Hello, geeks!

Welcome to the first edition of Geekout for 2024! 

I hope you managed to have a digital detox over the holidays 😀

Kicking things off this week… I asked ChatGPT to tell me a WILD story involving Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, and me….

Read to the end, it’s pretty f**king wild. Holy sh*t! 👈 😱

…Whilst we’re on the topic of Musk… X is still ignoring my help requests to unlock my account. It’s been three months now. Not sure if it’s due to incompetence, or something more… intentional. 🤔

I’m feeling on edge this week… I’ve been asked by Sky News to become a regular guest in the studio for a ‘What’s Trending’ news review segment on its new Breakfast show, which launches next week. 📺

It means I will have a brutally early 5 AM start to get to Sky News’ Westminster studio in London. Thankfully they will sort hair and makeup for my tired eyes! Send good vibes… I’m bricking it. 😬 

QUICK BITS…

• 110 scroll-stopping social media hooks

• 20 content prompts to help boost your LinkedIn presence in 2024

• 25 A.I. social media marketing tools for 2024 

• How to keep listening to YouTube in background on iPhone without a Premium subscription 

DON’T MISS THIS… There’s only FOUR days left to grab a space on my NEW coaching course for social media pros and creators with an ADHD mind.

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…And start feeling overwhelmed accomplished.

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🔥 GEEKOUT HOT 5

Geekout with our hottest picks of the week:

1. SEC’s X Account Hacked Caused Millions in Losses For Bitcoin Investors [HACKING] 

2. Instagram Impose New Teen Safety Controls But Critics Are Not Impressed [LACKING]

3. Elon Musk Denied WSJ Report of Illicit Drug Use [CRACK-ING]

4. Instagram Boss Apologized For Trashy Threads Recommendations [SLACKING]

5. Substack Loses Major Tech Blog Platformer Over Nazi Content Backlash [PACKING]

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• Geekout has 30,000+ subscribers.

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• Limited slots still available for January.

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🚨 EVERYONE’S TALKING ABOUT…

Substack leans into its Nazi problem…

Newsletters aren’t strictly social media, but Substack’s current troubles are a good example of what happens if you don’t set a clear line in the sand when it comes to moderation.

In case it passed you by, just before Christmas, a bunch of nazi newsletters were spotted on Substack, causing a stir of controversy.

Substack responded by saying as much as it hated nazis, it would continue to keep taking money from them because it’s better to hear people’s views than censor them.

But while censorship can obviously be a bad thing, if you can’t categorically say nazis are bad, you’re going to lose a lot of people who are undoubtedly better for your brand than far-right extremists. Nazis are bad for business, it’s as simple as that.

And so Substack did the bare minimum, removing five of the six particularly gross accounts flagged to them by Platformer, one of the platform’s most successful newsletters.

But it stuck to its guns and will still allow nazis to set up and monetise newsletters… unless other users complain about them.

No surprise, then, that a number of high profile newsletters are leaving Substack. In the past couple of days Garbage Day and Platformer, two of Geekout’s favourite Substack newsletters, announced they’re leaving.

Substack seems willing to make its bed and lie in it to stick to its principles. If big names keep leaving, the mattress might prove to be an uncomfortable one.

TikTok’s gonna Shop ‘til it (or you) drops…

Want a TikTok growth hack? List any old junk on TikTok Shop and then link to it in a video. You might well see a huge audience boost as a result.

That’s because TikTok is going BIG on its Shop feature this year. According to Bloomberg, the aim is to rival Amazon, Temu, and Shein for ecommerce dollars in the US market.

But with massive growth goals comes tradeoffs. Sellers won’t be happy that TikTok is ramping up fees and axing subsidies to milk more cash out of them, for example.

Another clear tradeoff is putting volume over quality. By selling any old tat people want to put through the platform, it’s putting many brands off engaging, which might hurt the long-term health of Shop.

Just this week TikTok announced a partnership with luxury goods giant LVMH to tackle counterfeit items sold through the platform. This could help TikTok attract better quality brands, but it’s not a good look that they need the initiative in the first place.

And by pushing Shop so aggressively, TikTok risks making its users (REALLY) angry. In the longterm, TikTok really could do without being associated in people’s minds with desperately flogging as much trash as it can shift.

But as parent company ByteDance is dragged down to earth over its failed gaming ambitions, it needs to grow somewhere.

X pivots to video (stop me if you’ve heard this one before)…

A couple of years ago, the idea that Twitter would ever describe itself as a ‘video-first platform’ would have seemed ridiculous. But Elon Musk has nosedived the value of the app he now calls X so much that a major pivot to video seems like a good idea to him.

Part of this involves a bunch of video series from big(-ish) names largely from the right. X is also keen to push into game streaming, and Musk has claimed the company will increase creator rewards after MrBeast told him he wouldn’t make enough money from X to make it worth posting there. Subscriber-only videos appear to be part of this roadmap.

There was plenty more promised for 2024 in a blog post aimed at advertisers, including new A.I. tools for advertisers. Meanwhile, a partnership with Shopify will open up ecommerce opportunities for creators,

So far, so much like every other major social platform these days. Musk’s vision of an ‘everything app’ is still missing something that makes creators and celebrities rush to choose it over the competition.

But as Musk continues a divisive campaign against diversity and inclusion initiatives, perhaps ‘the everything app… for people who see themselves as anti-woke’ is the plan? Or more likely, Musk is just letting his personal politics threaten his business ambitions yet again.

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✨ NEW & NOTEWORTHY

Everything else you need to know from the ̶p̶a̶s̶t̶ ̶s̶e̶v̶e̶n̶ ̶d̶a̶y̶s̶ few weeks…!

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😆 LOL

💀 This is all too believable….

This spoof feature could actually be a good idea…

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📈 GOING VIRAL

Selena Gomez and Taylor Swift having a chat at the Golden Globes achieved meme status this week because non-one knew what they were saying… or did they?

(h/t Vicki Jakes for flagging that one)

Also:

• The Ultimate World Cruise accidental reality show is TikTok gold

• Why ‘No Spend’ challenges are taking over TikTok

• Gypsy Rose Blanchard killed her abusive mom. Now that she's been released from prison, she's the internet's latest girlboss

• If you didn’t share a recap video, did 2023 even happen?

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🪧 BRANDS

It’s not easy to have people cheering you on when you’re a tax collector, but HMRC’s social team did a great job worth applauding with this one:

• And how can we ignore the genius of the Pop Tarts ‘sacrifice’ stunt, which proved natural meme fodder?

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💬 YOU CAN QUOTE ME ON THAT

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

I gave some insights to The Drum about Elon’s big push into video amid X’s brand safety crisis

• I fed into The Reuters Institute’s journalism, media, and technology trends and predictions 2024

• I spoke to the Mail on Sunday about the Royal Family’s social media strategy

• I gave my predictions for tech in 2024 to Fast Company

• I spoke to The i about the dangerous rising tide of challenges for Elon Musk in the year ahead

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👀 MY FAV READS

This is a great read: "Meta’s founder has become deeply engaged in his company’s A.I. efforts ahead of its 20th anniversary, but his close attention hasn’t always proved to be a recipe for success"

And don’t miss:

• What we lost when Twitter became X

• How AI-created fakes are taking business from online influencers

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🙊 WHAT DID YOU SAY?!

"While our competitors are connecting pedophiles, fuelling insurrection, and recommending terrorist propaganda, we know that Snapchat makes people happy"

– Snap CEO Evan Spiegel in a New Year memo to staff about how it’s time to end the “online popularity contest” that started with Myspace and move onto something better.

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📺 MUST WATCH

“He's the creator of Facebook and one of the world's richest men - but is Mark Zuckerberg a force for good?

Sky TV’s NEW ‘Zuckerberg": King of the Metaverse’ documentary is this week’s must-watch…

🎓 EXPLAINER

What is ‘sludge content’ and what does it do to our brains? This piece explains all… (side note: i hate this style of TikTok videos!) 🤯

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😮 WTF?!

It was only a matter of time before a man got lawyers involved over those ‘women swap notes about men they dated’ groups and sites…

Also:

• Meta and OpenAI have spawned a wave of A.I. sex companions—and some of them are children 🤖❌❌❌

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🤦 FAIL

Time-sorted search results are a feature some Threads users have been crying out for. And they started rolling out this week!

…except they didn’t. The Threads team accidentally rolled the feature out - it wasn’t event supposed to be a test! Still, at least we know it’s in the works.

• Twitch’s new ‘Clips’ feature is being used by predators to record and share child abuse

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🪦 RIP

Social media features heading for the graveyard:

TikTok has quietly restricted one of its few tools to help measure the popularity of trends.

Also:

• X has removed support for NFT profile pictures. They were the new hotness just a couple of years ago

• Meta is discontinuing some detailed targeting options… again

• Meta seems to be removing Chromecast mirroring support from Meta Quest 3

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🤖 SOCIAL A.I.

All the ways A.I. is transforming social media:

TikTok has added an A.I. text to image generator for new posts

• Snapchat is rolling out an A.I. captions feature exclusively for Snapchat+

• LinkedIn newsletters now let you generate header images with the A.I.-powered Microsoft Designer

• X plans to launch new A.I.-powered ad tools in 2024

• CapCut has added a new text to speech feature on desktop

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📊 SOCIAL STATS

71%

– How much Elon Musk has reduced the value of Twitter/X since he bought it

• 55 Instagram statistics and facts for 2024

• Teens and young people have 49% of their interactions with family via social media and messaging apps

• The median YouTube video gets just 39 views

• Twitch’s top streamer Kai Cenat clocked up 109 million hours of watch time

• Almost half of British teens feel addicted to social media, a study says

• YouTube made $959 million in ad revenue off children last year, followed closely by Instagram, according to new Harvard study

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📈 CHARTED

Gen Z Trusts YouTube More Than Any Other Platform

Roughly 59% of Gen Zers ages 18 to 26 view YouTube as somewhat or very trustworthy, the survey says.

Of six platforms, Facebook fared worst, with 60% of adult Gen Zers calling it untrustworthy.

• Facebook traffic to news sites fell by 48% in 2023

• Are publishers choosing Threads over Bluesky?

• The most downloaded social media apps 2023, according to the State of Mobile 2024 report (great read if you have time)

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• Some Instagram creators aren’t keen on the platform’s latest features. [Bloomberg $$$]

• Mark Zuckerberg sold Meta shares worth $428 million in the last two months of 2023. [Business Insider]

• Meta is closing another London office as it continues to scale back in the UK capital. [Deadline]

• Facebook and Instagram ran content sexualising minors next to corporate ads, according to a new lawsuit. [The Guardian]

• Facebook staff were less willing to talk to the press than dissenters in the Middle East, a reporter said. [Business Insider]

• Meta has reportedly laid off 60 technical program managers at Instagram. [Business Insider]

• Turkey is slapping Meta with a $160,000 daily fine over market violations. [Reuters $$$]

• Meta has admitted use of a 'pirated' book dataset to train A.I. [TorrentFreak]

• A Meta employee claims to be under investigation by the company after alleging ‘censorship’ of pro-Palestinian views. [Financial Times $$$]

• A US-sanctioned oligarch ean pro-Kremlin ads on Facebook… again. [Wired $$$]

• Meta’s CTO claims the company’s AR glasses could be “the most advanced thing that we've ever produced as a species” in consumer electronics. [Business Insider]

• Facebook suspended, and then restored, the page of the controversial Libs of TikTok. [The Daily Beast]

• Meta’s decision to encrypt Instagram and Messenger messages stirred up internal debate about child safety. [Wall Street Journal $$$]

Insights to give you an edge at work:

• Meta has published a list of trends its partners and leaders predict will shape 2024. [Facebook business news]

New features and tests:

Facebook:

• Facebook has added an option to label content as digital created or altered by A.I. [@MattNavarra]

• Facebook is testing a ‘send of Messenger’ button for Reels. [@oncescuradu]

Instagram:

• Instagram now lets you share a profile, copy a link, and access a QR code by tapping on a profile photo. [@jonahmanzano]

• Instagram could soon let you to auto-translate your captions in Reels. [@alex193a]

• Instagram is working on pinch-to-zoom for profile pictures. [@alex193a]

Threads:

• Threads has been spotted showing how often people post in the suggested follows box. [@PeteMarcus]

Messenger:

• Messenger now shows the number of likes and replies on a Threads post when you share a Threads post URL in chat. [@MattNavarra]

WhatsApp:

• WhatsApp chat and media backups will now count toward your Google Drive quota on Android. [Android Central]

• WhatsApp is working on dark mode for its web app. [Android Police]

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• X screwed up during Japan’s recent earthquake, hitting a crucial info account with Musk’s strict posting limit. [Vice]

• Elon Musk fanboys get the most Community Notes on X, according to a recent list. [Daily Dot]

• Elon Musk denies he’s been taking illegal drugs on the job. [The Daily Beast]

• X has expanded its partnership with IAS to give vertical video advertisers “maximum control over where their ads appear”. [Social Media Today]

• X reinstated 6,103 banned accounts in Australia including 194 previously barred for hateful conduct. [The Guardian]

• X has shared new data on efforts to combat child sexual abuse material on the platform. [Social Media Today]

• X was rife with antisemitic misinformation after secret tunnels were found under Brooklyn synagogue. [Rolling Stone]

• X fired 80% of engineers working on trust and safety, according to the Australian government. [Forbes $$$]

• The US Supreme Court rejected a decade-old Twitter First Amendment case over government data requests. [The Verge]

• Official Netgear and Hyundai X accounts were hacked to push crypto scams. [TechRadar]

• X has lost its bid to block California's content moderation law. [Bloomberg $$$]

• Hackers are increasingly targeting government and business verified accounts on X for crypto scams. [Bleeping Computer]

New features and tests:

• X will now enable advertisers to target only Premium subscribers with their campaigns. [Social Media Today]

• Progress on X’s articles feature has been uncovered. [@faustchou]

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• TikTok is splitting its measurement partners into two categories: Cross-Channel and Lift. [Social Media Today]

• An FCC commissioner says it will be a “huge miss” if the US doesn’t ban or divest TikTok in 2024. [India Dispatch]

• TikTok real estate influencers and ‘grifters’ are in deep trouble, according to financial firm Viceroy Research. [Vice]

• ByteDance is recruiting researchers in fields like computational biology, quantum chemistry, and physics, as it seemingly pushes to take on Google and Amazon. [Forbes]

• TikTok has unveiled its latest “Creator Class” graduates. [Social Media Today]

Insights to give you an edge at work:

• TikTok has launched a 2024 marketing calendar for small and medium businesses. [TikTok for Business]

• TikTok has shared tips on how brands can tap into the Paris Olympics conversation. [Social Media Today]

New features and tests:

• TikTok has added a ‘swipe right for comments’ gesture. [@MattNavarra]

• TikTok is now suggesting “Add yours” stickers based on a post’s description. [@oncescuradu]

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💥 EVEN MORE SOCIAL MEDIA NEWS & UPDATES

• YouTube has seen a significant drop in its Google News visibility. [Search Engine Roundtable]

• Twitch is cutting 500 employees, about 35% of its headcount, in its latest round of layoffs. [Bloomberg $$$]

• Twitch will ban people pretending to be naked. The platform wants to stop ‘implied nudity’. [The Verge]

• A judge has temporarily halted enforcement of an Ohio law limiting kids’ use of social media. [AP]

• Reddit wants to go public this year at a $15 billion valuation. [Social Media Today]

• Reddit wants to become a leader in ‘contextual and interest-based advertising’ this year. [Digiday $$$]

• Reddit is promoting itself as a trusted channel for product research. [Social Media Today]

• Discord has cut 17% of workers as it admitted to having hired too many people as its platform grew. [New York Times $$$]

• Rumble is part of an ‘active and ongoing’ SEC investigation, but it’s unclear what it’s about. [Wired $$$]

• Meta and OpenAI have spawned a wave of AI sex companions—and some of them are children. [Fortune]

• Telegram says it does not know why fines against it in Russia were dropped. [Reuters]

• British police are investigating the case of a minor who was allegedly subjected to a virtual gang rape in a social VR game. [The Guardian]

• …but sexual assaults in the metaverse are so hard to prosecute. [TNW]

• A.I. is fuelling dating and social media fraud, Europol says. [The Guardian]

• US states are looking to pass UK-inspired online safety bills. [Washington Post $$$]

• VR-focused sci-fi novel Ready Player One is to become an interactive VR experience. [Variety]

• Snapchat has announced an entertainment measurement partnership with Samba TV. [Social Media Today]

• A lawsuit against Snap over fentanyl deaths can proceed, a judge has ruled. [TechCrunch]

• The UK government could stop tech companies making technical updates that might impede information-sharing with intelligence agencies, under a law currently going through Parliament. [Politico]

Insights to give you an edge at work:

• Buffer has published a social media content calendar and ideas list for every official (and non-official) holiday of 2024. [Buffer]

• Experiment: Do longer LinkedIn comments drive more connection requests? [Hootsuite blog]

• How creators are using Snapchat's exclusive Snap Stars program to get brand deals. [Business Insider]

• How to use LinkedIn for business in 2024: The ultimate guide to LinkedIn company pages. [Buffer]

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📰 WEEKEND READS

“People are mixing business with pleasure on the career networking site. What could possibly go wrong?”

• So you want to be a social media star? Here’s how to make money as an influencer in 2024

• Meet the TikTok girlies helping ChatGPT become even smarter

• X’s AI chatbot Grok has no reason to exist

• A new kind of A.I. copy can fully replicate famous people. The law is powerless

• How social media’s biggest user protest rocked Reddit

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😳 AND FINALLY…

Looks like Mark Zuckerberg wants to get cows drunk. 🐮🍻🍻

This will probably be the least controversial thing Zuck will do in 2024.

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📅 BACK NEXT WEEK…

…And that’s EVERYTHING you (may have) missed in social media land during your Christmas digital detox. ✅

Right… I’m heading off to watch that Zuckerberg: King of the Metaverse documentary…

… And somehow try to calm my nerves ahead of my Sky News Breakfast debut next week. Wish me luck! 😬🤞

Goodbye, geeks!

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