warning! angry social media manager on the loose

Hello, geeks!

To kick things off this week…

The angry social media manager who got fired, but was still logged into the work TikTok account… This doesn’t end well 🍿💥

Ouch!

Also, breaking news as I sit here writing this week’s Geekout…

What did you do Elon! Is Instagram also about to make a dramatic change to verification? 😮

BUT FIRST… 

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Okay… Let’s get into it.

What were the hottest headlines in social this week? These ones 👇️

🔥 GEEKOUT HOT 5

1. Twitter Ends Free Access to Its API, Killing 100s of Apps [BYE BYE BOTS]

2. TikTok Unveil New ‘Strikes’ Policy For Rule Breakers [BEHAVE OR BEGONE]

3. Instagram Founders Launched New ‘TikTok for Text’ App [INSTATOK]

4. TikTok Opened a Transparency Center In The U.S. [PLEASE TRUST US]

5. Meta Is Still Heavily Reliant On The Success Of Facebook [MONEY MACHINE]

What else went down in social town this week? Quite a lot, actually...

Here’s everything else worthy of your attention from the past seven days:

Meta is considering sharing ad revenue with creators (finally)... Meta was accused of secretly, intentionally draining smartphone batteries remotely… And a hacker found a bug that allowed anyone to bypass Facebook 2FA… Meta is cutting funding for Gaming creators… Instagram’s quirky ‘Notes’ feature rolled out to users in the UK, Europe, and Japan.

Twitter will now take less severe action against rule breakers… And users can now request a review if their account gets suspended… Elon Musk made his account private as a ‘test’... Twitter pushed forward plans for a new payment platform.

Twitter was also spotted testing a long list of new features, including: Verified ID check mark for profiles, Boost tweets feature, Reply filters and search tweet likes, hide tweet views counter option, and new creator monetisation feature launching next week.

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YouTube’s new Shorts ad revenue share program for creators went live… YouTube rolled out a ‘Go Live Together’ feature for co-hosted live streams… TikTok added new video insights tools to TikTok Ad Manager… Snapchat may soon let users pay $0.99 to restore broken snap streaks.

Linkedin added a collection of new features to boost Newsletter discovery (and a new creator analytics dashboard)... Buffer now lets you schedule posts to publish on Mastodon… And Linktree added three new monetization integrations for creators.

DID YOU SEE… 👀

• ✨ FREE STUFF: Twitter 2023 Events Calendar For Social Media Marketers [DOWNLOAD]

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• 🤖 CHATGPT: A Huge Collection Powerful ChatGPT You Can Use Today [VIEW PROMPTS]

Alrighty then… Let’s dig a little deeper on the news headlines generating the most chatter this week...

…Geekout analysis of the top stories coming up next (keep scrollin’) 👇️

– Matt

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🚨 Everyone's talking about...

If you tried to think of something Elon Musk could still do to make Twitter worse in his mission to make it better, it would probably be ‘kill free access to the API’. And that’s exactly what was announced this week.

Details were thin in the tweets that revealed the news, and developers using the API to build fun and useful things like bots won’t have long to figure out their next move. Twitter says there will be more information next week, but the closure of the free option comes in on Thursday …next week. Talk about cutting it fine!

Musk says the free API is “being abused badly by scammers and opinion manipulators. There’s no verification process or cost, so [it’s] easy to spin up 100k bots to do bad things.”

This might be true, but ask yourself: who is more likely pay $100 per month for API access: someone who wants to manipulate or scam Twitter users, or someone running a fun bot that tweets automated weather alerts, funny messages or Elon Musk quotes?

Developers who run useful bots have already said they will probably kill them as soon as this rule change kicks in.

Musk says the API fee will include ID verification, but given that Twitter Blue continues has continued to verify fake people since the company claimed to have introduced ID verification, we can’t be certain this will work. And if you run a serious shadowy manipulation operation, you probably have access to fake IDs anyway.

It’s the spirit of old Twitter that will die if Musk goes ahead with this move. But that’s probably no concern for Musk, who wants you to love his NEW Twitter.

To that end, it’s pushing ahead with plans to become a payments processor. And out go CoTweets, but look out for text attachments (4,000-character tweets) next week and the ability to pay creators for tweets coming soon.

In other good news, Twitter has won some good names for Super Bowl ads (thanks to heavy price discounts) and the company has successfully made its first hefty debt payment

But Musk’s new Twitter isn’t all smooth sailing just yet. Usage has dropped 9% in the US according to third-party data, and a weird bug has seemingly given private accounts more reach and engagement that public ones.

Shunning traditional things like ‘getting your researchers to check it out’ Musk took his own account private, which seemingly “identified issues” that should be fixed next week.

Set aside your ‘Facebook is dying’ assumptions. The 19-year-old platform is very much alive and growing. While Gen-Z might not share their every thought on there, they do use features like Groups, Marketplace, and Gaming.

Confirmation of Facebook’s strength came in Meta’s quarterly earnings announcement this week. But days before, the Wall Street Journal reported that the company is still heavily reliant on the success of Facebook, and Reels seems to be a bigger success on Facebook than Instagram.

The company seems bullish on its ads business weathering the current economic storm as it enhances targeting with A.I. Another shift that could be on the horizon comes with news that Meta bosses are warming to the idea of sharing ad revenue with Reels creators. They’ll no doubt be watching how YouTube’s Shorts revenue share, which launched this week, fares in the wild.

Meanwhile, although CTO Andrew ‘Boz’ Bosworth has implied the company has lost its focus, Meta now spends $1 billion per month on building its metaverse offering.

Meta might be a little quieter on hyping up its future this year as investors look more closely at performance today, but Mark Zuckerberg (whose fortune soared this week) still knows exactly where he wants to take the company.

It sounds like the most depressing brand activation of all time, but TikTok is serious about surviving in the US so it’s opened up a physical space where it can put its case across to thought leaders. Welcome to the TikTok ‘Transparency Center’ in Los Angeles.

Journalists have been touring the space this week.

It’s easy to laugh at this showy approach to lobbying. Dramatically housing the “source code” in a locked room is akin to the episode of The IT Crowd where Jen is convinced that ‘the internet’ is housed inside a small black box.

It’s all nonsense on one level, but TikTok really needs to try every trick in the book right now as pressure mounts on politicians to do something about the perceived threat the Chinese-linked app presents. 

TikTok’s CEO will testify before US Congress in March amid growing privacy and security concerns around the app, while Apple and Google face mounting pressure to remove TikTok from app stores in the US.

While that seems unlikely any time soon, the possible Chinese spy balloon currently floating in plain sight above the US is likely to focus the minds of TikTok’s critics even more sharply.

😆 LOL tweets

Tap through for the full effect of this one! 👇️

Buyer’s remorse much? 👇️

📈 Now trending

“A creator can now take you through an outing or an entire day, moment by moment, by creating a slideshow of irreverent photos with silly captions all punctuated with quirky emojis. And I mean moment by moment; they are taking full advantage of the 35-photo maximum.”

🎧️ Must-listen

Can the metaverse ever compete with social media as we know it today? Check out my guest appearance on Fast Company’s 'World Changing Ideas' podcast:

🤦 Fail of the week

“As if being verified couldn't be more worthless or AIs more dubious, beware verified Twitter accounts with AI-generated faces pretending to be real people.”

😮 WTF?!

Sure VR can be fun. But sexy…?

Also:

• A startup that can clone voices has been trying to fight off abuse of celebrity voices

🗣️ Industry chatter

MrBeast seems to want to do good with his money, but not everyone is convinced he’s on the level.

🚰 Leaked

Thought Meta was getting out of most hardware? This could be a new smartwatch from the company. It brings a whole new meaning to ‘Facebook Watch’.

🪦 RIP

Goodbye CoTweets, we hardly knew ye.

Also:

• Meta is killing its experimental gamified to-do list app, Move.

🤔 Opinion

❓️ Question of the week

We hear these terms all the time, but what exactly do they mean? I asked my Twitter followers.

Tap through to find out what they said, and share your own thoughts:

💡 New feature spotlight

I really like this idea. If you’ve ever got tired of seeing the same kind of thing over and over on your FYP, this is for you:

👀 Reads of the week

“Here is how platforms die: first, they are good to their users; then they abuse their users to make things better for their business customers; finally, they abuse those business customers to claw back all the value for themselves. Then, they die.”

Also:

• Dissecting Elon Musk’s tweets: Memes, rants, private parts and an echo chamber

• Social media CEOs were once the rockstars of their generation

💬 You can quote me on that

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

As Moonpig trials A.I. generated 'personalised' messages for greeting cards, I spoke to Chris Stokel-Walker for i about the A.I. overlords saving us time... but at what cost to human connection?

📈 Charts of the week

Twitch isn’t just big. It’s enormous.

Also:

• Almost 4 billion people use Meta’s apps in total

• New podcast creation was down 80% in 2022 

• Where does Gen-Z spend most of its time online?

• More than half of Gen-Z spend four or more hours per day on social media

• TikTok hit 1 billion users in record time

📊 Stat of the week

Also:

• YouTube Shorts has hit 50 billion daily views

• Meta scraped data for years via a contractor, while suing others for scraping Facebook. [Bloomberg $$$]

• Meta has reportedly defeated the FTC, winning court approval to acquire VR startup Within Unlimited. [Bloomberg $$$]

• Meta has dropped the price of the Quest Pro to $1,100 for a limited time. [Road to VR]

• Facebook Gaming has cut back on its number of contracts with game streamers. [The Information $$$]

• Meta is trying to block a $3.7 billion UK lawsuit over its market dominance. [Reuters $$$]

• Sky is working on a documentary about the life of Mark Zuckerberg. [Deadline]

• A bug in Facebook and Instagram could have let an attacker switch off an account’s two-factor protections just by knowing their phone number. [TechCrunch]

• Britney Spears says the shut her Instagram account because of the amount of abuse she received. [Rolling Stone $$$]

New features and tests:

Facebook:

• Facebook now suggests you turn a live video recording into a Reel. [@oncescuradu]

• Facebook has added ‘Save as Draft’ and ‘Download’ options to Reels. [@techjalal]

Instagram:

• Instagram Notes is rolling out to Europe and Japan. [TechCrunch]

• Instagram and Facebook could soon offer Twitter-style paid verification badges. [TechCrunch]

• Instagram now lets you add up to three topics to your Reels to help them find the right audience. [@LindseyGamble_]

• Instagram will let you send special reactions for Valentines Day on Stories. [@alex193a]

Messenger:

• Messenger now lets some users organise chats with labels. [@techjalal]

• Messenger has been spotted offering a new ‘Bump’ option. [@oncesuradu]

WhatsApp:

• WhatsApp is testing emoji reactions to messages in WhatsApp Community broadcast channels. [WABetaInfo]

VR, adtech, and more:

• A new Meta smartwatch appears to have been leaked. [9to5Google]

• Meta is testing members-only VR worlds in Horizon Worlds. [The Verge]

• Meta Business Suite now has a an option to add licensed music to videos. [@jonah_manzano]

• Quest 3 will have a colour passthrough capability, Mark Zuckerberg has confirmed. [UploadVR]

• Meta is shutting down one of its most popular VR games, Echo VR. [Road to VR]

• Twitter Blue is now available in Saudi Arabia, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, and Spain. [TechCrunch]

• The EU has held a call with Elon Musk to stress the importance of the Digital Services Act and its disinformation rules. [Reuters $$$]

• Elon Musk has told staff to write a one-pager about what they achieved in January. [@zoeschiffer]

• Twitter staff have heard nothing more about the equity plan Elon Musk promised months ago. [The Information $$$]

• Twitter still hasn’t collected laptops from some laid-off employees. [Insider]

• Twitter has made its pitch to advertisers ahead of the Super Bowl. [Social Media Today]

• Twitter says a private jet company suing it overcharged for flights. [Bloomberg $$$]

• Elon Musk has asked a judge to throw out a lawsuit over the late disclosure of his stake in Twitter last year. [Reuters $$$]

Insights to give you an edge at work:

• Twitter has published a 2023 events calendar for social media managers and marketers. [Social Media Today]

New features and tests:

• Twitter now lets you quickly pay to boost your tweet. [@jonah_manzano]

• Twitter now prompts users to share tweets outside of Twitter. [@oncescuradu]

• The full Twitter audio tab featuring podcasts as well as Spaces is back from Twitter Blue subscribers only. [TechCrunch]

• Twitter could soon let you hide view counts on your tweets. [@ehikian]

• Evidence has emerged of Twitter’s ‘only verified users can vote on a poll’ option, in development. [@alex193a]

• Twitter is exploring new ways to react to DMs. [@ehikian]

• Twitter is working on an ‘ID verified’ badge for profiles. [@wongmjane]

• TikTok is testing limiting the choice of music it offers some users in Australia, to see how it affects usage. [Bloomberg $$$]

• TikTok users are angry because its email unsubscribe feature doesn’t seem to work. [Forbes]

• TikTok breached its own policy and promises by taking $4.3m worth of weight-loss ads. [Insider $$$]

Insights to give you an edge at work:

• How Ladbible grew to become the biggest news publisher on TikTok. [PressGazette]

New features and tests:

• TikTok has added new video insights to its Ad Manager, including ad performance against industry benchmarks. [Social Media Today]

• TikTok is working on a ‘refresh’ button to reset the algorithm when you’re tired of seeing the same kinds of posts. [The Verge]

💥 More social media news and updates

• YouTube has begun sharing Shorts ad revenue with creators. [Financial Times $$$]

• YouTube’s ad revenue was down 8% in Q4 2022. [Variety]

• Snapchat added 12 million users in Q4 2022, but Snap didn’t meet revenue expectations. [Social Media Today]

• Snap has suggested future AR glasses could benefit from generative A.I. [TechCrunch]

• The US Supreme Court’s upcoming decision on the future of Section 230 could spell the end of community moderation–and Reddit–as we know it. [Technology Review $$$]

• Extremism experts worry Donald Trump is now more extreme than he was when he was previously allowed on mainstream social media. [New York Times $$$]

• Harvard is set to close its unit studying social media misinformation, months before the 2024 US election. [Washington Post $$$]

• Pinterest has announced a new video partnership with Condé Nast. [Social Media Today]

New features and tests:

• YouTube has added a 'Go Live Together' feature for joint livestreams. [ 9to5Google]

• YouTube has launched a hub for this year’s Super Bowl ads. [Social Media Today]

• LinkedIn has added new newsletter tools to boost subscriber growth, including one-click subscribe URLs and embeddable buttons. [Social Media Today]

• LinkedIn now lets you add an SEO title and description for LinkedIn Articles. [Search Engine Land]

• LinkedIn has added a shortcut for the “Templates” in the post composer. [@oncescuradu]

• LinkedIn now lets creators generate a one-click follow profile URL. [@MattNavarra]

• Snapchat has launched Story Boost for Snapchat+ subscribers. [@jonah_manzano]

• …it’s among other new features that have now rolled out on Snapchat+. [@ahmedghanem]

• Snapchat could soon charge users $0.99 to restore broken Snapstreaks. [Insider $$$]

• Discord is now available to beta testers on PlayStation 5. [The Verge]

• Linktree has added three new monetisation features for creators. [TechCrunch]

• Buffer now lets you schedule Mastodon posts. [Buffer]

• Clubhouse could soon let you add topics to Houses. [@alex193a]

📖 Weekend reading

• Banning TikTok wouldn’t do much good

😳 And finally...

Influencers in the wild 🐻

📅 Back next week...

…Un-bear-able news… You’ve reached the end of this week’s Geekout. 🐻

(ba dum-tss) 🥁

I’ll get my coat.

Have a great weekend, everyone.

Goodbye geeks!

– Matt

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This newsletter is edited by Martin SFP Bryant