Meta goes deeper on AI as Zuck’s metaverse dream dies

Good news! Meta has found a way to offer better user support.

Bad news! It’s with an AI bot, which probably won’t be able to get you your wrongly suspended account back.

Oh, and Zuck is planning to switch from human moderators to AI, too. Lord help us! 🤖

That’s all in the same week that Meta has cut back even further on the metaverse that gave it its name.

Details about all of that coming up. Plus the all the latest news, virals, Oscar memes, and new platform features spotted in the wild this week.

But first, don’t miss these 👇

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P.S… Geekout’s exclusive interview with Instagram Edits’ product boss Matt Simari is being recorded next week.

I will be sending you a special edition of Geekout featuring the interview in full…

…Including a sneak peek at a NEW FEATURE coming soon to Edits!

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We’ve been here before - saying RIP to Mark Zuckerberg’s metaverse dream. But each time, it seems more convincing.

This week Meta announced plans to shut down Horizon Worlds, its 3D social world, on VR headsets this June. The platform would still be available on mobile, but the VR version - the clearest articulation of the ‘metaverse’ that the company has - would be gone.

Meta swiftly rowed back a little after user outcry. The VR version will still be live but not receive anything but essential updates. Still, to all intents and purposes, Meta will no longer be focused on a ‘metaverse’ in any meaningful way.

The news follows recent scaling back and refocusing of Meta’s Reality Labs division, which spearheaded the metaverse’s development.

The news spurred blunt headlines this week like: RIP Metaverse, an $80 Billion Dumpster Fire Nobody Wanted.

A more charitable view would be that some Silicon Valley bets work out and some don’t, and at least Meta has plenty of in-house AI tech to fall back on. This week’s Geekout has lots of examples of Meta rolling out more and more AI - it’s undoubtedly the company’s future.

But Mark Zuckerberg’s metaverse vision stood out as something his counterparts at other big tech companies weren’t doing. Even Apple’s Vision Pro (similarly sidelined of late, it seems) is focused on utility rather than virtual worlds.

Zuck would probably say there’s still time for the metaverse to make a comeback when the time is right. And VR is still important for Meta. The company said this week that Quest VR hit record usage in 2025 as 100 apps passed $1 million in revenue.

But for the foreseeable future, the failure of the metaverse dream is a reminder that just because big tech companies tell us something is going to be big doesn’t mean it really will be.

It just means they need something to tell the stock market that quarter and they’re willing to spend a LOT of money on it, even if it ends up going nowhere.

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Meta’s Manus has launched a desktop app called ‘My Computer’, to turn your Mac into an AI agent.

A bit like OpenClaw, it enables agents to manage files, run commands, and automate workflows.

Play safely, folks!

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Meta’s New Mexico trial entered its fifth week as explosive child safety claims mounted.

The state alleges systemic failures, citing abuse backlogs and weak enforcement systems…

What happens when the ‘king of memes’ is challenged to make a new meme live on TV?

Another iconic meme, obviously!

Conan O’Brien’s opening monologue at the Oscars on Sunday included a nod to Leonardo DiCaprio’s status as ‘king of memes’.

But could DiCaprio create a new meme on the fly? Of course he could! He rose to Conan’s challenge and a new classic was born.

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Also:

While Leo was busy making legit meme magic at the Oscars, viewers at home were busy faking photos of the night for engagement.

As Deadline highlighted, moments like this did GREAT on Instagram and X, even though they never actually happened.

That feeling you’re feeling? Reality slipping through our fingers 😬

Fake:

Fake:

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More viral news this week:

“Be careful who you trust for product recommendations: social media influencers are spreading brand-related misinformation in a much more toxic way than ordinary users, research has found.”

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More brand news and views:

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Also quoted this week:

“This is deeply disturbing. Under our laws, online platforms have a duty to keep people safe online. We're already tightening the rules on AI chatbots and I'm ready to take further action if necessary.”

- UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer responds to claims Meta and TikTok let harmful content rise after evidence that outrage drove engagement

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“The AI companies are claiming fair use, but this argument is bogus… It’s bogus because while they claim it’s fair to use the work of creators as training data, they do multimillion-dollar deals with rights holders and publishers like Disney and Condé Nast and Vox and Warner Music.

“If it’s legal to just use it, why pay?” Why pay them and not creators — not the millions of illustrators and musicians and writers — whose work has been consumed by these models to build hundreds of billions of dollars of value for these companies?”

- Patreon CEO Jack Conte calls out AI companies’ hypocrisy

Remember all the hype around Clubhouse?

For a hot minute in 2020, group audio in front of an audience was the next big thing…

Perhaps because we were all stuck indoors for weeks at a time and were desperate for social contact.

This podcast from The Verge explores the rapid rise and just as swift fall of a brief social hit.

Want to get into podcasting but feel overwhelmed?

Rebel Audio has launched an AI-powered all-in-one platform to simplify podcast creation

It handles recording, editing, publishing, and monetisation without switching tools. AI features include voice cloning, translation, transcripts, and content generation tools.

Read more about it at TechCrunch.

Yikes. This is a tad embarrassing for Meta…

A Meta AI agent exposed sensitive company and user data to unauthorised employees for nearly two hours.

Meta classified the security incident as ‘Sev 1’, the second-highest level of severity inside the company.

Meta says no data was misused… but the incident highlights the growing risks of autonomous AI systems as CEOs race to be the most AI-savvy.

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More WTF this week:

Tumblr swiftly reversed a major change to the way it handled reblogs after users HATED it.

The new approach worked a bit like Twitter/X. Users could like, reply, and reblog individual posts in chains.

The update fragmented the iconic collapsed thread format into separate posts, killing what made Tumblr unique.

The company believes it still needs to revamp reblogs, but it’s going back to the drawing board.

“Google has pulled its AI feature that summarised crowdsourced health advice, stepping back from risky, non-expert guidance.”

Who could POSSIBLY have predicted that wouldn’t work out well?

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Also heading to the social media graveyard:

Airbnb is looking for a TikTok Social Manager [London, UK]

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More social media jobs:

Instagram and TikTok linked to worse mental health…

That’s according to the 2026 World Happiness Report published earlier this week.

The study shows WhatsApp, Facebook linked to higher life satisfaction due to social connection focus.

However, the report also found 1-hour daily use of social apps boosts wellbeing, more than 0 hours or excessive use.

But researchers warned average usage of social apps currently sits at near 2.5 hours per day…

… Or 13.5 hours if you’re a social media manager 😆

You probably have platform images sizes lodged in your head. But are they still correct?

Buffer has you covered with this in-depth 2026 image size guide for Instagram:

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More new pro-tips:

More stats:

Creator pay still skews heavily towards the biggest creators in 2026.

But brands are shifting toward smaller creators who drive higher engagement and conversions.

The segment is growing 10× faster than macro creators.

But earnings are uneven: the top 10% take 62% of all creator payments.

And nearly half of all US creators make under $10K a year.

More charts:

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Also worth a read:

I love reading about cringey messages from ‘influencers’ demanding special treatment from businesses…

Or flexing like billionaires with faked lavish lifestyles, when all they really have in the bank is thousands of duped followers.

So enjoy this list… if you can remove your fingers from over your eyes! 🫣

Look out for my tweet featured at #22 in the list… I exposed a travel influencer faking clouds (seriously!) in her Instagram-perfect holiday pics.

And there we go… you’re fully caught up and completely debriefed on everything new in social this week.

I’m heading off to finish final edits on a consulting report I completing for [REDACTED COMPANY NAME] all about AI products for marketers.

The deadline is today, but I think I’ll need another 2 days to wrap it up 😭 Wish me luck!

Goodbye, geeks!

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