Social Media Buzz Weekly: Roundup of Social Media Updates
- ClickInsights
- 21 hours ago
- 7 min read
Welcome to Social Media Buzz Weekly, your weekly bulletin of the latest social media updates. With the social media landscape evolving with each passing day, it can be challenging to keep a tab on the rapid developments. Well, not anymore, as we have taken it upon ourselves to keep you abreast of every happening in the social media space.
So, without any further ado, let’s look at some of the most significant developments from the last week in the world of social media.
1. Meta Is Considering Charging Business Pages To Post Links
Meta is testing a system that charges users for sharing web links, in a move that could prove to be a further blow to news outlets and other publishers.
Meta, the social media platform’s owner, said it is carrying out a “limited test” in which those without a paid Meta Verified subscription, costing at least £9.99 a month, can only post two external links a month. The test appears to involve a subset of Facebook pages and user profiles on Professional Mode, which includes features used by content creators to monetise their posts. News organisations are not included in the test. However, the move could hit newsrooms and other media publishers as it may stop their users from sharing their content.
2. TikTok Adds More Accessibility Features
TikTok is rolling out some new accessibility features to better support users with neurological, cognitive and visual sensitivities.
First off, TikTok is adding the option to disable high dynamic range (HDR) video playback, which will revert viewers to standard dynamic range (SDR) viewing for all content automatically. TikTok says that this will provide a more consistent and comfortable viewing experience, especially for users who are dealing with light sensitivity and low vision-related issues. TikTok is also giving users the option to reduce motion in video clips. The reduced motion setting is designed to minimize motion-based effects, animations, and transitions, which can cause cognitive and motion sensitivities.
3. TikTok US Unit Reportedly Signs Deal With Oracle-Led Investor Group
TikTok's parent ByteDance has agreed to spin off its US operations into a $14 billion joint venture with American investors, including Oracle, averting a nationwide ban amid data security concerns.
This deal, backed by Trump, ensures domestic control while ByteDance retains a 20% stake. It sets precedents for global tech geopolitics. In 2024, Congress passed a bill forcing ByteDance to divest its U.S. assets or face a ban, citing risks to millions of American users. This forced sale has now culminated in a structure where the new entity will oversee data protection, algorithm security, and content moderation, as detailed in reports from various outlets.
4. TikTok Announces Expanded Partnership with International Ski Federation
TikTok has announced that it’s expanding its partnership with the International Ski Federation (FIS), in order to bring more winter sports content to the platform, and help to build on rising engagement in the app.
TikTok says that interest in winter sports has been growing in the app, with posts increasing by over 1600% over the past year. With the Winter Olympics coming up in just a few weeks, this could become an important expansion, with TikTok looking to tap into the trending popularity of winter sports to build more community interaction. TikTok and FIS are also launching a dedicated program focused on supporting athletes as they grow their presence on the platform.
5. IGTV Is Back, With an Instagram Reels TV App
Instagram is testing out a new TV app, which is focused on facilitating Reels watch parties on the bigger screen.
Instagram’s new TV app is similar in format to YouTube’s CTV UI, with a layout that’s designed to be easy to navigate via more limited TV remote functions. It’s not the same as IGTV, the ill-fated long-form video app that Instagram released back in 2018. But it’s a similar concept, with Instagram looking, once again, to capitalize on shifting viewing habits. Instagram TV viewers can pair the app with their IG account, and add up to five accounts in one home, or create a new account just for TV viewing.
6. Instagram Implements New Limits on Hashtag Use
Instagram has announced a new restriction on hashtag use in posts, as it continues to examine changes in user behavior relating to tags, while also seeking ways to limit spammers and scammers in the app.
Instagram has been testing a hashtag limit on posts for the past year, with many users limited to three hashtags in the most recent experiment. But now, IG has settled on limiting tags to five per post, which will become the new universal restriction in the app. Instagram says that targeted, relevant hashtags can play a role in discovery, but it’s limiting this to five to avoid misuse.
7. Snapchat Launches Quick Cut Video and Image Editing App
Snapchat’s looking to make it easier to create better-looking video and image content, styled for Snap specifically, via a new in-stream process called “Quick Cut,” which includes a range of editing and customization options.
Quick Cut is designed to streamline the creative process, using Snap’s advanced Lens tools and automatic beat matching to facilitate simple collage-style posts and videos. Snapchat’s Quick Cut enables you to select multiple photos or clips to edit within a single project. Users will be able to access Quick Cut directly from Memories, or from other people’s Snaps use certain formats and templates. Quick Cut will then enable you to create custom collection projects, which will also include royalty-free music, applied automatically and synced to your selected clips.
8. Snapchat Adds Custom AI Lens Feature
Snapchat has added a fun new AI activation for the holidays, with its new “Animate It” Lens now available for paying Snap users.
Snapchat’s new video AI Lens will enable you to activate an animation in your Snaps via text prompts. The addition of its own, custom AI model suggests that Snap is working to build its own AI tools, though without significant data infrastructure, it’ll be difficult for Snap to go it alone with any AI project. The new Lens is essentially an expansion of the first video AI Lenses that Snapchat launched back in March, which include custom animations of selected characters or objects that can be added to any clip.
9. X Updates Terms to Counter Operation Bluebird Twitter Replica
Elon Musk’s company has filed a lawsuit against Operation Bluebird, a new startup hoping to claim the “abandoned” Twitter trademark, but its legal argument is a little unorthodox.
A Virginia-based startup that’s calling itself “Operation Bluebird” recently filed a formal petition with the US Patent and Trademark Office to cancel X Corporation’s trademarks of the words “Twitter” and “tweet,” due to X essentially no longer using them, and abandoning the previous Twitter brand. If successful in its bid, the group then plans to relaunch Twitter under a new host, in the hopes that a replica of the app, with the revived Twitter branding, will bring crowds flocking back.
10. X Launches Standalone Chat App on Desktop
X is working on another step in enacting Elon Musk’s “everything app” vision, this time via a separate messaging app, which would enable you to engage via X DMs in isolation from the main X platform.
You can now access a desktop version of X’s new chat interface, enabling you to manage your X DMs outside of the app itself. X is also reportedly developing a separate X Chat mobile app as well, which would put X into direct competition with WhatsApp and Messenger as a standalone messaging platform. That aligns with Elon’s broader vision for the project, with Musk repeatedly referring to China’s WeChat as an example of the “everything app” approach he intends to take, in order to make X a more ubiquitous, essential connection tool.
11. The Most ‘Ratioed’ Users on X Can Now Be Viewed
X developer Chris Park has unveiled a new “Ratio Finder” mini-site, built on X’s API, which lists the most “ratioed” users in the app at any given time.
Being “ratioed” on X means that your post received more replies and comments than likes or re-posts, or, in this context at least, that the responses to your post got more likes than the original. The implication then is that the post is being more criticized than agreed with, and the more replies it gets, the bigger the ratio, which generally points to people on X disagreeing with the post.
12. X Adds New Creator Studio Hub on Mobile
X is adding a new “Creator Studio” hub in the left-hand menu of the app, which provides a one-stop shop for X’s various creator tools and options.
X’s new Creator Studio tab includes quick access to info on revenue sharing, subscriptions, analytics, payment settings, and contact support. To be clear, all of this was already available in the desktop version of the app, but X has now made it easily accessible in the mobile app as well, so creators can get more insight on the go. X has also added a new “Inspiration” tab, within which you can check out the top-performing posts in the app, in order to get more ideas for your own content approach.
13. LinkedIn Provides Personalized Year in Review’ Summaries
LinkedIn has officially begun rolling out its own ‘Year in Review’ for 2025. Similar to the Spotify Wrapped, the feature offers the platform’s 1 billion+ members a data-driven, story-like retrospective of their professional milestones, networking growth, and content performance over the past year.
The launch of the Year in Review comes at a time of heightened competition in the social space, as platforms like Amazon’s Alexa, Google, and Instagram also release their respective end-of-year insights. For professionals, however, LinkedIn’s version serves a dual purpose – it’s more than just a social gimmick – a tool for quantifying professional ‘brand value’ in an increasingly competitive job market.
Wrapping Up
And that was a wrap of this week’s Social Media Buzz. We’ll be back next week with more news and updates for you from the social media world. Till then, stay tuned!
If you want to read more on the latest developments taking place in the social media space, take a look at ClickInsights’ Social Media Buzz, wherein we bring to you monthly reports on everything going on in social media, ranging from platform updates to policy changes that influence the way we market.
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