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Hello, geeks!

Welcome back to your weekly social media news briefing.

It may be the summer break season, but the big social platforms haven’t stopped shipping updates, or generating drama.

The stories sparking the most headlines in the past seven days include…

…🚫 The UK switched on strict new age verification rules for social media to protect teens. Teens switched on VPNs.

…🤖 Zuck tried to get us all hyped about “personal superintelligence.” No one’s quite sure what it is, but it likely involves him winning at Jiu Jitsu in the metaverse.

…⛔️ YouTube thought it had escaped the under-16 social media ban in Australia. Australia said think again.

…📱 TikTok launched a new, more positive version of the app in Europe called TikTok Pro. Good vibes only, it promises. Creators and AI may have other ideas.

…🫖 Viral women’s ‘dating safety app’ Tea got hacked… and immediately started spilling. Everything. Everywhere. So much for safety, huh?

Plus…

✨ Over 40 NEW social platform features spotted in the wild, including new creator tools for IG’s Edit’s app, and a suite of new teen safety tools for TikTok.

__________

But first… These are worth your attention: 👀

This 2025 trends report is 🔥. 540,000+ TikTok + IG posts analysed. Smart insights. Real-world tips. Not just vibes. [ad]

And…

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SPONSORED - NEW 2025 INSIGHTS - FREE REPORT
The 5 Trends Shaping Social in 2025 — Backed by Data from 540K TikTok + Instagram Posts

Social is not about how many people follow you anymore.

It’s about how many share your content, send you DMs, and connect on a deeper level with your brand.

Dash Social just dropped one of the sharpest, no-filler trend reports we’ve seen this year.

This isn’t another vibes-based trends list!

It’s built on analysis of 540,000+ TikTok + Instagram posts from top brands — using Dash’s proprietary Entertainment Score system.

Real data. Fresh insights. Zero fluff.

Highlights from the report:

• 📲 Entertainment-led posts generated 13x IG reach, 4.5x on TikTok

• 📩 Brands are replying to DMs 30x more than engaging in comments

• 🔁 Shares now outpace follower growth across industries

• 🤝 Creator content gets 6x more engagement than brand posts

• ✨ AI is now predicting high-performing content before it goes live

Inside the full report, you will…

• ⤷ DISCOVER what high-performing content really looks like

• ⤷ LEARN how viral brands beat the algorithm—without chasing trends

• ⤷ REVEAL why DMs are your next trust + conversion channel

• ⤷ UNCOVER the content mistakes killing your reach before the algorithm does

No recycled advice from ‘thought leaders.’

Just a sharp, strategic read worthy of your attention.

→ Download the NEW 2025 Social Trends Report (free + really useful!)

.

🔥 GEEKOUT HOT 5

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

2. Mark Zuckerberg shares his bold vision for 'Personal Superintelligence' [MOONSHOTTING]

3. TikTok follows X's lead and adds community fact-checking ‘Footnotes’ in the US [DEBUNKING]

4. TikTok launches a more positive version of the app in Europe called TikTok Pro [PIVOTING]

5. Viral ‘Tea’ app turns off DMs after exposing users’ messages about abortions, cheating, and more [TEA-SPILLING]

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🚨 EVERYONE’S TALKING ABOUT

There are no easy fixes in internet safety, as users lash out

As last Friday’s Geekout went out to you, the UK was freshly into a new era of age checks across social media and adult content sites. But it didn’t take long for the cracks in the Online Safety Act to start to show.

VPNs topped the charts on app stores hilariously quickly. I suspect it was more to do with people wanting to avoid age checks on p**n sites than on social sites. New data showed the new rules led to 5 million extra age checks a day for adult content sites.

Five days since Ofcom's new internet regulations began being enforced, nearly 400,000 people had signed a petition asking for them to be repealed.

The government might say it has no plan to repeal the law, but it’s clear the Online Safety Act going to need to be revised. And even if you accept age checks as necessary, current tech often isn’t up to the task of verifying users’ ages.

I mean, come on! The tech providing Reddit and Discord’s age verification checks can be bypassed with the help of Sam Porter Bridges from PlayStation hit Death Stranding. A lot of people suddenly look just like actor Norman Reedus, who plays the video game character!

There are other ways age-appropriate content can be enforced, but they’re not necessarily better.

There has been drama in Australia this week, where YouTube found itself re-added to the list of platforms set to be banned for under-16s. Meta, YouTube, TikTok, and Snapchat have been scrambling to avoid being swept up in the law, which is set to go into force in December.

Meanwhile, app stores could be responsible for age checks instead of individual apps, although there’s a dispute between big tech companies about whether that’s a good idea.

No law is going to be a perfect solution, and nothing beats parenting that prepares kids for the adult world in an appropriate way for the child.

Platforms can provide tools to help with that (such as TikTok’s new alerts for parents when their teen posts a public video) but ultimately, easily circumvented bans just provide false peace of mind for parents and politicians alike, while kids take glee in ignoring them.

So how about governments think less about bans and restrictions, and more about equipping parents with the skills and tools they need to help their children thrive responsibly online?

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✨ NEW & NOTEWORTHY

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

Meta / Facebook / Messenger 👥

• Meta and Stanford's ultra-thin holographic display brings ‘VR Glasses’ closer to reality

• The Social Network movie sequel is happening. But the actor lined up for the role of Zuckerberg is not who you’re expecting

• Meta might have revived its smartwatch product, and could reveal a product in September

• Meta Ray-Ban glasses sales are up, but Quest headset sales are down again

• Meta will no longer accept political ads in the EU, due to new disinformation rules

• Meta is being sued for allegedly pirating 2,396 adult films to train AI models

• Meta’s new Design Check app inside Canva flags ad flaws and shows real-time previews for Reels

• Meta is being investigated in Italy for bundling its AI assistant into WhatsApp without consent

• Meta is under fire over a slow response to online hate against England football player Jess Carter

• Facebook now suggests trends to ‘ride’ with your posts

• Messenger added ‘utility messages’ to streamline follow-up customer notifications

• Messenger now lets you create a note from what others have shared.

__________

Instagram ✨

• Instagram Edits added 150 new fonts, the ability to save drafts to Instagram, ability to import audio direct from files, and more

• Instagram has officially restricted live streaming to creators with 1,000 or more followers

• Instagram DMs now allow you to format text with options including bold, italic and strikethrough

• Instagram has been spotted testing a new way to add location tags to Stories

__________

WhatsApp 🟢 / Threads 🧵

• WhatsApp is working on a feature to reduce unwanted messages by letting you set a PIN which must be entered before someone can message you

• WhatsApp could soon let you import your profile photo from Instagram or Facebook

• WhatsApp is testing support for live photos in chats on iOS

• WhatsApp is testing night mode for the camera

• WhatsApp is working on a feature that notifies users when selected contacts share new Status updates

• WhatsApp is rolling out a feature to create notification reminders for missed calls

• WhatsApp appears to have rolled out the ability to reshare someone else’s Status posts

• Threads updated its API adding support for geotagging, polls, profiles, topic tags and more for third-party apps

• Threads now lets you share posts directly to your WhatsApp Status, just like Instagram Stories is already supported

__________

YouTube 📺

• YouTube now allows the F-word in a video’s first seven-seconds without cutting ad revenue

• YouTube made it easier to browse a channel’s community posts, as it expands Premium Lite subscriptions to more countries

• YouTube updated its desktop UI to bring back long-missed volume scroll and hover controls

• YouTube is testing a mobile UI that hides comments and channel info by default

• YouTube is raging after Australia u-turned on granting it an exemption for the incoming under-16’s social media ban

• YouTube’s Premium-only Jump Ahead feature, which can identify and skip ‘dull’ sections of videos is expanding to TVs

__________

TikTok 📱

• TikTok gamified mindfulness with new 'well-being missions' that lets you earn badges for completing challenges related to balanced digital habits

• TikTok significantly upgraded its parental controls and creator safety tools, including a new ‘Creator Care’ mode that automatically filters all comments identified as offensive, inappropriate, or profane

• TikTok’s new 'content check' tells creators if their videos will be blocked from For You pages

• TikTok Live and iHeartRadio have launched a new singing competition show

• TikTok is testing a new Search feature, letting users create text posts based on a subject that does not exist or is not well covered by others

• TikTok added an unlockable, interactive ‘Streak Pet’ for DMs between friends

• TikTok is testing an ‘Article’ sticker for photo posts, video posts and stories

• TikTok’s new Engaged Session tool lets advertisers retarget users who spend 10+ seconds on their sites—no pixel required.

• TikTok added Canva-like templates for photo posts

• TikTok signed deals to bring its content to tens of thousands of screens in taxis, gyms, and water stations in the USA

• TikTok now lets you share live recordings with guests and moderators

• TikTok now lets you save songs straight to YouTube Music

__________

LinkedIn / Reddit / Twitch / X 💼

• LinkedIn is adding daily leaderboards ranking you against your own network in its viral in-app games

• LinkedIn won a lawsuit against user data scraper Proxycurl

• Reddit now offers automated bidding for Brand Awareness and Reach ad campaigns

• Reddit is working on becoming your go-to search engine

• Twitch is opening up some monetization tools to more creators, including including Bits, subs, emotes, badges, and Channel Points

• X rolled out upgraded XChat features for Premium users, including DM search, typing indicators, and custom push alerts

• X will now give brands lower ad rates for ‘Aesthetic’ ads free of URLs and emojis. It will ranks ads with an “aesthetic score” based on elegance. Low scorers face algorithmic suppression and higher rates

__________

🔥 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 AI

The newest social media AI features spotted this week:

YouTube has announced it will use new AI tech can identify teens based on their viewing behaviour, not just self-entered birthdays.

If your YouTube viewing habits include Cocomelon, MrBeast, and skibidi toilet memes, you might face restrictions…

Also spotted this week 👀

• Adobe’s new Harmonize tool in Photoshop makes photo fakery effortless

• Adobe’s new Generative Upscale in Photoshop boosts photo resolution by up to 8MP without blurring

• Meta is reportedly on the hunt for AI video deals, including talks to acquire or license tech from video AI startup Pika

• Ad agency execs say Meta is developing a new AI-driven search ad product

• Meta now lets you style your avatar with AI prompts

• Meta Business Suite on desktop now includes Business AI

• Meta’s AI app added an “imagine yourself” feature, which is already available on Messenger and Instagram

• Meta will let job candidates use AI assistants during coding interviews, in a major policy shift

• Meta won’t open-source all of its ‘superintelligence’ AI models, Mark Zuckerberg says

• Meta hired the co-creator of ChatGPT to lead its Superintelligence Labs

  …but Meta failed in attempts to lure staff from former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati’s AI startup with wild offers—one topping $1 billion over several years

• xAI’s Grok Imagine will let users create fast, sound-on AI videos from simple text prompts when it launches in early access in October

  …and X now lets Premium users sign up for this forthcoming text-to-video feature

• xAI’s Grok app now has an Auto mode to “choose the best mode for your query”

• YouTube now offers the option to do a support chat with either an AI assistant or a live specialist

• Pinterest will harness Checkout.com’s AI-driven payments features to boost acceptance rates

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😆 LOL

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🌡️ VIRAL

The crown for viral victory of the week definitely goes to Astronomer and Maximum Effort, Ryan Reynolds’ ad agency.

They cooked up a pitch-perfect response to the recent ‘Coldplay couple’ drama, shifting the narrative with the help of Chris Martin’s ex, Gwyneth Paltrow.

It was EVERYWHERE last weekend, and deservedly so.

Also going viral this week: 🔥

• $17 million was lost in an ATM scam in NYC that spread on social media

• Lithuania bet on US mega-influencer IShowSpeed—and got viral mayhem for $31K

• A viral video of bunnies on a trampoline fooled millions… before users spotted a disappearing rabbit

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🪧 BRANDS

“Sydney Sweeney has great jeans” is a silly, slightly cringey pun in a new American Eagle ad.

But it’s a sign of the times that it quickly became a culture war flashpoint, with some right-wingers cooking up a narrative that ‘woke’ people were upset by the ad being a nod to eugenics.

…when really it was just a bad ad.

More brand news this week: 👀

• The story behind Amtrak’s ‘chaotic brain rot’ social strategy

• Why brands are lining up to star in commercial breaks during ‘The Group Chat’ on TikTok

• Brands like Macy’s and Aerie’s are discovering their sales associates are among their most valuable influencers

• How posting unapproved pictures of the ‘Coldplay couple’ could get brands into trouble

• Why toy brands are focused on winning over ‘kidults’

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🙊 WHAT DID YOU SAY?!

“You have to pick and choose your f**ks carefully.”

- YouTube's policy boss Conor Kavanagh says creators still need to be careful with their swearing, after the platform started to allow f-bombs at the start of videos without penalty

-
Also overheard this week: 👂

• “Superintelligence has the potential to begin a new era of personal empowerment where people will have greater agency to improve the world in the directions they choose"

  -

  – Mark Zuckerberg explains his vision for ‘personal superintelligence’

  -

• "I don't know if I want my kids to be watching short-form content as their only way, and they can't be able to watch something that's more than 15 minutes in length… shorter form content equates to shorter attention spans."
  -
  – YouTube co-founder Steve Chen doesn’t want his kids spending too long on TikTok

  -

• “I think in the future, if you don’t have glasses that have AI — or some way to interact with AI — I think you’re … probably [going to] be at a pretty significant cognitive disadvantage compared to other people,”
  
  – Mark Zuckerberg thinks Meta smartglasses will one day be nearly essential (he would say that, wouldn’t he?)

  -

• “We're concentrating our resources on the areas that will drive results for our most pressing needs, improving the core product, making Reddit a go-to search engine, and expanding internationally."

  -

  - Reddit CEO Steve Huffman wants Reddit to be a true search engine in its own right

  -

• "If you make no distinction between the two activities, if you don't evaluate researchers and engineers with different criteria, you run the risk of killing breakthrough innovation… True breakthroughs require teams with a long horizon and minimal constraints from product development and management."

  -

  – Meta’s chief AI scientist Yann LeCun hits back at Elon Musk in the latest spat between the pair., this time over whether it made sense to have AI ‘researchers’ as well as ‘engineers’

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👀 MY FAV READS

Here’s a good look at how social media 'newsfluencers' have made their way into the heart of the US government…

.

📺 MUST WATCH

Twitter’s former head of Trust and Safety, Yoel Roth–now at Tinder parent Match–is always worth listening to.

Here he shares thoughts on his time at Twitter, the moderation challenges facing decentralised social networks, and more…

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😮 WTF?!

The Jet2 meme was all fun and games until the White House got its hands on it…

Zoë Lister and Jess Glynne, responsible for the voice and music in the meme, have expressed their disgust after the Trump administration used it to make fun of people being deported from the US.

Jet2 isn’t happy either…

Also WTF this week: 👀

• An anti-clickbait Facebook page has relaunched after Ladbible complaints led to it being taken down

• When creators quit their day jobs, audiences often quit them too

• Pope Leo XIV is summoning a new kind of clergy—Instagram’s most viral “hot priests”—with the aim of sparking a youth revival of Catholicism

• LinkedIn kicked an author off the platform for having two accounts, despite the other being a dead account and him having no way to access it

• MrBeast’s next move to boost his business? Become a cartoon character… And selling action toys.

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🤦‍♂️ FAIL

Tea is an app that went viral in the past week, letting women share negative dating experiences.

…but for an app with such sensitive content, its security was… not great. It was hit by not one, but TWO data breaches.

The first exposed 72,000 images, including selfies and IDs. The second exposed users’s DMs about some highly sensitive topics. 😳

Also:

• LinkedIn deleted a line in its terms of service banning misgendering and deadnaming in its hate policy, sparking a backlash.

• Jack Dorsey’s Bluetooth messaging app Bitchat now on App Store. Critics say the app is insecure—anyone can pretend to be someone else, and Dorsey admits there hasn’t been a proper security review. To make matters worse, fake Bitchat apps are already flooding Google Play with thousands of downloads

• An Instagram glitch caused the platform to mislabel users’ friends as “AI”. Ooof!
  

• ByteDance’s AI tool Trae has been secretly collecting personal data, even if users disabled tracking settings

• The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has been posting ICE raid videos to X and Instagram with stolen art (many would say that’s the least of the posts’ problems)

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📲 NEW APPS

If you’re a Bluesky user and want more secure DMs with other users, Germ wants to be your solution…

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💰 RESULTS DAY

This week saw financial results reported by Meta, Reddit, and LinkedIn parent Microsoft.

Here’s what we learned…

“Meta’s stock price shot up over 10 percent on Wednesday after the company reported better-than-expected earnings. Revenue generated in the second quarter was $47.5 billion, up 22 percent from a year ago.”

Also:

• Meta added 5 million new users, fuelled by growth in India

• Meta’s Reality Labs posted a $4.53 billion loss in Q2

• Meta says AI Is boosting Instagram engagement

• Reddit shares jumped 20% after revenue beat estimates, growing 78% year-over-year in the second quarter

• LinkedIn claimed “record engagement” again, with sessions up 7% and comments rising 30% —but bot activity is also up

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👔 YOU’RE HIRED!

Hot new social media jobs worth checking out this week:

Vox Media needs a Social Media Manager for The Dodo [Remote, USA]

More top social media jobs spotted this week 💼

• The BBC is looking for a Social Media Manager - TV Social [Hybrid, London, UK]

• Transport for London is seeking a Social Media Advisor [Hybrid, London, UK]

• B&Q is hiring a Social Media Executive [Southamption, UK]

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🪦 RIP

Social media features heading for the graveyard:

Not having a YouTube Premium subscription is getting ever more painful. Now some users say their ‘skip ad’ button never shows up! 😳

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👌 PRO TIPS

“The essential TikTok statistics you need to know in 2025 — from demographics to what is actually driving views and engagement on the platform.”

More pro-tips worth checking out ✨

• Pinterest has revealed a four-part strategy to help marketers crush Q4 despite economic jitters

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📊 SOCIAL STATS

1.1 BILLION

– The number of views Labubu collectibles have received on TikTok Shop so far in 2025

Even more social stats: 📈

• AI-DVANTAGE: AI-powered recommendations drove a 20% year-over-year rise in Instagram video watch time, Meta says

• TOP TUBE: One in five UK kids aged 4–15 now choose YouTube first on TV, outpacing Netflix and BBC

• STAY GLASSY: Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses sales more than tripled in 2025

• SEARCHEDIT: Reddit’s internal search has hit 70 million weekly users, fuelling a pivot toward search as a strategic focus for the company

• MEALTIME: Social media is now a top driver in fast food cravings, with 76% ordering after seeing appetising posts, according to new findings from Snapchat

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📈 CHARTED

How Google searches for VPNs spiked as the UK’s online age checks came into place…

More charted social insights spotted: 👀.

• TOP OF THE PILE: 76% of top creators stay there for multiple years, showing how difficult it is for new creators to break through

• CHAT KING: YouTube is winning the AI chatbot referral game

• REAL LOSSES: Quarterly losses by Meta’s Reality Labs, charted

• ON THE UP: Reddit’s user and revenue growth, charted

• HEATED CLIMATE: 92% of environmental defenders reported online abuse, in a new survey. Facebook was named by 62% as the main source of harassment, followed by X (37%) and WhatsApp (36%)

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💥 EVEN MORE SOCIAL MEDIA NEWS & UPDATES

• Democratic senator Ed Markey proposed new safeguards to keep TikTok online. His bill would scrap the ByteDance sell-off in favour of strict data and content rules. [Reuters $$$]

• Facebook is aggressively censoring posts that mention piracy service MagisTV, even when the content is legal reporting or anti-piracy messaging. [TorrentFreak]

• DoubleVerify has rolled out broader brand suitability tools for Facebook and Instagram ads, now covering Reels and Feeds. [Social Media Today]

• Some DJs are abandoning TikTok as terms of service changes have made their output more risky on the platform. [DailyDot]

• TikTok is on a recruitment drive for its search ads division around the world. [DigiDay $$$]

• TikTok has merged its Core Product and Trust & Safety teams. [TechCrunch]

New features and tests:

• TikTok has added Quick Replies under Messaging Tools. [@jonahmanzano]

• Creator-focused shopping platform LTK is adding new social features. [Modern Retail]

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📰 WEEKEND READS

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

Welcome to the college parent group chat… 💬

Gen X parents are apparently terrified to let their Gen Z kids grow up

More great weekend reads:

• Want to know where your friend got her shoes? Click the link in bio

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😳 AND FINALLY…

Ready for a whole new Zuck in the sequel to The Social Network…?

Succession star Jeremy Strong is reportedly the top pick to play an older Zuckerberg at an embattled Facebook.

Apparently Jesse Eisenberg, who played Zuck in original movie, doesn’t want to reprise his role… Or he is playing hard ball to bump up his fee.

I’m really looking forward to this one!

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📅 BACK NEXT WEEK…

End scene. And cut! you have reached the end of this week’s Geekout. 🎬

I’m heading off to check whether my teenage kids have downloaded a VPN yet.

Looking at your kids social media and web browsing habits is sensible… But utterly terrifying!

I’m thankful I was a teen in the late 90’s…

…”500+ FREE hours of AOL web browsing”, ICQ, MSN Messenger, and visits to some seriously sketchy websites.

My poor mum had no clue what I was doing. But the good news? I wasn’t radicalised!

Goodbye, geeks!

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