Social Media Buzz Weekly: Roundup of Social Media Updates
- ClickInsights
- 4 hours ago
- 6 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 Improves AI Image Generation Tools for Advertisers
Meta has updated its artificial intelligence-powered image generator for advertisers, which will help markers create more ad variations in alignment with what’s resonating on Facebook and Instagram. The new process makes use of Meta’s Muse Image model, which was developed by the company’s next-level Superintelligence Labs AI research group.
The updated AI image generation tools will expand marketers’ capacity to restyle ad images, inspired by existing ads. The model will also let marketers generate still images from video assets. Meta said that advertisers who’ve used its AI tools to generate multiple variations of their promotions thus far have seen strong results. Early testers of Muse Image have said that the system generates higher-quality creative outputs, including improved photorealism and the ability to preserve product integrity. Muse Image will also enable expanded generation capacity.
2. Meta Faces Potential $1.4 Trillion in Penalties
Meta could be facing an existential crisis as four U.S. states seek a combined $1.4 trillion in penalties, based on allegations that the company intentionally designed its social media apps to be highly addictive to young users, and then misled the public about the safety of its platforms.
As reported by Reuters, Meta presented this estimate based on how penalties could be calculated if the four states in question — California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey — were to prevail at trial. Reuters added that this figure was not previously released, and said it’s close to Meta’s estimated market capitalization of about $1.5 trillion. The legal push follows a March verdict, which found that social media platforms can be addictive and can have significant health impacts. In that trial, a Los Angeles jury awarded Meta and YouTube a combined $6 million in damages, paid to a single defendant who had suffered harm as a result of social media addiction. That ruling has opened up Meta and other social platforms to new legal liabilities.
3. Meta Adds Updated Disclosure Tags for AI-Generated Ads
Meta has updated the labels for Facebook and Instagram ads that include artificial intelligence-generated content, in order to ensure that these notes align with the company’s recent updates to its general ad disclosure listings.
Now, Facebook and Instagram ads that have been created using AI tools will include a disclosure element in their About this ad element, which users can access by tapping the three-dot menu on any promoted post. Meta said it will automatically apply an AI info label when advertisers use features including Background Generation, Image Generation or Add Animation “to create or significantly edit an image or video.” Meta will also include these labels when it detects that an ad was created or edited by third-party generative AI tools.
4. EU Commission Preliminarily Finds Meta Apps Addictive
Meta is facing more operational challenges in Europe, after the EU Commission preliminarily ruled that both Facebook and Instagram were in violation of EU laws relating to the implementation of addictive features. Meta could face significant penalties as a result, while the company may also be required to offer more alternative experience options for EU residents.
The Commission said Meta had failed to adequately assess the risks of its addictive design on the physical and mental wellbeing of users, including minors and vulnerable adults. The Commission added that Meta did not consider certain design features of Instagram and Facebook that fuel the user’s urge to keep scrolling and shift the brain into ‘autopilot mode’, contributing to unhealthy habits and compulsive use. The Commission said Meta’s mitigation measures, including its options to limit session time and its parental control tools, did not offer adequate capacity to manage these impacts.
5. TikTok Launches AI Literacy Measures
TikTok has launched a new AI literacy guide to help users identify in-app AI content. The guide includes video overviews and explainers designed to help TikTok users better understand how to identify AI-generated content.
TikTok is also planning to launch an in-app hub in the coming weeks. The hub will teach users practical skills for spotting AI-generated content when they search for AI-related terms. TikTok also announced expanded funding for AI literacy initiatives, including NoFiltr and Raspberry Pi Foundation. These programs are intended to promote AI literacy through TikTok content. The company is also expanding its own AI detection efforts in order to detect AI-generated spam and misinformation.
6. Meta Removes Instagram’s AI Remix Option
Meta has removed the option to use its latest artificial intelligence tools to remix other people’s posts on Instagram, after widespread backlash to the new feature, which all users had been opted into by default.
Meta had earlier announced its latest Muse Image model, its most advanced image and video generation tool to date. As part of that announcement, Meta also announced a new feature that would enable Instagram users to integrate other users’ publicly posted content into their AI depictions, by mentioning profiles within the creation process. Meta also said the feature was enabled for all accounts by default, and that users would have to explicitly opt out of AI remixes in order stop other people from re-using their posts. Instagram users were upset by this, with the potential for misuse seemingly well beyond any positive use of the option.
7. X Will DM Users About Community Notes Updates
X will update Community Notes so that anyone who interacts with a post that's corrected by a note will receive a direct message notifying them of the change, according to Elon Musk. The SpaceX CEO didn't specify when the update will actually be released, but the tweak will presumably make it more likely users are made aware of potentially misleading information.
The updated communications flow could help to make users more aware of corrections to posts that they’ve shared or commented on, helping to amplify the new information. But at the same time, X already sends notifications to users in this exact scenario. In 2023, X announced that it would send a notification to any user who had engaged with a post that later had a Community Note appended to it.
8. X Boosts the Posts of Users’ Mutuals
X announced an update to its algorithm that boosts the visibility of posts from users’ “mutuals”, people you follow who also follow you back. X head of product Nikita Bier said the platform had noticed that mutual-follow data was missing from the algorithm, which made friends appear less often in replies.
That is a small product change with a very specific ambition. X is not redesigning the feed. It is not removing strangers from the conversation. It is simply giving more weight to a social signal that should have been obvious: if two people follow each other, their interaction probably carries more context than a random drive-by reply.
9. Apple Loses Challenges Against EU Rules to Curb Big Tech
Apple lost its challenge against landmark EU rules that designate its app stores and operating system iOS as gatekeepers subject to obligations aimed at giving rivals more room to compete.
The EU Digital Markets Act (DMA), which sets out a list of dos and don’ts for Big Tech with the threat of fines of as much as 10% of a company’s global annual turnover, has triggered legal challenges by Apple, Meta and ByteDance since it took effect in May 2023. The ruling by the Luxembourg-based General Court will strengthen the position of EU antitrust regulators as they attempt to make space for rivals and give Europeans more choice. Apple can appeal on matters of law to the Court of Justice of the European Union, Europe’s highest. Apple took its grievances to the Court in 2024 after the European Commission designated its five App Stores on iPhones, iPads, Mac computers, Apple TVs and Apple Watches as a single core platform service under the Digital Markets Act. However, judges have sided with the EU competition enforcer.
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.
Comments