Hello, geeks!

It’s been a spicy week in court for Meta and YouTube.

The big US social media addiction trial officially kicked off — with Instagram chief Adam Mosseri first to be grilled by the lawyers.

His take? Social media isn’t “clinically addictive.”
It’s just like binge‑watching Netflix.

We’ll unpack that in a moment.

Along with everything else worth knowing this week.

Including Meta’s creepy idea to simulate you when you’re dead!

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A day in the life of…

Earlier this week I recorded a podcast with the Sked Social team.

They asked what a “typical” week looks like for me.

I said, honestly, probably not that interesting to most people.

They disagreed.

So for those curious, or who assume I just scroll social feeds all day, here’s a snapshot of my past 7 days:

  • Recorded an interview with NPR about the EU ruling TikTok’s addictive app design being illegal

  • Responded to BBC News request for comment about EU / TikTok ruling

  • Spoke with TV producers in London who want to film an interview with me for a new documentary about David Beckham

  • Reviewed a request to speak at a marketing conference in the US in March

  • Recorded a podcast episode with Sked Social

  • Responded to a media request from a journalist in Germany wanting to discuss the UK Online Safety laws

  • Spoke with Instagram’s comms team about a possible collaboration in Q2

  • Prepared my notes for speaking at a social media conference next week in Athens.

  • Finalised LinkedIn post copy for paid collabs with long-term clients

  • Worked on Geekout Newsletter template upgrades and finalised this week’s newsletter

  • Finalised setup for an upcoming webinar with my client Emplifi

  • Prepared my notes for an internal corporate event with a social video platform client

  • Responded to request from a producer wanting me to film for a new pilot TV show in the UK.

That’s not everything, but gives you an idea of how busy my week gets as a team of 1.

And that’s without my life admin! Organised chaos.

Well, mostly chaos, given my ADHD!

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1 cool thing…

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Including social teams at: Netflix, Apple, Disney, Coca-Cola, TikTok.

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Instagram Chief Says Social Media Is Not ‘Clinically Addictive’ in Landmark Trial

Adam Mosseri testified that the company was careful to test features used by young people before releasing them

  1. Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube agree to be rated on teen safety [SCORE-CARDING]

  2. Instagram is testing a new Snapchat rival photo sharing app [PROTOTYPING]

  3. Russia orders block on WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram and Telegram in messaging app crackdown [FIREWALLING]

  4. Meta plans to add facial recognition tech to its smart glasses, leaked memo says [TERRIFYING]

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…Social addiction goes on trial

Instagram and YouTube owners built 'addiction machines', trial told

“Addiction machines”, “digital casinos”; call them what you like but the mood music is consistent. The argument is that social media apps are harmful to kids. A bunch of court cases, beginning with two in the US this week, intend to prove it.

Instagram boss Adam Mosseri was the first high-profile exec to be grilled in the high-profile LA trial. Dr. Anna Lembke, an specialist on addiction, testified that teens face heightened addiction risks because their brains lack full control.

Meanwhile, New Mexico is accusing Meta of hiding internal evidence showing Facebook and Instagram endangered young users.

Of course, Meta is pushing back. It rejects the New Mexico accusations, saying critics make “sensationalist, irrelevant, and distracting arguments”.

It’s spent big money to try to shift public opinion too: Meta has aired 3,500 TV ads highlighting teen-account safety for at least 10 months and increasingly in recent times. One ad alone cost around $700K and was reported to have generated 6.5 million impressions since April.

And YouTube argues (again, as it did in the run up to Australia’s teen social ban) that it’s not a social media platform

Meta, Google, TikTok, and Snap failed to dismiss school lawsuits claiming their platforms damaged student mental health.

The steady stream of legal cases, potential teen bans, and stories about potential teen harms just keep coming.

Just this week, Snapchat has been hit with Texas lawsuit claiming it hooked kids by design. TikTok is getting heat for addictive design in the EU, with Meta likely to receive attention too. And research found children in England are ‘bombarded’ with online ads for harmful products.

But are the platforms actually addictive? That could be difficult to prove in a legally conclusive way. Adam Mosseri testified that social media is “not clinically addictive.” That sounds like carefully chosen wording provided by Meta’s lawyers, and this kind of specificity might matter to the outcome.

But no matter how these court cases turn out, politicians around the world seem to have already made their mind up that teen social bans are a popular policy. And things are only getting more intense there.

So could we see the next generation of teenagers growing up without the social platforms current teens take for granted? It’s certainly possible.

Meta, TikTok and Snap said this week they’re taking part in a teen safety ratings programme, no doubt in an attempt to neuter such bans. But even if they go ahead, they’re unlikely to affect companies’ bottom lines much.

The real hit will be to the platforms’ ability to hook a new generation early. Whether they’re “clinically addictive” or not, they certainly do that today.

Meta   Meta  /  Facebook  Facebook

Facebook working on Super Like + Anonymous Story Viewing premium features | Credit: @alex193a

  • Facebook, like Instagram, is working on paid subscription features to view Stories anonymously and ‘Super Like’

  • Mark Zuckerberg is set to join other California billionaires, like Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, by buying a $150 million Miami home

  • Meta is promoting AI features available on Meta AI apps with a new carousel placed in Facebook’s feed

  • Meta Business Suite now supports managing Threads accounts on desktop

  • Facebook now lets you dispute a copyright takedown on your videos

  • Facebook now clearly explains differences between Professional Mode and the updated Page experience

  • Facebook Notes now lets you use song lyrics as the caption for music notes

  • Messenger’s Android app has a new ‘Early access to features’ section in the main Settings menu

  • Meta has retired its Recurring Marketing Messages API. A new Marketing Messages API replaces it, bringing stricter controls and redesigned opt-in rules.

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Instagram  Instagram  /   Threads  Threads

Instagram working on ‘Short Dramas’ tab | Credit @Alex193a

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 WhatsApp  WhatsApp

WhatsApp working on more premium features | Credit: @WABetaInfo

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X / Twitter  X (Twitter)

Getty Images

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TikTok  TikTok

TikTok rolls out Local Feed in the U.S | Credit: TikTok

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YouTube  YouTube

YouTube’s auto-captioning when video muted | Credit: YouTube

  • YouTube now auto-enables captions whenever you mute mobile playback

  • YouTube plans to launch over 10 cheaper, genre-focused TV bundles, including a $65 sports plan, in the US

  • YouTube is expanding its test that cuts push notifications to subscribers who rarely engage

  • YouTube launched an official Apple Vision Pro app, more than two years after the headset’s debut.

  • YouTube Shorts now offer ‘Add Motion’, letting you turn any still photo into an 8-second animation (except in the EU, Switzerland and the UK)

  • YouTube has rolled out an AI playlist generator for Premium users on its Music

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Snapchat  Snapchat  /  LinkedIn  LinkedIn  /  Pinterest  Pinterest

Snapchat expands Arrival Notifications to any destination | Credit: Snap

  • Snapchat expanded it’s Home Safe Alerts to any destination. Arrival Notifications alert trusted contacts when you reach your destination

  • LinkedIn launched a new $99 per month All-in-One Premium subscription for small businesses, including AI guidance, marketing and hiring tools, and $150 in monthly ad/boost credits

  • Bluesky finally added draft saving, along with autoplay GIFs, and refreshed app artwork

  • Discord said all users would require a face scan or ID for full access next month or get a restricted teen experience

    …but after a widespread backlash, Discord said the “vast majority” will avoid face scans or ID uploads

  • Pinterest hit an all-time high of 619 million users after adding 19 million new users in Q4 2025

  • Twitch is testing ads that appear only when streams are paused

  • Telegram for Android has had a redesign that draws on Apple’s Liquid Glass aesthetic

  • CapCut added the ability for template creators to mark their templates as paid partnerships

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🔥 Want to see more hot NEW features spotted in the wild this week?

Just head to the ‘More news’ section below!

🤖 SOCIAL AI

The newest social media AI features spotted this week:

I don’t think many people care too much about their Facebook profile pic anymore, but this might make you think a bit more about it…

AI can now bring your profile pic to life…

Meta will now animate your Facebook profile picture with AI

The boomers are going to love this.

__________

Also spotted this week 👀

  • Meta is testing AI smart glasses to support people living with memory loss

  • Meta added a new shortcut for Manus AI in Ads Manager

  • Instagram now lets you enable audio reuse via Meta AI. When switched on, creators can build with all or part of your original audio

  • Instagram is working on the ability to mention Meta AI in comments to ask questions

  • Instagram is introducing a support assistant powered by Meta AI

  • WhatsApp is working on a dedicated Meta AI tab to centralise all AI-powered features in one place

  • TikTok now clearly labels Create AI in the composer

  • Snapchat has added an AI Lens+ tool that generates a Bitmoji from your selfie.

  • ByteDance’s next-gen Seedance 2.0 AI model can generate video clips based on text, images, audio, and video. It handles complex scenes, syncing movement + real-word physics

  • CapCut will soon allow you to generate videos using the latest version of ByteDance’s Seedance AI model

💬 YOU CAN QUOTE ME ON THAT

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

I spoke to BBC News about the EU’s latest TikTok battle as the platform is ordered change its ‘addictive design’.

💀 LOL

Instagram post

🔥 MEMES

The confusion and outrage over Discord’s ‘you get a teen experience unless you verify your age’ policy got people meme-ing through the pain this week…

🌡️ VIRAL

Happy Valentine’s Day for tomorrow? Maybe not for everyone.

It’s increasingly fine to say you hate the day of love…

The rise of Anti-Valentine's Day online

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Also going viral this week: 🔥

🪧 BRANDS

X revealed Super Bowl LX’s most-discussed ads via its Grok AI rankings

Budweiser, Apple Music, and Kraft Mac & Cheese dominated categories like ‘Most loved,’ ‘Most talked about,’ ‘Most shared’.

X Shares the Most Discussed Super Bowl Ads

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More brand news:

👀 MY FAV READS

It's getting harder for social media creators to become global superstars.

According to MrBeast’s former manager Reed Duchscher, going niche is the way forward for creator success.

Apps like TikTok and Instagram are pushing niche, personalized content over general fare.

Creators, talent managers, and investors are tweaking their strategies to meet the new reality.

Hitting the social media jackpot is harder than ever

🙊 WHAT DID YOU SAY?!

"Reddit is the most human place on the internet in a world flooded with AI slop."

– Reddit CEO Steve Huffman positions the platform as an authentic antidote to the AI takeover of social media

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Also overheard this week: 👂

  • "Honest answer is that we wanted to start simple, learn, and then adjust it over time if those customizations are obviously needed

    -

    – Meta’s Threads chief Connor Hayes response to my question about why the ‘dear algo’ feature only changes your feed for three days

    __________

  • "There is a real cause for sadness here… You have people doing work that we were excited about, that we wanted to have in the system."

    -

    – Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth wishes cuts didn’t have to have been made to the company’s Reality Labs division

    __________

  • “This authoritarian move won’t change our course. Telegram stands for freedom and privacy, no matter the pressure.”

    -

    – Telegram CEO Pavel Durov reacts to Russia’s new restrictions on the app

__________

  • “The very nature of defending what they're defending, the lies that they are stating, is devaluing life, is devaluing your children's lives

    -

    – Prince Harry thanks bereaved families taking on social media companies

😮 WTF?!

You might have heard of F*** You Pay Me, the online service to help creators get smarter about brand deals.

A poorly judged email subject line this week caused a storm.

The email opened to reveal that the subject line was just a joke, and FYPM was having a discount promotion.

Which led to a bit of a journey of a reaction from FYPM’s founder Lindsey Lee Lugrin…

Whilst it was an incredibly bad decision to choose that title for a marketing email, we all make mistakes.

I genuinely do hope she’s okay, as the online reaction for brutal.

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Also WTF this week: 👀

🤦‍♂️ FAIL

Even the White House’s deliberately ‘edgy’ meme machine can go too far for some of Trump’s supporters…

Trump posted a racist meme depicting the Obamas as apes in a video posted on Truth Social. It sparked immediate worldwide backlash.

The White House initially defended the post as “just a meme,” dismissing outrage as fake. That’s the playbook that usually works for them.

But Republicans broke ranks, calling the video “appalling” and demanding a removal and apology. The post was deleted hours later, blamed on “staff error.”

Trump Deletes Extremely Racist Meme About Obamas After Backlash From Republicans

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Also:

👔 YOU’RE HIRED!

Hot new social media jobs worth checking out this week:

Coinbase is looking for a Twitter (X?) content creator [Remote, USA]

__________

More top social media jobs spotted this week 💼

👌 PRO TIPS

TikTok published a new 40-page guide outlining the creative tactics that drive high-performing content on the platform.

It features a few useful, practical tips worth checking out…

TikTok Publishes New Guide to Effective Promotions

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More NEW pro-tips worth checking out this week ✨

📊 SOCIAL STATS

20 BILLION+

– The number of views YouTube says NFL videos in 2025, a 3.5× jump from 2020

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Even more social stats: 📈

  • LONG STORY: X says that the amount of long-form articles published jumped 10x, with reading of long-form posts up 17x

  • SUPER SOCIAL: Bad Bunny’s halftime performance broke records with 4 BILLION social media views, a 137% increase on last year

  • BEASTLY BOWL: MrBeast obliterated the Super Bowl ad rankings, posting a 3,733 engagement score, over 2× Brad Pitt’s 1,413

  • GREEN FLAG: YouTube and the NFL’s Creator Flag Football game hit 14 million live views, more than doubling last year’s 6 million

  • SMART SALES: Meta sold over 7 million smart glasses units last year, effectively tripling sales in 2025 alone

📈 CHARTED

TikTok's best shoppers are millennials, not Gen Z

💥 EVEN MORE SOCIAL MEDIA NEWS & UPDATES

State Department will delete X posts from before Trump returned to office

The policy change orders the removal of any post made by official State Department accounts on X before President Trump returned to office in 2025.

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Also this week… 🚨

  • Social posts promoting weight-loss jabs are to be banned as 'ads' for the first time in UK [Sky News]

  • US Senate candidate Mallory McMorrow has a plan for kids' online safety. It bans phones in classrooms and limits endless scrolling and push alerts, and more. [Axios]

  • TikTok alternative UpScrolled is struggling to moderate hate speech after fast growth. [TechCrunch]

  • India ordered social media platforms to take down deepfakes faster with tough new rules. [TechCrunch]

  • Russia is now limiting Telegram access as wider restrictions intensify nationally. [Bloomberg $$$]

  • MrBeast’s Beast Industries has acquired teen-focused fintech app Step for expansion. [CNBC]

📰 WEEKEND READS

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

Here’s a fascinating chat with the man who made social video his own at the Washington Post.

He quit being The Washington Post’s ‘TikTok Guy’ after feeling unsupported, and took the publisher’s audience with him!

How Dave Jorgenson took the Washington Post video audience with him

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More great weekend reads:

😳 AND FINALLY…

If you could set your Instagram account to keep posting after you die, would you? 😳

Meta has patented AI that can “simulate” you after you die! Not even joking.

The AI model learns from your platform history, to mimic your comments, likes, and messages.

Before you get too freaked out…

Meta insists it has no plans to move forward with rolling the feature out, so your future ghost will have to stay mute on Instagram.

Meta patented an AI that lets you keep posting after you die

📅 BACK NEXT WEEK…

And on that goulish note… We are done. 👻

I’m heading off to pack some clothes for a roadtrip to Manchester.

I’m taking my teen daughter to see RAYE at the Co-Op Live Arena.

I can’t say I’m much of a fan, but I will do my best to fit in with the likely mostly Gen-Z audience I’ll be thrown in amongst.

No doubt my daughter will accuse me of being cringe. 😁

Goodbye, geeks!

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

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