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Hello, geeks!
Welcome to your download of everything new in social.
We’ll dive straight in as there’s lots to talk about!
Coming up in this week’s Geekout:
✨ Meta launched its latest AI model to compete with OpenAI and Google… But Meta has already admitted it’s not cutting edge
-🔥 LinkedIn is getting heat for ‘secretly’ scanning your browser extensions… But LinkedIn says the allegations are BS
-😮 Iran is winning the social media propaganda war… Some of its X posts roasting Trump are brutal!
-🚫 Instagram is making its teen safety rules even stricter… But is it too little, too late, following recent landmark trial losses?
Plus over 30 new platforms features spotted in the wild, including…
WhatsApp rolling out usernames
Instagram testing a dedicated Stories tab
X bringing back voice notes in DMs
Keep scrolling for all that, and more. 👇
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LinkedIn hit with lawsuits over alleged illegal browser extension tracking [SPYING]
Instagram is introducing stricter teen safety rules [RESTRICTING]
FBI issues warning against using CapCut and other Chinese apps [ALARMING]
Meta removes ads from lawyers seeking users to sue its platforms [BLOCKING]
Has Meta got its AI mojo back?
Meta has been spending big on AI, but hasn’t had a flagship model to show for it for some time.
After Llama 4 launched to an underwhelming reaction a year ago, Mark Zuckerberg called for a rethink, and this week we got the first output of that new approach, Muse Spark.
While the model is certainly not world leading, it at least puts Meta back in the game. It also has the ability to search public content on Instagram, Threads, and Facebook, which rivals obviously can’t access so comprehensively.
Although Muse Spark is only available in the US at the moment, the launch caused the Meta AI app to climb up the App Store charts. Clearly it’s more of a draw than the AI slop that app is usually associated with.
And Zuck is serious about going further. Meta has reportedly reassigned engineers into its Applied AI team to help accelerate model performance.
While the model is only being used by Meta right now, the company plans to eventually offer paid API access to third parties.
But with OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, xAI, Mistral, not to mention Chinese AI companies, all in competition, the question might be… should Meta open its new generation of models up for other people to build upon? Is that a race even worth running in?
All of this big-money investment in AI will need to pay off for shareholders, but Meta doesn’t necessarily need to play the same game as its rivals.
I’d suggest Meta might be better keeping Muse Spark and its sequels to itself. Use its own AI to give its own products a unique edge. Shove the models into AI smart glasses, have them power AI-driven advertising products, use them to help Meta staff be more productive. Keep the spoils for yourself, Zuck!
That’s my opinion, anyway. A wonder if Muse Spark would agree?
Meta
/ Facebook
Meta’s Superintelligence Labs is quietly building a hardware team, suggesting they’re exploring AI hardware beyond smart glasses
A former Meta engineer is under police investigation for allegedly accessing 30,000 private images
Meta has introduced a Featured Profiles feature for Meta Verified subscribers, offering the chance to be included in a list of ‘Recommended Meta Verified Profiles’;
Meta has launched experimental apps for its Ray-Ban smart glasses, including games and plant recognition
Meta-linked Scale AI is reportedly using tens of thousands of gig workers to train its AI with disturbing tasks
Meta staff have been competing for “Token Legend” status on an internal AI usage leaderboard. The leaderboard has been shut down after the data became public
Meta has added an option in Ads Manager to block employees from seeing your ads
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Instagram
Instagram testing ability to share Notes with all followers, not just mutuals | Credit: @hammod_oh
Instagram now lets you share Notes with all your followers, even if they don’t follow you back
Instagram finally lets you edit comments (for 15 minutes after posting)
Instagram is working on a dedicated tab for Stories with new Story discovery features
Instagram is rolling out the ability for creators to tag linked products directly in Reels posts, with no more ‘ink in bio’
Instagram is testing new categories for the Explore tab, including a ‘For You’ section and others based on your interests, and the ability to add new interests
Instagram could add the ability to schedule a story or to save multiple stories to drafts
Instagram has been spotted removing the GIF story type from the Stories editor
Instagram launched a fresh look for buttons in the main Reels editor: more space between them, labels and a “squircle” shape
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WhatsApp
/
Threads
WhatsApp rolling out usernames feature to beta testers | Credit: WABetaInfo
WhatsApp finally started rolling out usernames to a limited number of users, letting you to keep your phone number private when connecting with new people
WhatsApp is bringing Status updates to the top of the Chats tab, in an Instagram-like carousel
WhatsApp has tweaked its logo slightly
WhatsApp officially launched its new CarPlay app, letting you message, call, and view favourites on your dashboard
WhatsApp is testing a noise cancellation feature for voice and video calls
WhatsApp is working on a feature that allows users to see how many followers are subscribed to a channel
WhatsApp is testing the ability to add new members to group chats from via the mention picker
Threads has expanded access to mobile post scheduling
Threads has tweaked the posts editor so can easily discard a post and jump right into a fresh draft without having to close and reopen it
Threads on desktop has had a design refresh, making the fediverse more visible
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X / Twitter
X is reintroducing Voice Notes in X Chat app | Credit: X
X is reintroducing voice notes in its standalone X Chat app after removing the feature years ago
Elon Musk is pressuring potential investors in the SpaceX IPO to use Grok and advertise on X
X’s algorithm appears to penalise posts containing links, hurting publisher reach
X has eliminated thousands of accounts in a new bot purge
X launched new reply settings let Premium users to give ‘friends-of-friends’ the ability to comment on posts
X has given X Money a new icon ahead of launch
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TikTok
TikTok lets you customise DM chat bubble styles | Credit: @jonahmanzano
TikTok now lets you customise your chat bubble style in DMs
TikTok’s comment icon now says “Add 1st” when there are no comments on a video
TikTok deepened its HubSpot integration, adding ad management and CRM tools
TikTok launched an upgraded Wix integration to streamline ads and data syncing
TikTok has partnered with Issa Rae’s HOORAE to launch exclusive micro-series content
TikTok and the International Chamber of Commerce have launched ‘Digital Commerce Labs’ to accelerate small business growth
TikTok is making the ‘Add to Apple Music’ and ‘Add to Spotify’ buttons more prominent within posts
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YouTube
YouTube users report seeing 90-second unskippable ads | Credit: Dexerto
YouTube denies its running 90-second unskippable ads despite widespread user reports showing them 🤔
YouTube creators have filed a lawsuit accusing Amazon of scraping millions of videos for AI training
YouTube is testing “Auto Speed” to automatically speed up videos without losing clarity, and a new “On-the-go” mode offers distraction-free controls for audio-style content
YouTube plans to add interactive live chats, gifting, and Shorts viewing in its TV app
YouTube upgraded exportable Creator Media Kits with income and “parent status” data
YouTube has a new ‘Link History’ feature
YouTube has launched ‘Channeling,’ a new interview series featuring the platform’s top creators
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LinkedIn
/
Snapchat
/
Twitch
Snapchat’s customisable QR ‘Snapcodes’ | Credit: Snap
Snapchat has renewed its push for Snapcodes as a key marketing tool for advertisers
LinkedIn added video speed controls, letting you play clips at 0.5x or 2x
LinkedIn reportedly explored acquiring newsletter platform Beehiiv late last year
Twitch has opened up sponsored campaigns to Affiliates, expanding access beyond Partner-level streamers
YouTube’s AI now lets you make avatars that look and sound like you for Shorts, Sora style.
You can record your face and voice once to generate photorealistic digital doubles.
Clips featuring your AI avatar can run up to 8 seconds long, but multiple clips can be stitched together into longer Shorts.
YouTube says the feature is rolling out globally, but is restricted to users aged 18+.
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Also spotted this week…
YouTube has integrated Google’s latest Nano Banana image generation model to its Create app
X has rolled out AI-powered post translations globally and launched new AI photo editing tools
TikTok is tackling AI music clones with advanced audio detection tech
Meta AI’s standalone app has a new icon
TikTok’s Taco has a new logo too
Canva has acquired Simtheory to add AI assistants to automate tasks and workflows for teams, and Ortto brings customer data, targeting, and multi-channel campaign automation
Adobe has launched a free AI study tool called Student Spaces, to rival Google’s NotebookLM
Is the UK falling out of love with social media?
I spoke to The Guardian about social media’s global shift towards passive consumption.
Modern warfare isn’t just about weapons and diplomacy. Your meme game better be strong too.
But when the world’s biggest military power threatens to wipe out your civilisation, how do you respond?
Iran’s embassies around the world responded to Trump’s increasingly unhinged Truth Social posts with a mocking tone that echoed how much of the world felt.
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And that’s before you get to the Lego-inspired pro-Iran videos circulating since the war began. Wired has a really good look at them here:
The viral AI fruit series ‘Fruit Love Island’ has sparked a new content format
Creator @perfumesguy turns fragrances into personalities using generative AI storytelling.
The account has already grown to 35K followers; with some videos hitting millions of views.
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More viral news this week:
“You the birthday” has spread on TikTok, confusing users across generations
The “Catholicmaxxing” trend sees Gen Z rediscover religion via TikTok
The “7×7=49” trend has taken over TikTok as users label the equation oddly “attractive”
Let’s see how long this lasts…
Big publisher HarperCollins is turning some of its best selling children’s series into AI-generated YouTube Shorts, with the help of a company called Toonstar.
Will this turn out to be high-quality content for kids, or just more pointless AI slop? We’ll find out soon enough…
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More brand news and views:
Arsenal and Meta have launched a partnership across Facebook and WhatsApp (I’m a big Gooner appreciative of free Arsenal merch, tickets… If any Meta/Arsenal staff are reading this 😁)
"Nate is posting bullshit”
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Also quoted this week:
“We will not allow trial lawyers to profit from our platforms while simultaneously claiming they are harmful.”
- A Meta spokesperson explains why the company removed ads from lawyers advertising social media addiction litigation
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“They have no programming costs, they do not pre-finance works, and as a result, they have a very low fixed cost base, which allows them to offer very low advertising prices. It’s competition we cannot match, because we have to invest in programming and news.”
- Rodolphe Belmer, CEO of French TV network TF1, thinks YouTube is unfair competition
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“"I blame it all on my mom, because she told me, 'Don't talk with your mouth full. And I think probably in that case I should have just said, 'You know what? To hell with it. I'm gonna talk with my mouth full.'"
- McDonald's CEO Chris Kempczinski reacts to his recent viral fame
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“To put it bluntly, an X post today receives less than 3% of the views a single tweet delivered seven years ago.”
- The Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Kenyatta Thomas on why the organisation has quit X
Ever felt like launching your own social media platform? It’s not easy.
Issam Hijazi launched UpScrolled as a solo project in July 2025; and it now has 5M+ users.
UpScrolled differentiates itself with chronological feeds, no algorithms, and a strict no data-selling policy
Growth surged following TikTok’s US ownership deal, when the platform jumped from 150K to 2.5M+ users in weeks.
However, UpScrolled now faces backlash over moderation limits and extremist content concerns.
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Also this week:
Meta, YouTube, Snapchat, and TikTok increasingly deny being “social media” companies, rebranding as AI, entertainment, or streaming platforms amid reputational damage
A new study shows that a short digital detox can reverse effects of heavy social media use.
A two-week detox cut screen time from 314 to 161 minutes daily. Cognitive gains matched reversing 10 years of age-related decline
One-week studies show anxiety down 16.1%, depression 24.8%, insomnia 14.5%.
My dopamine addiction is out of control, so perhaps I need to give this serious consideration!
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Also spotted:
Researchers warn algorithms are driving polarization and reducing real connections, as a new study finds social feeds are becoming less “social,” especially for Reform UK voters
What’s going on with Khaby Lame’s $975M TikTok-linked deal?
Rich Sparkle stock surged after the deal’s announcement, then crashed over 90% as deal details remained unclear
Major brokerages have blocked trading, while Lame himself has stayed silent (yes, I know that’s on brand for him), raising doubts about whether this mega-deal is even a real thing…
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More WTF this week:
A teenage Minecraft YouTuber raised $1,234,567 for a meme prediction market called Giggles
The FBI extracted a suspect’s deleted Signal messages… because they were saved in their iPhone notification database
Three men were arrested after yelling “Gun” in crowded movie theatre for a social media prank
Russia's attempts to restrict the use of virtual private networks triggered a widespread banking outage, according to Telegram founder Pavel Durov
Canon is looking for a Social Media Content Creator Programme Specialist. [London, UK]
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More social media jobs:
The Wikimedia Foundation is hiring a Media Partnerships Lead [Remote, worldwide]
The UK Department for Education is recruiting a Social Media Manager [London or Sheffield, UK]
Premier Inn needs a Social Media Executive [London, UK]
Sorry, folks… reposting Instagram feed posts to Stories does NOT improve reach
Instagram overlord Adam Mosseri just debunked the popular engagement hack…
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More pro tips:
Replying to your comments on Facebook boosts engagement:
Buffer's study of 1M+ Facebook posts found replying to comments drove 9.5% more reactions
Instagram’s Adam Mosseri also shared some useful features you might have missed
Pinterest says repetitive content kills engagement and session time, and marketers should diversify formats, visuals, and themes to maximize discovery and performance
€1 BILLION
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More new social stats:
BREAKING: 49% of people use social media for breaking news, ahead of TV
BAN HAPPY: 68% of global social media users now back teen social bans
PODTASTIC: Podcasters on Patreon pulled in $629 million in 2025, surging 33% YoY
NOT WORKING: 70% of children under the age of 16 in Australia are still accessing and using social apps despite the ban
MAKING IT SNAPPY: Over 45,000 people joined Snapchat’s Topic Chats feature during March Madness 2026, with 40,000 active users and 90,000+ messages sent concurrently at its peak
Does including a link in your X post kill reach?
The answer appears to be yes!
Analysis by Nieman Lab of X posts by 18 publishers showed links in tweets sharply reduced engagement.
The study revealed The New York Times included links in 88% of its tweets, and averaged 383 engagements per post, despite having 53M followers.
On the other end of the spectrum, engagement-maxxing account Globe Eye News with 866K followers never included links in its posts and saw a median 8,418 engagements per tweet
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More charts:
BAN ‘EM: Support for a minimum age on social media, as it stands across Europe
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Also spotted this week…
Teen social media bans have been branded a “lazy fix” by experts as the global crackdown grows. [CNBC]
The EU failed to renew CSAM scanning rules before a 3 April deadline, leaving platforms in legal limbo. [Politico]
The EU is ramping up age verification enforcement after finding major platforms fail age checks. [Wired $$$]
Perplexity has been accused of sharing AI conversations with Meta and Google. [Ars Technica]
Australia says its under-16 social media ban can’t work without global backing. [Politico]
Greece looks set to ban under-15s from social media starting in 2027. [The Guardian]
Massachusetts lawmakers are looking to usher in ‘most restrictive’ social media ban in the USA. Under-14s would be blocked entirely, while 14–15 year olds would need verified parental consent. [Independent]
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has demanded stronger action on social media ‘outrage economy’. [The Guardian]
Top creators could replace armies of ‘clippers’ with AI. [The Hollywood Reporter]
TikTok’s North America ads chief Khartoon Weiss is leaving after nearly six years. [Business Insider $$$]
Meta has committed to spending additional $21 billion with CoreWeave as AI costs keep rising. [CNBC]
Sony and Universal have asked a judge to dismiss X’s antitrust lawsuit as “baseless” retaliation. [TorrentFreak]
OpenAI reportedly says Elon Musk and Meta are coordinating ‘Attacks’ against it. [Gizmodo]
Ireland has begun testing a digital ID wallet that includes social media age verification tools. [Bloomberg $$$]
Meta has suspended all Mercor contracts after a hack hit the AI data supplier’s systems. [Social Media Today]
Meta has warned that Europe faces an AI “relevance crisis” as the US-China race intensifies. [Meta Newsroom]
A new YouTube report shows indie animation is rising as studio output declines. [The Hollywood Reporter]
More new features and updates:
TikTok has introduced an exclusive in-app experience to support Ella Langley's Dandelion. [TikTok Newsroom]
CapCut has tweaked its video editor UI. [@theahmedghanem]
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Also worth a read:
How Meta’s AI push is changing ad creation
‘It started with a tipoff’: How a Guardian investigation exposed child sex trafficking on Facebook and Instagram
Can AI responses be influenced? The SEO industry is trying
Questions linger about the long-term viability of X
Social platforms are facing increased scrutiny. How long will advertisers stick around?
Using emojis at work… harmless fun, right? 💩🤷♂️
Maybe not.
A new study shows using emojis at work can make you seem less competent.
Negative emojis significantly damage professionalism and perception 🤬
Even positive emojis can feel insincere in the wrong context 👍
Researchers say emojis only help when they match neutral or positive messages 😐
So, maybe think twice about adding that winking emoji in your next work email 😉
In the words of Porky Pig…. “That’s all folks…!”
Really showing my age with that cultural reference. 😏
I’m heading off to finalise plans for the next edition of Geekout Interviews…
I’m in talks with execs at Adobe, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Threads, to secure another exclusive interview.
Got ideas for someone I should try to pursuade (blackmail) into revealing more insider information?
Hit reply to this email, and send me some names.
Goodbye, geeks!
P.S. This newsletter is edited by Martin SFP Bryant
