Social Media Buzz Weekly: Roundup of Social Media Updates
- ClickInsights
- 12 hours ago
- 8 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 Launches New Group-Focused Forum App
Meta has released a new group discovery app, called Forum, which aims to convert its popular groups into a Reddit-like experience. Forum is essentially a separate app for group discussions, bringing together all of the groups that a user is a member of on Facebook in a separate engagement experience.
Forum users can sign-in with their Facebook credentials, which will then populate the app with their groups. Users will then be able to engage in group discussions, or find related groups based on the topics they’re already interested in. The app includes an AI-powered “Ask” tab that lets users ask questions and receive answers compiled from discussions across different groups. There’s also an admin AI assistant to help administrators manage groups and moderate content.
2. Meta Introduces New Subscription Add-Ons And AI Packages
Meta has confirmed that it’s rolling out new add-on subscriptions for Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, as the company looks to increase its subscription revenue. As outlined by Naomi Gleit, Meta’s head of product, Meta’s new Plus products will provide a range of exclusive add-ons for paying users of each app.
Instagram Plus, for example, which was spotted in testing in March, will give users the chance to pay $3.99 per month for additional features including Stories insights, new Superlike animations and the ability to extend the life of a Story beyond 24 hours. WhatsApp Plus, which was spotted in testing in April, offers additional features such as new stickers, app themes and premium ringtones for $2.99 per month. Meta said that more features will be added in future, but essentially, each Meta app will get its own iteration of a subscription service similar to Snapchat Plus or X Premium, with add-on elements that Meta hopes will entice subscriber interest.
3. Meta Outlines Enhanced Security Measures Ahead of FIFA World Cup 2026
Meta has announced enhanced security measures for the FIFA World Cup 2026, as the company looks to protect fans and players from attacks and abuse related to what’s arguably one of the world’s most passionate sporting events.
Meta plans to protect users from ticketing and accommodation scams in the app via enhanced monitoring of related activity. Meta is also working with industry partners to disrupt scam networks through the Global Signal Exchange (GSE) and Meta’s Fraud Intelligence Reciprocal Exchange (FIRE). Moreover, Meta has rolled out new in-stream notifications to warn users about potentially fraudulent ticket sellers, and educate them on how to avoid ticketing scams.
4. Meta Reaffirms Funding for Oversight Board
Meta has allocated $13 million in new funding to its independent Oversight Board after mulling the possibility of abandoning the project, according to a Reuters report. The Oversight Board provides an additional checking process for Meta’s policy decisions, enabling users to challenge Meta’s bans and moderation calls via an external group.
Founded in 2020, Meta’s Oversight Board is a collection of independent, external experts who are available to review appeals of content decisions made by Meta’s moderators. The group is funded by Meta, but the idea is that the board’s decisions remain independent from the company, offering impartial, third-party guidance on Meta’s policies, as well as a means for users to appeal such decisions. The Oversight Board has made over 300 recommendations to Meta’s policy team over the past five years and Meta has ultimately implemented 75% of them. This underlines the value of the process when it comes to providing additional checks and assurances.
5. TikTok Announces Expanded Partnership with Universal Music Group
TikTok has announced a new multi-year strategic licensing agreement with Universal Music Group, which will enable TikTok to continue to offer UMG music for use in the app, as well as other music features.
The deal will ensure that UMG artists have more opportunities to make money from their TikTok presence, through ticket sales and merchandise promotions linking back to TikTok Shop. In addition, the new arrangement includes protections to ensure that UMG artist content is not subject to AI manipulation or misuse. TikTok and UMG will work together to remove unauthorized AI-generated music from the platform, while further improving artist and songwriter attribution.
6. TikTok Drops Second Season of ‘In The Mix’ Podcast
TikTok continues to solidify its place as a key platform for music discovery with the launch of its second season of its “TikTok In The Mix” live podcast interview series, created in partnership with T-Mobile.
TikTok’s first season of the podcast, launched in December 2025, featured 10 episodes of exclusive interviews with a range of high-profile musicians. And now, it’s launching a new, albeit shorter season of the program. TikTok said that the program is designed to give fans a more personal connection to the music they love. TikTok has become a key platform for music discovery. Recent research, conducted in partnership with Luminate, showed that U.S. TikTok users are 74% more likely to discover and share new music in the app than the average short-form video user.
7. Malaysia Demands TikTok Explain Failure To Block Fake Account Using AI to Insult King
Malaysia’s internet regulator has issued a statutory demand to TikTok after a fake account allegedly used artificial intelligence to insult the country’s king, including posts falsely claiming he ate pork and manipulated images pairing his face with animal bodies.
The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) said in a statement that TikTok had failed to take “sufficient and timely action” against offensive and defamatory content targeting the country’s royal institution. The account, which purported to be linked to King Sultan Ibrahim Iskandar, carried material that was “grossly offensive, false, menacing and insulting in nature”, including AI-generated videos and manipulated images, the MCMC said. It said the posts could breach Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998, as well as other Malaysian laws.
8. Instagram Tests Interests Display on User Profiles
Instagram is giving users another way to display their interests and connect with like-minded users via a new display of topics on user profiles.
Instagram’s new interests option enables users to add up to five topics of interest to their profile, which can help show profile visitors the types of content a user is into at any given time. Interests will also influence the content the user sees, similar to Instagram’s Your Algorithm control option. The main purpose is seemingly to facilitate connection among like-minded users by offering a list of possible common-interest topics to help drive more interest. Instagram has experimented with similar displays before.
9. Instagram Introduces Teleprompter Tool
Instagram is expanding its in-stream teleprompter tool from Edits to the main Instagram app, which will give creators another way to manage their script in-stream.
Instagram Chief Adam Mosseri announced the update on his Instagram Channel. The in-stream teleprompter option, which was added to Edits in June 2025, enables creators to upload their video script, which will then see it displayed in a rolling text display as they record, ensuring that the text is presented right below the front-facing camera on your device. That can help to make video content feel more natural, increasing fluidity in presentation.
10. Snapchat Offers Unified Optimization Approach to App Marketers
Snapchat wants to help advertisers maximize their in-app promotions with a new unified approach to its optimization and app measurement capabilities. The updated strategy will enable app marketers to combine Snap ads performance insights with data from their chosen mobile measurement partner.
That approach will lead to more informed choices about Snapchat ad spending, since marketers will now be able to see integrated insights into campaign performance across different measures. That will essentially integrate a broader range of response signals all in one view, which will then better represent actual performance impact based on Snapchat promotions. Snapchat’s integrated performance measurement will also be able to integrate SKAdNetwork measurements, bringing more data insight into the equation.
11. X Looks to Improve Incentives for Original Creators
X continues to target aggregator accounts in an effort to ensure that original creators get the credit they deserve for their content, with X’s head of product Nikita Bier providing a new update on the platform’s efforts to redistribute revenue from its creator revenue share scheme to creators.
In a post on X, X Head of Product Nikita Bier said the company had detected several accounts that were "programmatically reuploading content from smaller accounts" to take advantage of the monetisation system and bypass attribution to original creators. The move is the latest in X’s expanding effort to refine its creator incentive programs, and ensure that original creators get credit, which, ideally, will keep them posting their original material to the app.
12. LinkedIn Wants to Limit the Reach of AI-Generated Content
LinkedIn has shared an update on the new measures it’s implementing to combat AI overuse, and police misrepresentations in its feed. In a post in the app, LinkedIn Global Editorial VP Laura Lorenzetti shared the latest measures the app is undertaking to combat the rise of AI content and profiles.
The things that are changing include reach restrictions on posts that appear AI-generated and lack any real perspective. If a post reads like it was assembled rather than written, LinkedIn will limit how far it travels. New detection systems targeting automated comments and AI-generated responses posted at scale will also undergo changes. This includes replies that simply restate the original post without adding anything – the LinkedIn equivalent of nodding along in a meeting you stopped paying attention to twenty minutes ago. It also includes additional filters so users can choose to see content only from verified profiles.
13. LinkedIn Expands Ad Performance Verification
LinkedIn wants to provide more assurance to ad partners via an expansion of its partnership with measurement provider DoubleVerify. As such, the platform will now offer post-bid measurement for LinkedIn Audience Network campaigns.
LinkedIn’s Audience Network enables advertisers to extend the reach of their ad campaigns beyond the app, via display on a selection of trusted third-party apps and sites. LinkedIn already partners with DoubleVerify on pre-bid verification, which automatically filters out publisher traffic in line with industry brand safety standards before bids are placed. DV already offers various measurement options for LinkedIn campaigns, including media quality and brand safety. The expansion to another element of LinkedIn’s Audience Network will provide more assurance, via vetted, third-party analysis.
14. Japan to Scour Social Media in Hunt for Visa Overstayers, Illegal Foreign Workers
Japan’s immigration authorities plan to crack down on visa overstayers and illegal foreign workers by monitoring social media and other platforms for information or leads. The initiative is part of the country’s efforts to reduce the number of overstayers at a time when Japan is taking in more foreign workers due to labour shortages.
As early as next year, the Immigration Services Agency plans to use analytical tools to identify online information related to illegal work, including solicitations in foreign languages, establishing a unit dedicated to cyber patrols. According to agency data, Japan had around 68,000 illegal stayers as of January, down around 6,000 from a year ago. As part of a programme targeting overstayers, the agency aims to crack down on individuals who employ foreign workers without valid visas.
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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