Social Media Buzz Weekly: Roundup of Social Media Updates
- ClickInsights
- 4 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. Facebook Wants to Scan Users’ Camera Rolls for Content
Facebook is trying out a new approach to get people to share more content, with users in the U.K. now able to opt into a process that will recommend photos to share from users’ camera roll and provide suggestions for edits, collages, etc.
The new feature, which people will have to opt in to use, will enable Meta’s system to scan the camera roll on a users’ device to access their images. It will then recommend collections, like travel collages and recaps, that the user can post to the main feed or Stories. The tool will also recommend creative edits and generate videos from camera roll content in order to help users create stand-out content.
2. Meta Sued by Consumer Federation of America
Meta is facing another major courtroom battle, this time over the misuse of its platform by scammers. The nonprofit Consumer Federation of America filed a lawsuit that alleges that Meta failed in its duty to protect users from scams, in violation of consumer protection laws.
The CFA said that Meta has profited from scam ads and allowed scam promotions to proliferate, despite publicly promising to crack down on such activities. The case stems from reports published in November. Those reports, which were based on internal documents from the company, indicated that at least at one stage, Meta was generating around $16 billion per year, or 10% of its annual revenue, from scam advertising and/or promotions for banned goods. The CFA’s complaint alleges that these types of promotions are in violation of anti-scam laws, but Meta allowed them to continue because it had a financial incentive to turn the other cheek.
3. TikTok’s US Joint Venture Gains Security Infrastructure Certification
TikTok’s U.S. subsidiary, TikTok USDS Joint Venture, has announced another step in its efforts to reassure American users about the safety of the app. The spin-off group has gained ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certification, which verifies that its security infrastructure meets global benchmarks.
ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certification relates to information security management, and the systems that support the protection, operation, and production of a service. TikTok USDS said the certification demonstrates that it has enacted appropriate organizational and people controls to ensure its data management processes meet these requirements.
4. Instagram Expands Your Algorithm Tool to Explore
Instagram has announced an expansion of its Your Algorithm content recommendation control option, with some users now able to utilize the update within Instagram Explore, in addition to the Reels feed.
Your Algorithm provides a direct input option to help manage the content that users are shown in the app, with simple topic prompts that enable basic guidance of interests in-stream. Instagram began testing the option for Reels in October, and now it’s giving users expanded input within another content surface. With this new control option, Instagram users will have more capacity to manage what topics Instagram’s algorithm thinks they’re interested in, which will then enable direct input into content recommendations and display in the Explore feed. In addition, any changes users make in this tool will also expand to Reels.
5. Snap Lays Off 16% of Its Full-Time Staff
Snap has announced that it’s cutting 16% of its full-time staff and closing more than 300 open roles as the company looks to streamline operations and maximize revenue.
Snap CEO Evan Spiegel announced the cuts, which will impact about 1,000 people, in a company-wide message. Spiegel’s statement outlining the various reasons for the staffing cuts was also published on the Snap blog. The job cuts come after Snap posted a 11% year-over-year increase in revenue in 2025, bringing in $5.93 billion for the full year. The company’s ad business is growing, however its user growth has stalled in its critical markets, which could limit its earnings potential.
6. Snap CFO Steps Down
Snap has announced the departure of CFO Derek Andersen. His last earnings call will be May 9, and his last day with the company will be May 8.
Snap CEO Even Spiegel made the announcement on the company’s blog and also shared the news with staff. Andersen has worked with Snap for nearly eight years, and has played a key role in transitioning the platform into a viable business, through improved structure within its ads offering and other commercial deals. Andersen will be succeeded by Doug Hott, another long-time Snap employee, who will be tasked with overseeing the company’s next big shift as it looks to navigate through stagnant growth and the launch of its new AR glasses.
7. Pinterest’s Latest Ad Campaign Encourages People to Get Off Social Media
Pinterest has launched a new ad campaign that frames the platform as the anti-social media app and encourages people to go live their lives instead of spending too much time on noisy social media streams.
The campaign highlights how people used to engage with the world before social media, saying “The best thing you can find online is a reason to go offline.” It’s an effective slogan, and Pinterest is hoping that the campaign will frame it as a key platform for discovery of offline projects. Over the past few years, Pinterest has worked to distance itself from its social media roots, framing itself instead as a “discovery platform,” where users can come to find relevant products for offline activities.
8. Pinterest CPG Promotions Outperform Benchmark ROIs
Pinterest has shared new data on the potential of Pin promotions for CPG brands, publishing a series of studies showing that Pinterest outperforms standard social media benchmarks for ROI across CPG promotions.
The data comes from Pinterest-commissioned research conducted by Circana. It examined how Pin ads can boost CPG promotions and drive shopping activity. Circana conducted 17 matched market tests across several regions and product categories, in order to provide more context into how Pinterest promotions impact sales actions. The results showed that 82% of the campaigns studied generated positive incremental ROI, meaning that the incremental sales impact was greater than the Pinterest media spend. Meanwhile, 76% of the campaigns examined achieved an ROI of 1.5x or higher.
9. Apple Reportedly Threatened to Pull Grok From App Store Over Sexual Deepfakes
According to a new report from NBC News, Elon Musk’s constant boundary pushing almost got his artificial intelligence app Grok banned from the App Store earlier this year, in a move that could have sunk X’s future prospects.
According to the NBC report, Apple privately threatened to remove Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence app, Grok, from its App Store in January after Musk’s xAI failed to do enough to stop it from creating nude or sexualized deepfakes, Apple told senators in a letter that was obtained by NBC News. The Grok deepfake scandal is still set to cost X millions in fines due to the trend of users using Musk’s Grok AI chatbot to digitally strip down images of people in the app.
10. X Launches New Cashtags Format on iOS in the US and Canada
After previewing its updated Cashtags display in January, X has launched its new Cashtag format to all users on iOS. The feature provides active asset listings that can be added to X posts.
X’s smart Cashtags provide embedded market info, so users can tap through to get real-time price info and mentions. X’s head of product Nikita Bier said that X will automatically suggest relevant stocks or crypto tokens when users search for or post a Cashtag address. The introduction of expanded financial market data is another step toward letting users conduct full banking and financial activity in the app. Eventually, if X owner Elon Musk gets his way, X users will also be able to send money, do their banking and even apply for loans through the platform.
11. Elon Musk Skips Probe as France Investigates X
Elon Musk did not appear for a voluntary interview with Paris prosecutors, who had summoned the American tech billionaire over a probe into his social media platform X and AI chatbot Grok.
Prosecutors said they had taken note of the absence of the first people summoned, without mentioning Musk’s name. The billionaire had dubbed the French authorities “retards” weeks earlier in a French-language X post. Musk had been issued summons in February as part of an investigation, launched in January 2025, into allegations that X’s algorithm was used to interfere in French politics. The probe was later expanded to include dissemination of Holocaust denial and sexual deepfakes by X’s AI chatbot Grok
12. LinkedIn Expands AI-Powered Conversational Search
LinkedIn has announced an expansion of its artificial intelligence-powered conversational search tools, which are designed to make it easier to find relevant members, pages and posts.
LinkedIn launched its conversational search tools to LinkedIn Premium members in November, and now, it’s expanding the same capacity to all users, with improved AI matching via the search bar. LinkedIn’s search bar will now be able to provide results based on any criteria users enter into the prompt. So now, users can describe what they’re looking for, and LinkedIn’s search system will surface contextually relevant results, based on a broader understanding of language.
13. EU Unveils Age-Check App Amid Efforts to Better Protect Children Online
European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen has said that an EU-developed age-verification app was ready to go, as the bloc pushes to better protect children from online harm.
Brussels has been under pressure to come up with more stringent measures to safeguard children online as several EU capitals move ahead with plans to ban social media under a certain age. To that end, five EU countries including France and Italy last year started testing an age-check app that von der Leyen said was now “technically ready”. She said the app used the same model adopted during the Covid-19 pandemic, when Brussels developed a tool allowing people to prove they had been vaccinated as countries reopened after lockdowns.
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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