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The latest social media news on sites, applications, and companies.

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Social media apps on smartphone

Social media ban for young users is proving to be an age verification nightmare

Researchers created 50 social media accounts claiming to belong to 16-year-olds and found that none of the major platforms asked users to prove their age
X redesigned video editor and recorder featured

X wants to keep your video edits in-house, and it’s starting with captions and custom backgrounds

Reddit app installed on phone

Reddit’s AI is hunting brands that dress marketing slop up as honest opinions

Electronics, Mobile Phone, Phone

AI tools can quietly shift your opinions when they “clean up” your social media posts, study finds

YouTube

I spend hours on YouTube Shorts, and these are the features I now can’t live without

Social Media

As AI turbocharges digital abuse, UK agencies urge parents to limit who sees kids’ photos online

Google Maps

Google Maps could soon order food for you using Gemini

Child using a blue phone

Most Americans want kids off social media before 16, new survey shows

Instagram app

Meta under scrutiny after Instagram approved child abuse advertisements in India

Electronics, Phone, Mobile Phone

WhatsApp pausing usernames for hundreds of millions of users over fraud fears

X Live Studio screengrab

X wants you to go live with its new streaming hub, and is offering $1 million to make it worth your while

Reddit

Reddit is ending anonymous browsing on old Reddit, and longtime users are not happy

a boy using iPhone

TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, and YouTube are failing kids with broken safety features, research finds

A new study tested 86 child safety features across TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, and YouTube, and found that more than half were broken, buried, or missing entirely.
TikTok

Yet another research proves TikTok injury advice is just downright bad

A new study found TikTok videos about ACL rehab exercises were poor overall, raising fresh concerns about teens using viral clips for injury recovery advice.
Instagram

Instagram is testing a more convenient way to tune recommendations

Instagram is testing new shortcuts for Your Algorithm, making it easier for users to adjust recommendations while browsing Feed and Reels.
Snapchat Planets being shown on the Snapchat app on iPhone.

Snapchat Planets Meaning: Order, Rankings, and How Friend Solar System Works

Snapchat Planets turns your friendship ranking into a tiny social solar system, where being Mercury is elite and Neptune might sting a little.
instagram-samsung-tv

Instagram lands on Samsung TVs, with episodic series and live TV coming to your screen soon

Meta is testing interest-based channels, phone-to-TV casting, and a horizontal video hub as Instagram for TV expands beyond Samsung's launch.
TikTok

TikTok’s AI slop problem is worse than you think — and kids are seeing the most of it

A new study suggests AI-generated junk content has become one of TikTok's defining features. Worse still, children and educational content appear to be among the platform's hardest-hit corners.
Clothing, Hardhat, Helmet

Your Instagram photo dumps just got a caption for every single slide

Instagram now lets you add a unique caption to each of up to 20 carousel slides, rolling out to all users starting today.
TikTok

TikTok feeds show 3 times more AI slop than YouTube, study reveals

A new Kapwing report found that 59% of videos shown to new TikTok accounts are AI slop, roughly three times the rate found on YouTube.
Threads Communities upgrades and Your Algo release featured

Threads makes it easier to find your community and tune out what you don’t want to see

Threads is rolling out upgrades to its Communities feature and a new feed personalization tool called Your Algo.
Screenshots showing Facebook's new AI-powered Search results

Facebook now has an answering genie for all your burning questions, just like Google Search

Meta is rolling out AI Mode on Facebook, a new feature that uses Meta AI to answer questions by pulling from public content across Meta apps, rather than returning standard search results.
a boy using iPhone

Yet another study finds too many kids are seeing harmful content on social media

A Molly Rose Foundation study found 34% of UK teens encountered suicide, self-harm, or eating disorder content on social media in a single week, barely unchanged from before the Online Safety Act took effect.
Meta featured image

Facebook and Messenger outage sparks logout panic as Meta services stumble

A brief Meta outage logged users out of Facebook and Messenger, sent Downdetector complaints surging, and also affected Instagram while Threads remained less clear in available reports.
A person seated at a table scrolls through their instagram timeline.

The social media scrolling habit is more harmful than you think, especially for teens

A new Australian study links two or more hours of daily social media use in early adolescence with poorer mental health outcomes one year later.
Instagram voice message filters featured

Instagram’s new voice message effects let you sound like a pirate, a grandma, or a World Cup fan

Instagram is expanding its AI-powered effects for voice notes to more users, growing the feature from eight effects at its India launch in March to 15, including a new Goal! filter tied to the FIFA World Cup.
Reddit

Reddit comments are getting video replies, and it could be more useful than it sounds

Reddit’s new video comments could make replies more useful in DIY, cooking, makeup, fitness, and tutorial communities, where showing a step can be easier than explaining it in text.
TikTok app on iPhone.

TikTok is testing voice calls in DMs, because you must talk where you doomscroll

TikTok is testing voice calling in DMs, according to screenshots shared by a user on X. The feature will reportedly require both participants to be friends and offer a "Mute calls" option in DM settings.
TikTok app on phone next to cameras.

TikTok’s “Not Interested” button fails you in merely a few minutes, finds research

New research from Northeastern University found that TikTok's "Not Interested" button loses effectiveness quickly, with flagged content resurfacing on user feeds within minutes after they stop pressing it.
instagram-your-algorithm-main-feed

You can now tell Instagram’s algorithm exactly what you want to see on your main feed

Instagram is giving users real control over their feeds with Your Algorithm, a feature that lets you add and remove topics across the whole app.
Charlie Bit my Finger Meme

UK’s film body is saving internet memes and viral videos. Yes, “Charlie bit my finger” is on the list.

The British Film Institute is preserving 430 viral videos and memes, including Charlie bit my finger, Badgers, and the Liz Truss lettuce livestream.
instagram-reorder-grid

Instagram finally lets you rearrange your profile grid any way you want

You can now rearrange your Instagram profile grid any way you like, with no limits on how many times you reorder your posts.
Netflix-voice-search

Netflix says there is no future for theatrical releases in its streaming universe

Mr. Lin emphasized that “Narnia” was an exception and insisted that the company’s perspective on movie theaters had not changed. “There is a group of filmmakers who still want theatrical. Those are filmmakers that we’ve accepted we just won’t work with,” he said, deploying what’s become his trademark bluntness.
Snapchat-App-Store-open-on-iPhone

Snap sent alerts to students during class hours despite knowing the risk of distraction

Internal documents from lawsuits filed by 1,400+ school districts reveal how Meta, Snap, TikTok, and YouTube deliberately targeted students, even during school hours.
Google Logo

Google makes it easier to follow the social media shenanigans of your favorite personalities

Google is giving creators a fresh spotlight in Search, and it could change how you keep tabs on your favorite online personalities. The update brings a new way to discover content without endlessly jumping between apps.
facebook-Creator-Assistant

Facebook’s new AI Creator Assistant wants to be your personal content strategist

Meta has launched Creator Assistant, a conversational AI tool built into the Facebook creator dashboard that analyzes your content performance, explains why it worked, and suggests new ideas based on trending content.
meta-instagram-global-teen-protections

Instagram will stop bombarding teens with the same kind of obsessively unhealthy content

Meta is testing a new Instagram feature to prevent teens from being repeatedly served the same content, as it expands 13+ content settings globally.
X React with Video feature on iPhone

X app now lets you directly record reaction-style videos and outrage at just about anything

X has launched React with Video, a new feature that lets iOS users respond to posts with a recorded video reaction using green screen, split screen, or picture-in-picture modes.

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