opportunity and clone Twitter, though.

And brands aren't coming back any time soon. Social media managers are being asked to activate accounts on new platforms. And more than a third of Twitter’s top 100 marketers have not advertised on the platform in the past two weeks.

Meanwhile, former head of trust and safety, Yoel Roth says app review teams at Apple and Google are paying attention to changes at Twitter. And Apple's App Store boss closing his Twitter account isn't a good sign - a showdown over Twitter's future in the main app stores could be looming.

Musk at least realises he needs some moderation standards. The return of Blue with paid-for verification is currently pegged for next Friday, with Twitter conducting manual verification before checkmarks are added. There will now be three different colour checkmarks. If Twitter can make it work, it could be a good system.

But Twitter's new, looser approach to moderation is already facing a test in Germany. Other regulators are circling, and there's almost no-one left at Twitter to deal with these challenges. The closure of its Brussels office particularly concerning. A successful new verification system would be a win for Musk but many, many challenges remain. Being the world's richest troll doesn't help solve them.

Elon Musk says Twitter is done with layoffs and ready to hire again

What do you do when you have downsized your company from 7,500 staff to around 2,700? Start hiring again, it seems!

We know there are serious holes in Twitter's operations so recruitment isn't a surprise, but some of the hires might raise eyebrows. Musk has hired George Hotz to fix Twitter search, despite the two have locked horns in the past. Even one of the pranksters who pretended to be fired from Twitter the day Musk took over is apparently now really working there as a developer. 

While it seems Musk's 'hardcore' ultimatum last week was a deliberate ploy to get rid of more staff, those who are left really will face a more hardcore working environment. Developers were summoned to a late-night code review last weekend, and must email Musk with weekly updates of their progress while almost all company perks have been cut.

And the culture isn't just hardcore, it's seemingly brutal too. Around 50 developers have reportedly already lost their jobs this week due to their code not being "satisfactory". The firing email was horrible, while others got away with a warning. Some staff will no doubt happily endure these conditions for the chance to work with Musk, but others might simply be stuck there because of their visas.

Over the past week, more staff resigned, some reportedly even hung up on Musk as he begged them to stay. There were more layoffs in partnerships and sales. Robin Wheeler, the sales chief Musk previously persuaded to stay, was reportedly fired for refusing to get involved in layoffs from her team. 

In Europe, the London office is deserted. And a union representing some UK staff was demanding talks, as the company's UK and French bosses quit.

Overall though, the drama at Twitter seems to be settling down. The 'war room' team Musk brought in seems to be playing a less prominent role. And despite predictions of collapse, there's been no noticeable downtime but lots of cracks are showing.

The copyright review system was broken for a long period, 99% of racist tweets against World Cup footballers were reportedly not removed, and users spotted random styling changes among other glitches. No wonder US government officials are worried about Twitter becoming too unreliable to use to share information in an emergency.

Meanwhile, some suppliers are not getting paid, Musk's own wealth dropped by $8.6 billion in one day, and huge debt and falling revenue are still major risks for the future of the company. The initial drama may largely be over but Musk had still better stock up on headache tablets.

Facebook’s Most Popular Posts Were Trash. Here Is How It Cleaned Up

Facebook's 'Widely Viewed Content Report' has in recent times been a useful look at what kinds of posts are most successful on the platform, but it has generally served to highlight what a complete mess a lot of high-performing content is.

Meta recognised this, took action, and the latest report is a breath of fresh air:

And the company has also done work to recommend better Reels content to users, cutting down on bootleg and 'oversexualised' content. “Reels quality was not great when it launched but now it’s not bad,” an internal analysis of the most recent content report states," wrote the Wall Street Journal.

So bravo to Meta for cleaning up Facebook's top posts, but it still has more work to do. The top 500 and top 1,000 posts on the platform are still reportedly full of trash, while Meta is still fighting a rising tide of spam.

👉 On-point tweets

🔨 Tool of the week

A.I. has transformed art in the space of a year, and Prisma Labs' new app Lensa is just incredible. Take a look at what I did with it this week... 👇

Also, don't miss:

• Movetodon: Find your Twitter Friends on Mastodon

• Life After Tweets: Help your Twitter followers find you elsewhere

• More tools to help you archive your tweets or quit Twitter

👀 Worth a watch

The Verge absolutely slates Meta's flagship Quest Pro headset in this video review...

🧐 Worth a look

If you're thinking of going all in on YouTube podcasting, this is well worth checking out...

🐣 Brand tweets

There are brave brand tweets, and then there's this one... 😳

💡 New feature spotlight

This is LONG overdue...

🔐 Achievement unlocked

He might have had a painful split with Manchester United this week, but at least Cristiano Ronaldo has HALF A BILLION Instagram followers to console him.

❓ Question of the week

My followers really delivered here. Let's get rebranding! 👇

💬 Quote of the week

👀 Read of the week

Hacked Facebook accounts can take YEARS to recover

I get around 20-30 requests for help with hacked/locked accounts EVERY WEEK! But I can't help anyone sadly...

And don't miss:

• The Truth About Ryanair's 'Savage' Social Media Strategy [AdWeek $$$]

💬 You can quote me on that

When I'm mentioned in the news, you'll find it here:

I wrote this article for Barrons about why Elon Musk might have bitten off more than he can chew....

Also:

• I spoke to the Evening Standard about the celebrity CEOs reshaping tech

• I shared my thoughts with The Drum about Hive's prospects as a Twitter rival

• I shared a warning about Twitter downtime with the Evening Standard

• ...and Sky News ran the same warning from me

• I told The Drum where I think ad dollars leaving Twitter will move to

🧵 Top threads

Everyone has a theory about Elon Musk's recent behaviour, but journalist Kara Swisher's thread this week was particularly insightful:

This one is worth a read, too:

🤦 Fail of the week

ANOTHER groundbreaking A.I. turned out to be racist, sexist, and biased this week. Step forward, Meta...

📈 Charts of the week

Tap through to get the full effect of this one...

Also:

• TikTok’s ad revenue is predicted to exceed that of Meta and YouTube combined by 2027

• Elon Musk's epic Twitter use charted

• About 4 in 10 social media users say influencers impact what they buy

📊 Stat of the week

WhatsApp and Messenger–not the metaverse–are Meta's next business growth areas, Mark Zuckerberg has told employees.

• Meta pulled its A.I for summarising academic papers after it spouted biased, racist, and sexist output. [The Daily Beast]

• Facebook and Instagram will now default users under 16 (or under 18 in some countries) to more private settings by default when they join. [Meta Newsroom]

• ...and Meta will prevent "suspicious" adults from messaging teens on Facebook an Instagram. [CNet]

• Meta says it has taken down a covert pro-American propaganda campaign with links to the US military. [BBC News]

• Meta wants assurance from the UK government that the country's planned diverging from EU law won't upset its business. [The Guardian]

• Meta may struggle to comply with the European Union’s upcoming antitrust law. [Bloomberg $$$]

• Instagram should have rejected police pressure to ban a drill song, Meta’s Oversight Board says. [The Verge]

• Meta's latest 3D ad is turning heads in London. [Insider]

• Cristiano Ronaldo now has half a billion Instagram followers 🤯. [@MattNavarra]

• Meta is being sued in the UK for alleged breach of GDPR. [TechCrunch]

New features and tests:

Facebook:

• Facebook has launched a content moderation tool for Groups called 'Flagged by Facebook'. [@oncescuradu]

• Facebook has been spotted offering a 'content explorer' for Groups. [@oncescuradu]

• Facebook has rolled out Story Comments to more users this week. [@MattNavarra]

• Facebook is testing a full-screen scroll that hides the bottom nav bar. [@MattNavarra]

• Facebook is testing a ‘share in Instagram DM’ button. [@MattNavarra]

Instagram:

• Instagram has been spotted testing communities, AKA social channels. [@hammodoh1]

• Instagram Reels now shows a video's share count. [@MattNavarra]

• Instagram is testing a new 'Share' interface. [@prururajdutta]

• Instagram is working on a 'content controls' option. [@alex193a]

• Instagram is still working on end-to-end encrypted messaging features. [@alex193a]

WhatsApp:

• WhatsApp is rolling out a 'message yourself' feature. [WABetaInfo]

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

• Meta has developed a new A.I. system that can use strategic reasoning to solve problems. [Social Media Today]

• Horizon Worlds's camera allows recording selfie and adjusting the camera distance. [@wongmjane]

Elon Musk says he has spoken to Signal founder Moxie Marlinspike about help with encrypting DMs. 

• User accessibility has taken a hit at Twitter due to the recent layoffs. [Wired]

• Some adult content creators are worried about losing their community if Twitter dies. [NBC News]

• Twitter almost launched encrypted DMs in 2018 but the plans fell apart as teams were reshuffled. [Platformer $$$]

Insights to give you an edge at work:

• 7 top tools to help you quit Twitter and archive your tweets. [TechCrunch]

New features and tests:

• A 'raining hashflags' feature has been spotted in the wild. It was apparently created at a hack week in January. [@wongmjane]

TikTok continues to grow its headcount in a z

• The EU is investigating TikTok's data transfers. [Engadget]

• Senators on both sides of US party politics have called TikTok a 'surveillance tool'. [Bloomberg $$$]

• TikTok made misleading claims in briefings on data handling, Republican politicians claim. [CNN]

Insights to give you an edge at work:

• TikTok for brands: Keep hold of your values and dive into the creator community. [Fast Company]

• How to increase your discoverability on TikTok

• How radio DJs are using TikTok to find new listeners. [Insider $$$]

New features and tests:

• TikTok now lets you request verification in-app. [@jonah_manzano]

• TikTok now allows auto captions to be edited after a video is posted. [@YslehcMiao]

💥 More social media news and updates

YouTubers who cut movies down to 10 minutes have been ordered to pay $3.5m by a Japanese court. [TorrentFreak]

• Snapchat still struggles to attract creators. [Digiday]

• The UK Online Safety Bill will return to Parliament next month. [The Guardian]

• ...but there are warnings the bill could threaten end-to-end encryption. [TechCrunch]

• Twitch is bringing back its 'POG Picks' shopping events and extending them to more countries. [AdWeek $$$]

• Truth Social received a financial lifeline this week. [Axios]

• Google has launched its first official account on Mastodon. [9to5Google]

• Only 10 of the 412 London Police officers investigated for alleged abusive use of WhatsApp or other social media sites in the past five years, have been fired. [The Guardian]

Insights to give you an edge at work:

• The truth about Ryanair's 'savage' social media strategy. [AdWeek $$$]

• Why newsletters are thriving on LinkedIn as Meta and Twitter abandon them. [AdWeek $$$]

• How influencers are preparing for a potential recession that could hit the creator economy. [Insider $$$]

• The golden rules of personal branding (according to experts). [Buffer]

• YouTube has published a 67-page podcasting guide packed with useful info. [@MattNavarra]

• As online communities like Discord grow, can brands use them to ‘enter culture’? [The Drum]

• Tumblr users are wary of an influx of users fleeing Twitter. [New York Times $$$]

New features and tests:

• LinkedIn is rolling out an in-app schedule posts feature. Its currently available on Android and web only. [@MattNavarra]

• LinkedIn is launching auto captions on videos. [@MattNavarra]

• LinkedIn is also rolling out a high-contrast video mode, an emoji picker, and improved visibility for newsletter creators in search. [@MattNavarra]

• Snapchat+ has added new festive app icons. [@ahmedghanem]

• Reddit has updated its video player, including swipe-left gesture to see comments without leaving the video. [AdWeek $$$]

• Twitch will soon roll out changes including reactions, and the ability to tag a channel in a stream title. [AdWeek $$$]

• Twitch has launched new child safety features. [Bloomberg $$$]

• Tumblr will add support for ActivityPub, the social protocol powering Mastodon. [TechCrunch]

💲 Advertise in Geekout

• Geekout has 25,000+ subscribers

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📖 Weekend reading

This is a good read about how TikTok is changing...

"The days when a singular trend was inescapable on the app are long over, wiped out by an ecosystem — and a culture — that's becoming increasingly more esoteric."

😳 And finally...

Okayyyyyyy...

📅 Back next week...

Welcome to the beginning of the end of this week’s Geekout. 👋

If this is your first time here, thanks for reading this far down!

This is the bit where I flirt with you and ask for a favour…

Did I ever tell you how sexy and smart you look? 😘👇

• I rely on word-of-mouth to add new Geekout subscribers.

• I’d really appreciate it if you said nice things about Geekout in a post on your socials.

• Here’s the link you need 

Right… I’m heading off to watch England destroy the USA in the World Cup. (hopefully) ⚽️

Goodbye geeks!

– Matt 

_______

This newsletter is edited by Martin SFP Bryant