Hello, geeks!

First of all, who would you trust to have full access to your Instagram account?

That feature could obviously be useful for creators and brands, but personally I think I’d rather hand over the keys to my car!

Second of all, Matt’s busy having non-stop fun (hopefully) at Glastonbury Festival, so this week’s edition of Geekout is brought to you by me, Martin SFP Bryant.

I’ve worked with Matt on every edition of the newsletter since it launched, so you’re in good hands - and Matt will be back next week, when hopefully he’ll have tales to share of watching great bands in the sunshine…

…and not being hospitalised with trench foot. Honestly, anything can happen at Glasto!

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It’s been a busy week in social media…

…the US Supreme Court shared a controversial (but actually quite sane) ruling on government talking to social platforms about content, YouTube tried to get record labels onside for AI, and TikTok pushed further into retail by announcing its own take on Amazon’s Prime Day event.

But we have all more on that, and loads more besides, for you below…

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🔥 GEEKOUT HOT 5

Geekout’s top news picks of the week:

2. YouTube tries to woo record labels with upfront payments for AI music features [NEGOTIATING]

3. Threads expands fediverse support to 100+ countries and lets you see federated replies [FEDERATING]

4. TikTok takes on Amazon Prime Day with ‘Deals For You Days’ [SELLING]

5. More examples emerge of Meta failing on child safety [FAILING]

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🚨 EVERYONE’S TALKING ABOUT…

TikTok’s Prime Day Challenger

It’s no secret that TikTok is serious about shopping, but now it’s clearly ramping up its efforts even further.

Amazon’s annual Prime Day sales event takes place on 16 and 17 July this year, and TikTok is getting in early with a ‘Deals For You Days’ event starting on 9 July.

As TechCrunch reports, there are some well-known brands involved, and the whole thing is tuned to TikTok Shop’s product features, like live shopping.

And prior to that, TikTok Shop is currently running a 50%-off summer sale. TikTok has also launched a support programme for retailers using the app.

With news this week that Amazon plans to take on Temu and Shein with a ‘cheap tat direct from China’ storefront, the retail giant has more competition on its hands than it has had in a long time. TikTok Shop might have a long way to go to be a true Amazon rival, but it can easily take a chunk out of Amazon’s sales within certain demographics.

This all comes down to something I think a lot these days as we put this newsletter together every week… what is social media? TikTok and Instagram have dragged ‘social’ in an increasingly top-down direction, where participation lags far behind consumption.

And as social platforms increasingly become retailers with light ‘social’ interactivity features, and companies like Meta forge ahead with pioneering AI technology, the question of what can truly be considered ‘social media’ and what is just ‘modern media’ is increasingly blurred.

Defining social media is increasingly a case of ‘you know it when you see it’. The definitions of it that made sense in the late 2000s have long ceased to paint a full picture of something that isn’t quite as straightforwardly social as it once was.

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✨ NEW & NOTEWORTHY

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

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😆 LOL

File this under ‘funny’, but also under ‘that would certainly help make sense of how serious someone was being when they said something dumb’:

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🌡️ GONE VIRAL

Even if you just glanced at the internet over the past seven days, it would have been hard to get away from the ‘Hawk Tuah’ meme, which has racked up millions of views and become a cultural phenomenon.

If you saw it but have no idea what it’s all about, here’s an explainer (spoiler: it’s NSFW) 👇

The woman at the centre of the meme has reportedly sold more than $65,000 worth of merch.

While the meme spawned plenty of posts, most of them weren’t very funny, with a few exceptions:

…and commiserations to the social media managers who couldn’t jump on this particular meme moment because the brand safety red flags were off the charts 😀

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💬 YOU CAN QUOTE ME ON THAT

When Matt’s quoted in the news, you’ll find it here:

Matt spoke to Business Insider about Elon’s concerning AI-powered plan for news on X…

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👀 MY FAV READS

“A new study reveals how Gen Zers behave in their natural habitat: the internet”:

Also:

• No, the Supreme Court did not just greenlight government censorship (despite what the media says)

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🚨 SCAM ALERT

Have you recently been offered a social media manager job out of the blue at Meta or WhatsApp? Matt was too.

But sorry, that’s just a scam designed to steal your login details…

DON’T click this if you get one of these emails….!👇

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🙊 WHAT DID YOU SAY?!

“It’s almost as if they kind of think they’re creating God or something and… that’s not what we’re doing”

– Mark Zuckerberg lays into Meta’s closed-source AI rivals. Don’t expect Meta to launch its own god as a product any time soon 😆

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🗳️ ELECTION SOCIAL

Fringe candidates like Robert F Kennedy Jr have an opportunity to get their message across in ways that just wouldn’t have been possible (or at least as popular) in past US presidential elections:

Also:

• 6 viral conspiracy theories about the Trump-Biden debate that are totally fake

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👌 PRO TIPS

TikTok has some fresh trends insights for you, as an addition to its What’s Next 2024 report:

Also:

• 10 must-know Facebook ad targeting tips for more conversions

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🤦 FAIL

Hey TikTok, if you create an AI avatar that can say anything, at least make sure you put SOME controls in place to stop it saying literally ANYTHING 🙄

Also:

• Meta apologised for accidentally limiting political content for users who opted to see more of it on Threads and Instagram

• An ID verification service that works with TikTok and X left its credentials wide open for a year

• Telegram says it has 'about 30 engineers'… a worryingly low number

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🏆 RECORD BREAKER

Magician Justin Flom broke the record for the most-viewed YouTube Short, at 1.6 billion views and counting…

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🤖 SOCIAL A.I.

All the ways A.I. is transforming social media:

• Meta is testing automated creative variations with A/B testing for Reels

• Instagram has started testing user-created AI chatbots in the US

• Meta has launched its AI chatbot for all users in India

• Facebook has added a Create With AI option in Story mode

• Google is developing custom AI chatbots, some of which may be inspired by YouTubers

• Meta’s new LLM Compiler has been described as “the latest AI breakthrough to change the way we code”

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📊 SOCIAL STATS

Over 50% more

— Online influence is rife with inequality, it seems: according to a new report, white influencers on average make over 50% more than some of their BAME counterparts.

• Google detected 10,000 instances of Chinese influence activity across its platforms (including YouTube) in Q1 of 2024, which suggests a bigger problem across other platforms

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📈 CHARTED

TikTok Shop is winning over Gen Z adults, but its strides with millennials show its greatest opportunity:

• Time spent watching social video is plateauing, but the kind of content is changing

• Meta’s apps continue to dominate the download charts

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• Instagram might ‘explore’ letting you rearrange your grid and choose which part of a Reel is displayed when sharing to Stories. [@lindseygamble_]

New features and tests:

Facebook:

• Facebook now lets you subscribe when sending Stars. [@jonahmanzano]

• Facebook is now suggesting hashtags as search items. [@oncesuradu]

Instagram:

• Instagram now lets you duplicate a Reel and save it as a draft. [@jaskaransainiz]

• Instagram is testing a ‘Recent Stories’ section in the For You feed. [@oncescuradu]

• Instagram is testing a 2 x 2 grid display for suggested Reels. [@oncescuradu]

WhatsApp:

• WhatsApp is testing an improved composer for Status messages. [@oncescuradu]

The rest: Creator Studio / Adtech / Quest and more:

• Meta is extending video recording to three minutes on Ray-Ban smart glasses, up from one minute. [9to5Google]

• Meta Quest is copying Apple’s Vision Pro, with more flexible 2D content placement. [Road to VR]

• Meta has expanded Horizon Worlds to be available in more territories. [Social Media Today]

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Insights to give you an edge at work:

• X has highlighted advertising opportunities around the 2024 Olympics. [Social Media Today]

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• TikTok’s Instagram-like Whee app is slow to take off. [TechCrunch]

• TikTok advertisers are preparing contingency plans as a US ban looms. [Financial Times $$$]

• TikTok pushed longer video at VidCon this week. [The Information $$$]

• Oracle has warned that a TikTok ban would hurt its business. [CNBC]

Insights to give you an edge at work:

• TikTok has shared insights into upcoming shopping trends. [Social Media Today]

New features and tests:

• TikTok has added a feed accessibility tool under Settings and Privacy. [@jonahmanzano]

• TikTok has launched a Sandbox mode for developers. [TikTok Developers]

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💥 EVEN MORE SOCIAL MEDIA NEWS & UPDATES

• YouTube is partnering with US State Department to “promote peace”. [YouTube blog]

• YouTube has cut Dr Disrespect's monetisation over allegations of 'sexting' a minor. [Kotaku]

• MrBeast is launching his own toy line next month. [TubeFilter]

Insights to give you an edge at work:

• YouTube has been sharing creator tips and insights at VidCon 2024. [Social Media Today]

New features and tests:

• YouTube has added a ‘Quick Share’ option on Android. [@oncescuradu]

• YouTube for Android TV is getting a 'stable volume' feature. [9to5Google]

• LinkedIn has added a call to action to view short-form vertical videos in full-screen. [@lindseygamble_]

• Snapchat now lets you avoid losing visited links. [@jonahmanzano]

• Pinterest has introduced a new way to share boards on social media. [Pinterest Newsroom]

• CapCut is testing ‘velocity effects’. in its iOS beta. [@theahmedghanem]

• Third-party YouTube app for Apple Vision Pro, Juno, now has 360-degree video support. [9to5Mac]

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📰 WEEKEND READS

• How YouTube became a TV powerhouse and how much ad revenue it makes

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😳 AND FINALLY…

Relax into the weekend with this American car dealership’s really well done parodies of The Office:

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📅 BACK NEXT WEEK…

And that’s it… you’re done. Fully updated for the week just gone. 🙌

I’m off to enjoy Glastonbury Festival the way I always do… in front of the TV with BBC iPlayer, picking the best bits and avoiding the crowds and the mud.

Matt’s missing a trick with the whole ‘camping in a massive field’ thing!

Speaking of Matt, he’ll be back to guide you through the next seven days in social at the normal time next week. 👋

– Martin SFP Bryant