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Hello, geeks!

Welcome OG Geekout friends… And the hundreds of new readers joining us for the first time.

There is LOT going on this week in social media land…

…Elon' Musk’s xAI chatbot ranted white genocide
…Meta wants judge to throw out FTC’s case early
…TikTok is facing a multi-billion euro fine
…And HBO’s SMM is living their best life.

All that and more in a moment.

But first… These two are worth a click:

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• 💡 100 time-saving ChatGPT prompts for social media managers you’ll want to steal [ad]

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Prompts, Procrastination & AI-Powered Meltdowns 🤯🤖
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I’ve been leaning hard on ChatGPT lately — partly to help me build a better newsletter.

And partly to do the things my ADHD brain point-blank refuses to engage with.

It’s helped me psychoanalyse myself, draft outrageously passive-aggressive complaint emails.

And take Googling minor health symptoms to a whole new “you’re definitely dying” level.

Oh — and it’s weirdly good at untangling my messiest ideas into actual usable content.

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Aye mind how you talk to Ai you know 😩😩 #funny #chatgpt #lol IB @loicthehuman

But as always, the magic’s in the prompts.

Got any you swear by as a social media manager?

Prompts that help with planning, content writing, client comms, reporting. Or just stopping you from falling into a doomscrolling spiral..?

And maybe you've found some unhinged but brilliant prompts for personal stuff as well…?

…Trip planning, personal development, life admin, or something wilder?

Hit reply and send me your best AI prompts — I’ll share the best ones in Geekout in the coming weeks.

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🔥 GEEKOUT HOT 5

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

2. Meta asks judge to throw out antitrust case mid-trial [FIGHTING]

3. TikTok faces multibillion-euro fine over missing ad disclosures [FINING]

4. Instagram and Facebook blocked and hid abortion pill providers’ posts [PANDERING]

5. Elon Musk’s X still accepting payment from terrorist orgs for blue check verification [VIOLATING]

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🚨 EVERYONE’S TALKING ABOUT…

Grok turns into a conspiracy theorist

X’s Grok AI chatbot surprised users this week by developing an obsession with the ‘South African white genocide’ conspiracy theory that has been spreading around American right wing media lately.

Ask it about anything, and there was a chance it would change the subject to the supposed oppression of white farmers.

So what was going on? An obvious assumption was that Musk, a right-wing white South African, had been trying to subtly nudge conversations about the topic to support the supposedly oppressed people. Only, the subtlety had been messed up with hilarious results.

But that’s not the case, according to Musk’s xAI, which develops Grok. They say it was sabotage:

But whether the change was unauthorised or not, the episode highlights a serious issue with the growing inclusion of AI chatbots and other AI features in social media apps. As hamfisted as this example was, it shows how AI can be used to manipulate discussion around a particular topic.

For years, politicians and commentators have fretted about the power of algorithms in social apps. But what about algorithms PLUS AI? Bias in training data is one well-discussed threat from AI. But deliberately skewing how AI reacts to certain situations, with the intention of misleading people or nudging them in a certain direction, could be very difficult to prove if done effectively.

This isn’t just an Elon Musk problem. We should look out for it from all big ‘social+AI’ companies, like Meta, ByteDance, and Google.

But given Elon Musk’s history of getting involved directly with politics he cares about, it’s no surprise that people suspected Grok had been deliberately been given an obsession with ‘white genocide’.

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✨ NEW & NOTEWORTHY

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

Meta / Facebook 👥

• Meta is delaying the rollout of its flagship ‘Behemoth’ AI model

• …while Meta’s Llama 4 models are failing to wow developers, with slower innovation and no standout reasoning model

• Meta's AI training plans face a legal challenge over EU user data

• News publishers have seen a surge of Facebook engagement from photo posts

• A US Senator is probing Meta’s handling of misconduct claims against exec Joel Kaplan

• Meta is reportedly battling an ‘Epidemic of Scams’ as criminals flood Instagram and Facebook

• Facebook Stories now offers a photo collage feature

• Facebook now lets you import profile information from your Instagram account during the creation process

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Instagram ✨ 

• Instagram added beat sync, video effects, and more to the Edits App

• Instagram has a new insights metric about when people liked your Reel

• Instagram updated the invite menu, adding new options and apps to send invites to friends

• Instagram is testing the ability to add a shortcut to another account in your profile

• Instagram is considering moving the Story tray to the Reels tab

• Instagram added more filters to direct messages

• Instagram now lets you add labels to organise your DMs

• Instagram now allows you to choose who can see your online status

• Instagram is working on the ability to block bio mentions from certain users

• Instagram added an option to hide or show your avatar as your profile picture

• Instagram added an option to preview profile links before saving

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Threads 🧵 / WhatsApp 💬 

• Threads added multi-link bios, link analytics, a weekly performance summary, and more.

• Threads’ algorithm will finally start boosting posts with links

• Threads is still working on a snippets feature (but nobody knows how it works, yet)

• Threads is working on a floating post creation sheet positioned at the bottom right corner on desktop

• WhatsApp is working on a new ‘Recent Searches’ feature for channels

• WhatsApp is working on a feature to manage accessibility settings, focused on increased contrast

• WhatsApp is working on an option to allow resharing and forwarding status updates

• WhatsApp is rolling out a feature that animates sending chat messages

• WhatsApp now lets you layer on photos from your camera roll when adding a Status

• WhatsApp is testing a redesigned Windows app

• WhatsApp is testing a feature to manage the voice message transcript language on a per-chat basis

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Twitter (‘X’) 🤡

• X updated link previews and added CTAs for sales objective ads

• X started asking users if search results are relevant to their query

• X now supports 4K video uploads for all Premium subscribers and says improved livestreaming is coming soon

__________

YouTube 📺

• YouTube launched a weekly Top 100 Podcast Shows chart in the US

• YouTube Shorts now recommends long-form content more intelligently and counts views earlier to reflect real engagement

• YouTube’s TV app is widely rolling out a Shorts feed that buries your subscriptions

• YouTube’s mobile mini player now pauses videos when hidden and resumes when reopened

• YouTube will stream an opening week NFL game for free for the first time, this September

• YouTube is testing a new UI for the video player on iOS

• YouTube is launching a pilot where creators can organise videos into seasons and episodes for binge viewing on TVs

• YouTube now lets users enable playlist voting, allowing others to vote on songs in shared playlists

• YouTube demonetised channels containing AI-generated trailers for real movies

• YouTube now lets you shop directly from ads on your TV

• YouTube Shorts is rolling out the Quiz sticker feature to more users

__________

TikTok 📱

• TikTok rolled out guided meditation prompts to curb teen night scrolling

• TikTok added an option to activate customer DMs during livestreams

• TikTok is working on photo and voice messaging features, despite employee concerns over sextortion

• The new US-China trade deal has raised hopes of a revived deal to save TikTok in the US

• TikTok is rolling out the ability to customise names for accounts you follow

• TikTok’s new #Cannes2025 Hub offers exclusive red carpet access, interviews, and creator-led content during the film festival.

• TikTok now lets you hide videos from your profile — they’ll only appear in the feed, not on your profile

• TikTok now has a weekly search insights newsletter

• TikTok added more protection tools under Creator Care Mode, allowing you to filter all comments for a week

__________

Snapchat / Pinterest / Telegram / More… 👻

• Snapchat launched a new ‘Under the Ghost’ music series offering intimate, behind-the-scenes performances, starting with Kid Cudi

• Pinterest will pay $34.7m to a woman who claims she helped create it

• Google is testing a new “Discussions” feature in Search that lets users post comments directly on search topics.

• Google will unveil a Pinterest-like visual search tool at I/O 2025 next week, offering design ideas for fashion and interiors.

• Telegram shut down two massive scam marketplaces worth $35 billion that were run through its app

• Roblox wants to become the new shopping mall for Gen Z by allowing brands and creators to sell in-game merch

__________

🔥 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 A.I.

The newest social media A.I. features spotted this week:

Also spotted this week 👀

• YouTube unveiled AI plan to insert ads when you’re most emotionally vulnerable 😬

• Meta’s new AI tool can build full 3D scenes for Horizon Worlds from a text prompt

• Meta is rolling out Opportunity Score more broadly in Ads Manager, to help improve ad conversion with AI

• Meta’s Ray-Ban glasses now describe surroundings using AI to help visually impaired users

• Meta’s AI app has added a feature called Background Conversations

• Meta released a new data set and AI model aimed at speeding up scientific research

• Instagram’s Meta AI now allows you to upload, capture, or generate images using the Imagine feature.

• WhatsApp is working on a feature to privately summarise messages in chats, groups, and channels,

• WhatsApp is rolling out the ability to create images using Meta AI in chats to more users, along with a new update that allows you to animate them

• TikTok rolled out new accessibility tools, including AI-generated ALT text and high contrast toggles to boost readability

• A typo by Elon Musk—“@gork” instead of “@grok”—has become an official Grok voice on X called “Gork,” described as a slow-witted, lazy male tone

• Snapchat added a shortcut camera feature where you can take a photo, send it to My AI and get an answer

• X has a new UI for Grok

• xAI is giving Grok a Grok is a Tasks feature

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⚖️ META ON TRIAL

The latest from the FTC v Meta in court.

As with last week, I’ve been keeping my eye on The Verge’s blow-by-blow account from the courtroom.

A few key things we learned this week:

• TikTok’s growth took Meta by surprise during the worst of the Covid pandemic. Meta found users were spending roughly 120 minutes per day on the rival app.

• Head of Facebook, Tom Alison said just because users say in surveys they want to see more friend content, it doesn’t mean that’s true. “When people actually got more friend content on Facebook they visited Facebook less,” he testified.

• Meta shows fewer ads to “needy users” whose engagement drops more significantly when they’re shown more ads. The FTC says this is a sign of price discrimination.

• Meta’s defence starts on Monday, but the company has already asked the judge to throw out the case based on the prosecution’s evidence. Worth a shot, right?

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😆 LOL

HBO's social team are having fun announcing a re-re-re-branding of its streaming service as HBO Max.

It stole the thunder of all those looking to make the same joke.

…but of course others couldn’t resist anyway:

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🌡️ VIRAL

Kanye West (a man who needs to disappear from public life for the good of everyone, including himself), has released a pro-Nazi song, literally called ‘Heil Hitler’.

….But while it’s been removed from most mainstream platforms, Meta has let it thrive on Instagram 😡

I won’t share it with you because… well, Ye needs no encouragement. But Meta seriously needs to look at its moderation if that can slip through the net…

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🪧 BRANDS

Love it or hate it, Nutter Butter’s weird approach to social media has made an impact.

This article breaks down the way the brand has boosted purchases of its cookies by 17%…

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🙊 WHAT DID YOU SAY?!

“SHAME HAS ITS VALUE!”

- Hollywood actor Jamie Lee Curtis after successfully pressuring Meta to remove an AI-generated scam ad depicting her

Also overheard this week:

•  “We're true believers. Like, we have actual conviction.” 
  – Meta CTO Andrew ‘Boz’ Bosworth says he and Mark Zuckerberg really believe in potential of AR and VR
  

• "An attempt to use the courthouse to win back the business X lost in the free market when it disrupted its own business and alienated many of its customers" 
  – Advertisers hit back against Elon Musk’s lawsuit over reduced ad revenue

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👀 MY FAV READS

“From gorilla stage invasions to novelty butter churners, the extravaganza has always been a haven for wackiness. But it’s getting less outre by the year … and YouTube and TikTok are to blame. More Papa Pingouin required!”

Also:

• Nigel Farage is a hit on TikTok – but are young voters listening or laughing?

.

📺 MUST WATCH

In a new podcast interview with Grace Beverly, Instagram overlord Adam Mosseri shared what it’s really like running Instagram and Threads, how the algorithm works, why Stories and DMs matter most, and what creators should focus on.

Worth a watch…

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🤦‍♂️ FAIL

Threads was this week flooded with spammy ‘Friend’ posts in the related content feed.

Also:

• Pinterest finally admits recent mass bans were a mistake caused by an ‘internal error’

• Twitch is really lacking when it comes to discovery, prompting creators say promote their streams on TikTok, YouTube, or Discord.

.

😮 WTF?!

Meta is recruiting people to record their facial expressions and small talk to help build realistic virtual avatars.

It's for "Project Warhol," which is run by data firm Appen, and pays $50 an hour.

Also this week 👀

• A judge has ruled a Facebook Group “Are We Dating the Same Guy?” can talk about bad dates—even if the bad date doesn’t like it

• This OnlyFans model found her photos on Reddit — with someone else's face

• A teenager was fatally shot during a ‘Ding Dong Ditch’ TikTok prank

• Mexico is demanding compensation from MrBeast after a pyramid chocolate video

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🤯 CREATOR BURNOUT

A true sign of the times…

CreatorCare is a new telehealth service that offers sliding-scale therapy tailored to influencers facing burnout, harassment, and unstable income.

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👔 YOU’RE HIRED!

Hot new social media jobs worth checking out this week:

John Lewis needs a Social Lead [London, UK]

More top social media jobs spotted this week 💼

• Red Bull is looking for a Social Media Manager [London, UK]

• The United Nations Foundation is recruiting a Social Media Intern [Remote, USA]

• The Alzheimer’s Society needs a Social Media Manager [Remote, UK]

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👌 PRO TIPS

What you need to know about Instagram’s new Unlockable Reels feature…

More pro-tips worth checking out ✨

• 12 social media metrics that actually matter in 2025

• Switching the focus of your Instagram account? Adam Mosseri has some tips

• Adam Mosseri says that the ideal number of Instagram Stories per day is less than 4 or 5

• …Mosseri also said using trending songs in Reels doesn’t necessarily boost reach

• Hands on with Threads feed ad placement

• YouTube has debunked with common Shorts myths

• 6 data-backed tips to win at LinkedIn

• The TikTok algorithm decoded: What creators need to know in 2025

• Pinterest shared a guide to boost product sales on the platform

• Snapchat launched a new report series looking at Gen Z in India

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📊 SOCIAL STATS

$550 BILLION

- The amount of economic activity Meta claims its “personalized ad technologies” were linked to in the US economy. Big number, vague definitions.

Even more social stats: 📈

• SCAM CITY: Internal Meta data shows 70% of new advertisers push fraudulent or low-quality goods

• BIG COMMUNITY: X now has 1 million users contributing to Community Notes

• PIN UP: Pinterest CEO Bill Ready says top marketers now put up to 10% of their budgets on the platform

• ACCELERATING: TikTok now drives 9.4% of digital car buyer inquiries, outperforming many traditional digital channels

• PHOTOS RULE: 85% of top Facebook posts from Fox News and the NYT in early 2025 were photo-based, not video

• SHORTING UP: YouTube says Shorts now rivals long-form content on ad revenue, with Shorts viewing up 20% YoY, and 70% of YouTube Channels now uploading Shorts

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📈 CHARTED

X brand recognition is finally kicking in as Google searches for ‘X login’ overtake those for ‘Twitter login’…

More charted social insights spotted this week: 👀.

• FAR(AGE) AHEAD: How Reform UK is leading on political engagement on TikTok

• X ADS: X’s ad revenue grows again—but it’s still half of 2021’s

• WEB WORLD: The most visited websites in the world, as of November 2024

• SPONCON: US sponsored content is set to top $10 billion in 2025

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💥 EVEN MORE SOCIAL MEDIA NEWS & UPDATES

• AI training on pirated content harms creators by diluting royalties and damaging future sales, artists suing the company argue. [Mashable]

• Meta’s $10 billion AI data center may run on gas, sparking a Senate climate probe. [Fast Company]

• Meta will start selling its Ray-Ban smart glasses in India from next week. [TechCrunch]

• Video podcasts were the next big pitch at media upfronts. [CNBC]

• TikTok parent ByteDance expects its revenue to hit $186 billion in 2025, just shy of Meta’s forecasted $187 billion. [Bloomberg $$$]

• TikTok staffers say its US e-commerce business is slumping amid high tariffs. [Business Insider $$$]

• The BBC plans a push on YouTube and TikTok to combat disinformation. [The Guardian]

• The Kids Online Safety Act has returned in the US with changes and the support of X and Apple. [The Verge]

• The new Pope has faced a political firestorm over his old social media posts. [Poynter]

• Hollywood studios and talent agencies are buying up YouTube talent firms as cable and streaming profits stall. [Bloomberg $$$]

• A Florida bill requiring encryption backdoors for social media accounts failed to pass into law. [TechCrunch]

• France and Spain want to impose age limits on social media networks. [Bloomberg $$$]

• Microsoft is cutting 6,000 jobs—3% of its global workforce—and LinkedIn is affected, although it’s unclear how many roles will be cut. [Social Media Today]

• Discord and Substack say broadcast social is dead, and community is king. [AdWeek $$$]

New features and updates:

• Messenger has introduced a new menu for business chats when you switch to your Page. [@theahmedghanem]

• TikTok has moved Monezation Center to TikTok Studio. [@oncescuradu]

• TikTok is now showing a Profile icon in Search, for direct profiles visits queries. [@oncescuradu]

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📰 WEEKEND READS

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

“These 'elite sales warriors' are blowing up TikTok and LinkedIn. But are they offering good business advice?”

More great weekend reads:

• How Discord hopes to expand beyond the gamer community without alienating its core consumers

• Why one obscure app could help crumble Meta’s empire

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😳 AND FINALLY…

The first video edited with a brain-computer interface has been uploaded to YouTube.

This shows the potential of what companies like Neuralink are working on 🤯

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📅 BACK NEXT WEEK…

And that’s your lot, folks. Social media news debriefing. Done.

I’m heading off to get some much needed sleep.

I spent most of the past week sleeping in hospital with my daughter who has been unwell.

Can you do me a small favour? ❤️

Enjoyed reading Geekout? Know a colleague or friend who’d love it too?

Hit forward on this email OR Share this link in your work Slack channels, on LinkedIn, or wherever your people hang out.

Thanks for your support 🙏

Goodbye, geeks!

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