Hello, geeks!

Welcome back to a double-stuffed edition of Geekout.

I hope you all had a digitally detoxed and enjoyable Christmas break. I know I did. And boy, did. I need it!

However, I found myself mostly building flat-pack Ikea furniture, and preventing my teenage son and daughter from fighting over literally everything! 🙄

As we stride into 2026, news headlines and chatter amongst social media geeks has mostly been dominated by two stories over the past couple of weeks:

  1. Instagram bossman Adam Mosseri’s post signalling that the authenticity aesthetic is dead as AI takes over.

AI images (and slop!) are a fact of life now, and we all need to adjust accordingly. I liked Rachel Karten’s take on what this means for creators in 2026, and beyond

  1. Elon Musk’s Grok becoming a child sexual abuse image generator. Seriously, WTAF, Elon?!

If governments and regulators are serious about wanting to protect children from the harms of social media, this is their moment to say enough is enough, and finally take enforcement action (looking at you Ofcom). Apple and Google should also remove Grok from their App Stores, pronto.

It’s staggering that Elon’s toxic swamp X hasn’t been drained and fenced off by those who have the power to do it.

__________

Coming Soon… Geekout’s 2026 Mini Glowup

I’m just adding the finishing touches to a revamped homepage for Geekout Newsletter. Along with a 2026 design refresh for the newsletter itself.

The redesign aims to improve readability with better spacing and formatting, and a few slick tweaks to give Geekout a fresh skin for 2026.

__________

3 cool things…

🔥 How to win social in 2026 using comedy. HIGHLY recommend checking this out.

🤯 This is SO good. The 10 Dark Arts of TikTok, revealed.

💰 How much should you REALLY be paying creators for collabs in 2026? Check this FREE cheatsheet [ad]

SPONSORED – SOCIAL MEDIA – FREE EVENT

The Business of Being Funny: How to Win Social in 2026 Using Comedy! 🤣

Humour is now the #1 lever for making content feel personal and relevant to your audience (TikTok / WARC study).

But 85% of brand managers feel they don't have the right tools or insights to deliver funny content (Oracle).

CreatorOS has partnered with TikTok comedy greats; Jack Joseph + Isaac HP, to create your first must-attend workshop in 2026.

Jack and Isaac will reveal their playbooks and techniques for how to use comedy to optimise content views on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and more.

What you'll learn:

  • 🔥 How top creators optimise their content output with comedy

  • 🤣 How brands can think like comedians to level-up performance

  • 🤝 How to write better briefs for collabs with top comedy creators

  • 📈 How to better connect with your audience to boost engagement

When:

  • Monday 26 January 2026 @ 9 a.m. ET / 2.00 p.m. UK

Request your FREE invite to one of the most useful (and funniest!) webinars you’ll attend in 2026.

⤷ Can't wait til then? — Download The 10 Dark Arts of TikTok. 👈 Seriously smart insights here!

✨ Request FREE Invite ✨

🔥 GEEKOUT HOT 5

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

Elon Musk's X faces probes in Europe, India, Malaysia after Grok generated explicit images of women and children

  1. TikTok’s future hangs again as China signals “not so fast” on US sell-off [STALLING]

  2. Instagram boss says authenticity is dying as platform prepares creators for major AI content shift [ERA-ENDING]

  3. Meta’s new privacy policy opens up AI chats for targeted ads [HARVESTING]

  4. Meta created ‘playbook’ to fend off pressure to crack down on scammers, leaked docs show [PROFITEERING]

SPONSORED – NEW 2026 INSIGHTS – FREE GUIDE

Not Sure What to Pay Creators in 2026? Grab This Free Cheatsheet

Figuring out what and how to pay creators is one of the trickiest parts of building campaigns.

Pay too little = quality drops. 📉
Overpay and scale = quickly over budget. 💸

If you’ve ever played guesswork with creator rates or struggled with usage rights convos… This is your cheat code.

Insense just dropped a FREE Cheatsheet that breaks it all down:

  • 📊 Creator pay benchmarks for 2026

  • 💰 How to price UGC vs. influencer deliverables

  • 📈 Flat fee vs. performance payouts — when each works

Grab it now. Avoid the budget regret later!

🔥 Download FREE Cheatsheet

P.S. Did you know…? Insense helps brands like Wonderskin & DRMTLGY run end-to-end collabs with top creators…

…Including: Setting up product seeding, as well as TikTok Shop, Meta Partnership Ads, and TikTok Spark Ads.

⤷ BONUS: Book a FREE strategy call with Insense by January 23, 2026… Get $200 towards your first campaign.

📱 Book FREE Strategy Call

🚨 EVERYONE’S TALKING ABOUT

Elon does nothing as Grok serves up appalling filth

Grok Is Generating About 'One Nonconsensual Sexualized Image Per Minute'

Close watchers of X and Grok will have sadly not been surprised in the slightest that Elon Musk’s AI has been happily creating sexualised images of women and children all week (and that’s just the start of it).

TV presenters are among those who have complained about being ‘undressed’ by Grok. Even the mother of one of Elon Musk's children says Grok won't stop creating sexualised images of her.

It’s infuriated policymakers around the world. A spokesperson for UK prime minister Kier Starmer called it “a disgrace… completely unacceptable”.

But here’s the thing… X has done nothing about it.

Today, Grok has (very much kind of but not really) limited image generation to paid users, but that’s at best just a way to make more money from some of the sleaziest behaviour we’ve seen from Musk yet.

And it’s not the grovelling apology and instant block on such images that most people would expect. It should be simple.

What we have here really is a test for regulators. Do they have any true power to stop Elon Musk doing anything?

This is particularly true in Europe, where the US government has defended its companies against what it sees as unreasonable treatment by regulators. The EU has seemingly already somewhat relented on its plans.

X parent xAI announced this week that it has a new $20 billion funding round. But it sadly seems unlikely Musk will be spending all of that on paying fines and settling lawsuits.

How far can you go when Elon Musk doesn’t want to be regulated? Even if regulators fine him, will he pay? And if he does, will it really hurt him or stop him? X could be banned in some countries, but will governments want to risk enraging the US?

Something has to change, but too many people are too deeply committed to their old Twitter accounts to leave. Even under pressure to do so, the UK government won’t leave as there’s still an audience there. The BBC won’t quit because it would mean ceding ground to disinformation.

Apple and Google have done nothing either. They could remove X from app stores, but again, they probably want to stay out of trouble with the US government.

At least this episode should get a few more people to see that Elon Musk is the closest the world has to a cartoon vision of an ‘evil billionaire’, and maybe they’ll realise that’s not a good thing…

…although even the authors of the darkest graphic novels would probably think an oligarch who happily distributes on-demand sexualised images of children to a global audience would be a little far fetched.

✨ NEW & NOTEWORTHY

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

Meta   Meta  /  Facebook  Facebook

Meta acquires Chinese-founded AI startup Manus | Credit: Meta

  • Meta acquired Manus, a Chinese-founded AI agent startup, in a deal reportedly topping $2 billion

    …but China might put the brakes on the deal

  • Meta is adding a teleprompter and virtual writing to its Ray-Ban Display glasses

    …but Meta has paused the global rollout of the Ray-Ban Display glasses, citing “unprecedented demand and limited inventory”

  • Meta Rights Manager is testing copyright management support on Threads and WhatsApp channels

  • Meta continues running illegal online gambling ads despite bans across India, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East

  • Meta has been sued by the US Virgin Islands over ads for scams and dangers to children

  • Meta demonstrated Neural Band controls inside Garmin’s concept car, enabling pinch-and-swipe infotainment input

  • Meta Business Suite now allows you to post stories directly to your Page by long-pressing on the media within the selection section

  • Facebook now allows Page admins to link up to 50 WhatsApp numbers to a Page

  • Facebook is rolling out the Fan Challenge feature widely for Pages

  • Facebook has added an option for Pages to decline collaboration invites and block all future invites from the account tagging them.

__________

Instagram  Instagram

Instagram testing ‘Top 5’ feature for Stories | Credit: @ihammod_oh

  • Instagram is testing a ‘Top 5’ feature for Stories: share your story with your five besties only

  • Leaked docs show Instagram spent years obsessing over reversing teen decline despite major safety lawsuits

  • Instagram has been spotted hiding the ‘Story Highlights’ section

  • Instagram is widely rolling out a new UI for the desktop login page

  • Instagram now has a 10K followers filter for DMs

  • Instagram Edits added the ability to link an account

  • Instagram is testing a new option to start a conversation with anyone who liked your story, directly from the notifications tab

  • Instagram is working on options to share profile links in bulk

  • Instagram is testing a redesigned Monetisation page

__________

Threads  Threads

Threads’ developing mini-game for DMs | Credit: @alex193a

  • Threads is developing in-message games, starting with a swipe-to-shoot basketball mini-game

  • Threads is working on a new feature for Communities: Live Chat

  • Threads is working on a new ‘Tangle’ attachment option for posts 🤔

  • Threads is rolling out podcast preview clips to position itself as the default hub for episode discussion

  • Threads added another way to quickly repost an image or a video via a new button in the share sheet

__________

WhatsApp  WhatsApp

WhatsApp launches member tags, text stickers for Group chats | Credit: Meta

__________

X / Twitter  X (Twitter)

X launches Creator Studio hub on mobile | Credit: X

__________

TikTok  TikTok

TikTok signs fWorld Cup Preferred Platform deal with FIFA | Credit: TikTok

__________

YouTube  YouTube

YouTube testing UI change hiding Dislike button behind menu | Credit: Android Police

  • YouTube is making it harder to dislike Shorts, by testing a UI change that hides the Shorts dislike button in a menu

  • YouTube added a new “Search with [Google] Lens” button for some Shorts

  • YouTube is now showing photo-only carousel posts in the Shorts feed

  • YouTube is revamping its search filters, adding a Shorts category and refining durations.

__________

Pinterest  Pinterest  /   Reddit  Reddit  /   Spotify  Spotify

Open AI reporedly interested in acquiring Pinterest | Credit: Social Samosa

  • OpenAI is reportedly interested in acquiring Pinterest, in a deal that could boost its ChatGPT shopping tool and future revenue opportunities

  • Reddit has overtaken TikTok in UK thanks to search its Google deal and Gen Z habits

  • Spotify is finally bringing your friends’ Listening Activity to mobile. A new feature lets Premium users sync listening, co-queue songs, and chat

  • Roblox is now enforcing mandatory age estimation for chat access across all regions

__________

🔥 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:

Snapchat’s new ‘Animate It’ AI Lens generates bespoke video animations from text prompts, ranging from reactions to mini-movies.

Snapchat Adds Custom AI Lens Feature

__________

Also spotted this week 👀

💀 LOL

Painfully true 😆

The client never forgets 😳

Instagram post

📈 MEMES

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella thinks people are being unfair when they call AI ‘slop’.

But so much of it IS SLOP. Bring on the ‘Microslop’ memes…

"Microslop" memes take over social media after Microsoft CEO pushes back on "the arguments of slop"

"Sarah Connor was right."

🌡️ VIRAL

One button for every day of the year…

That’s the (slightly odd) idea behind the first big viral sensation on TikTok in 2026.

The 365 buttons meme, explained:

"It only has to make sense to me": The 365 buttons meme, explained

__________

Also going viral this week: 🔥

🪧 BRANDS

Vaseline is having an unlikely moment of success on TikTok.

Is it the ultimate lifehack?

‘Social listening’: Unilever seeks to capitalise on Vaseline’s TikTok moment

__________

More brand news this week: 👀

👀 MY FAV READS

“I think that 2025 was the year where the algorithm completely took over, so followings stopped mattering entirely”

Social media follower counts have never mattered less, creator economy execs say

📺 MUCH WATCH

Semafor has done a deep-dive interview with Instagram chief Adam Mosseri, and it’s well worth a watch.

He says changing audience habits might mean Instagram embraces long-form or premium video, despite years of rejecting the idea.

Deeper, hands-on algorithm shaping is also on the way but could take years to fully materialise.

🙊 WHAT DID YOU SAY?!

"This is disgraceful. It's disgusting. And it's not to be tolerated.”

– UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer warns Elon Musk to get a handle on Grok’s child images problem

__________

Also overheard this week: 👂

  • “Authenticity is becoming a scarce resource, driving more demand for creator content, not less. The bar is shifting from "can you create?" to "can you make something that only you could create?"…

    “Relatively quickly, AI will create any aesthetic you like, including an imperfect one that presents as authentic. At that point we'll need to shift our focus to who says something instead of what is being said.”

    -

    – Instagram boss Adam Mosseri on human creators in an AI world

  • “I have quite a lot of pressure to remove the BBC from X… That is not what I will be doing.Because we need to be on these platforms, we need to give quality information onto the social media platforms and bring people onto them.”

    -

    – BBC director general Tim Davie explains why the corporation won’t quit Elon Musk’s X

  • “The results were fudged a little bit… Mark was really upset and basically lost confidence in everyone who was involved in this. And so basically sidelined the entire GenAI organisation. A lot of people have left, a lot of people who haven’t yet left will leave.”

    -

    – Yann LeCun, former Meta AI research chief, spills tea about the company’s flop Llama 4 model

  • “People [are] doing it just because it worked for Nutter Butter, there’s no natural tie-in…. I just feel like we’re going to see a brand like Palantir get in on it, or we’re going to see something dystopian, and then everyone’s going to be like, “We’ve had enough.” I don’t think we’re there yet, but I feel like we’ve been bordering on it.

    -

    – The man behind Nutter Butter’s unhinged social strategy says the approach has very nearly played out

  • "It's much easier to build businesses when you have a hyper-niche, scaled audience because the product makes a lot more sense."

    -

    – MrBeast's former manager, Reed Duchscher says social media mega stars will be replaced by hyper-niche creators who have an easier time monetising a smaller audience

😮 WTF?!

The rubicon has been crossed…

The top streamer on Twitch was generated by AI 😳

It's happening: An AI is now the most subscribed to "streamer" on Twitch

__________

Also WTF this week: 👀

  • A Reddit post claiming a food-delivery app used “desperation scores” and rigged systems amassed 86,000 upvotes before it turned out to be a massive hoax

  • Vietnam has capped unskippable ads on YouTube and similar platforms at just five seconds

  • Hundreds of people waited at the Brooklyn Bridge for fireworks that never came, all because of AI slop

  • US work permits are increasingly being awarded on basis of online reach, favouring content creators – because it’s easier to quantify reach and engagement than talent

  • Creators have been using Meta smart glasses to film POV clips of strangers without consent

  • Fraudsters have deployed AI deepfakes of Spain’s Princess Leonor on TikTok, luring users with fake cash-offer schemes requiring upfront payments

  • TikTok removed AI weight loss ads from a fake Boots account

📲 NEW PLATFORM

Twitter co-founder Biz Stone and Pinterest co-founder Evan Sharp have launched Tangle, designed as an antidote to social media’s harms.

It’s currently invite-only and focused on intentional living over algorithmic engagement.

Tangle prompts you with daily intentions and reflective goal-sharing.

Tangle

Also:

👔 YOU’RE HIRED!

Hot new social media jobs worth checking out this week:

Beehiiv (the platform we use to bring you Geekout!) is looking for a Social Media Lead [Remote, worldwide]

__________

More top social media jobs spotted this week 💼

👌 PRO TIPS

This new guide is (understandably) Reddit focused…

But the fact is you absolutely have to think about how LLMs surface information about the brands you work with…

The Secret to Brand Visibility in the LLM Era

__________

More pro-tips worth checking out ✨

📊 SOCIAL STATS

100 BILLION

– The number of messages sent on WhatsApp on New Year’s Day, the app’s biggest day of the year

__________

Even more social stats: 📈

  • NEWSTOK: TikTok is now the top news source for U.S. adults aged 18–29 at 43%

  • BIG SHOP: TikTok Shop now hosts 200,000+ UK small businesses plus major brands like M&S, Samsung, and Sainsbury’s

  • BUYING INFLUENCE: More than £500,000 has been spent on influencers by the UK government since 2024

  • YOUNG PINS: Gen Z now accounts for 50% of Pinterest’s 600 million MAUs, driving shifts in search behaviour

  • SLOPPY: More than 20% of videos shown to new YouTube users are ‘AI slop’, a study has found

  • AD DODGERS: A new survey found a Premium subscription is the most popular way of Android users dodging ads on on YouTube, at 31% of respondents

  • MIAMI AMORE: New research shows 6,000 major creators based in Miami, a city of just 6.4 million people.

  • SEEING RED: Reddit’s UK audience has surged 88% in two years

  • FEELING FESTIVE: TikTok reported a 100% year-on-year rise in Christmas décor posts over the festive period, fuelled by nostalgia culture.

  • NOT STRANGE: Stranger Things was the most talked-about TV show on X in 2025, with 12.4 million posts

📈 CHARTED

The 10 most used emojis in social posts in 2025, according to Buffer…

Which ones were you guilty of over-using last year? ✨👉🔥

__________

Even more social charts: 📈

💥 EVEN MORE SOCIAL MEDIA NEWS & UPDATES

New York to require social media platforms to display mental health warnings

Social media platforms with infinite scrolling, auto-play and algorithmic feeds will be required to display warning labels about their potential harm to young users’ mental health under a new law, New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced on Friday.

_________

Also this week… 🚨

  • X parent xAI announced a new $20 billion funding round led by major global investors. [The Guardian]

  • Big Tech has reportedly been spared strict rules in an EU digital regulations overhaul [Reuters $$$]

  • Facebook was slow to act on posts celebrating Bondi beach massacre, an anti-hate group says. [The Guardian]

  • The US has issued travel bans on five EU regulators and researchers, accusing them of driving “foreign censorship” of American speech via EU DSA enforcement. [Engadget]

  • US Immigration agency ICE is spending $100 million to target Gen Z with hyper-personalised digital recruitment ads. [Mashable]

  • Poland asked the European Commission to probe TikTok after a spike in AI-generated videos urging Poland to leave the EU. [Euractiv]

  • Meta's CTO is calling the 'most important' meeting of the year for the Reality Labs division, urging employees to show up in person. [Business Insider $$$]

  • Meta appointed former Trump U.S. Trade Representative C.J. Mahoney as chief legal officer. [Social Media Today]

  • Meta hired the former top lawyer for Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency as a lobbyist. [Bloomberg Law $$$]

  • France is drafting a nationwide ban blocking children under 15 from social media. [Semafor]

  • Italy’s antitrust regulator ordered Meta to suspend WhatsApp terms that block rival AI chatbots. [Reuters $$$]

  • TikTok Shop plans to boost local mall brands with over 1,000 livestreams in 2026. [Says]

  • TikTok’s global creator chief Kim Farrell is leaving amid a sweeping content-division restructuring. [Business Insider $$$]

  • Spotify is cutting video-podcast monetisation thresholds to three episodes, 2,000 hours watched, and 1,000 engaged listeners. [TechCrunch]

  • Mark Zuckerberg's nonprofit has cut ties with the immigration advocacy group he co-founded, his latest move to align with the Trumpy times. [Engadget]

  • The Tribeca Festival expanded its NOW category to include creators from TikTok, YouTube and Instagram. [The Hollywood Reporter]

  • Pinterest has unveiled a six-episode CTV series, Bring My Pinterest to Life, debuting on Roku. [Social Media Today]

New features and updates:

  • Instagram added a new label for broadcast channels in the shape of a square with a white crown inside. But why? [@oncescuradu]

  • Instagram now organises accounts you can access in the account-switching sheet into two groups: accounts linked to your Account Center, and “Other profiles” [@theahmedghanem]

  • Instagram Edits is testing the addition of new options within the project rename menu. [@theahmedghanem]

  • Facebook added a new “Edits” shortcut in the main app menu. [@oncescuradu]

  • Snapchat+ added an “Add to Your Wish List” option. [@jonahmanzano]

  • TikTok now labels when a user whose Bulletin Board you are viewing is currently live streaming. [@theahmedghanem]

  • TikTok’s Creator Search Insights are now easier to access. [@jonahmanzano]

  • WhatsApp is working the ability to manage notifications for voice and video calls on the web [@WABetaInfo]

  • WhatsApp is working on bringing the Updates tab to the web client. [@WABetaInfo]

  • Disney+ is rolling out a vertical short-form feed this year, chasing TikTok-level engagement. [TechCrunch]

📰 WEEKEND READS

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

YouTube is the new daytime TV…

“YouTube’s big streaming lead over Netflix and other competitors stems in large part to its dominance during daylight hours.”

YouTube Has a Firm Grip on Daytime TV

__________

More great weekend reads:

😳 AND FINALLY…

What new emojis might we see rolling out in 2026?

The draft list of candidates has been revealed, and it includes:

  • a squinting face

  • two new thumb sign gestures

  • a pickle

  • and a lighthouse…

Which one will become your go-to emoji this year (if added)?

Draft Emoji List for 2026/2027

📅 BACK NEXT WEEK…

And that’s your New Year edition of Geekout, done. ✅

I’m heading off to check which (if any) country has grown a pair, and finally taken steps to pull the plug on the shitshow that is X.

Image: ChatGPT

Goodbye, geeks!

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

Reply

or to participate

Keep Reading

No posts found