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 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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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’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 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 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’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.
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.
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 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.
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 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’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.
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 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.
Instagram Plus may tempt creators, but WhatsApp Plus is an easier skip
Meta is bringing paid features to Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp. Instagram Plus may appeal to creators and heavy users, while WhatsApp Plus looks harder to justify.
X wants to stop creators from farming stolen viral clips for easy money
X is cracking down on repost accounts and content thieves by reducing payouts and shifting engagement credit back toward original creators.
The police have entered the chat and they want social media bans for users under 16
UK police are done waiting for tech companies to act and are now pushing the government to block under-16s from unsafe platforms entirely.
Social media is stealing your happiness one scroll at a time
The World Happiness Report found that the more time you spend on social media, the greater the loss to your well-being, and young people in the West are feeling it the most.
Meta built a Reddit rival out of Facebook Groups
Meta’s new Forum app turns Facebook Groups into a standalone hub for questions, recommendations, and AI-powered search, giving the company a Reddit-like test built from communities it already owns.
AI is turbocharging “wizards” on 4Chan who take orders to nudify images of women
A new ISD analysis and WIRED reporting show how 4chan users are turning nonconsensual AI nudes into a repeatable system built on requests, status, and private-platform spillover.
Big tech is finally taking child safety seriously, but TikTok and YouTube are lagging behind
Snap, Meta, and Roblox have agreed to introduce new anti-grooming measures after Ofcom's public call for action, but TikTok and YouTube still have a lot of explaining to do.
LinkedIn is coming for AI slop, and it’s about time the platform took action
LinkedIn is rolling out systems to detect generic AI-generated posts and automated comments, reducing their reach beyond immediate networks.
Spotted a mistake on your Instagram Story? You can finally edit it after posting
Instagram is finally rolling out Edit Story, a long-requested feature that lets users make changes to a Story after it has been posted.
Meta is testing an AI bot to unleash the same online stupidity that is AskGrok on X
Meta is testing an AI bot on Threads that works just like Grok on X, responding publicly to user mentions in conversations.
You can’t block Meta’s AI bot on Threads. I don’t know what we did to deserve this.
Threads users are furious after discovering Meta's new AI chatbot cannot be blocked like any other account on the platform.
Instagram’s teen crackdown moves from DMs to feeds
Instagram’s new supervision tools will show parents which topics shape teen recommendations, moving Meta’s safety push beyond private messages and deeper into the feed that keeps young users scrolling.
WhatsApp is getting iOS 26’s Liquid Glass glow-up, and it’s surprisingly gorgeous
WhatsApp is rolling out its iOS 26 Liquid Glass redesign to some users, bringing translucent tabs, refreshed buttons, smoother animations, and updated menus.
TikTok is going ad-free. At a monthly fee, of course.
TikTok has launched TikTok Ad-Free in the UK, a £3.99 monthly subscription that removes ads from your feed and stops your data being used for advertising.
Social media pals aren’t necessarily making you feel less lonely, finds research
New study of more than 1,500 adults found online connections with strangers were linked to higher loneliness, while real-life contacts offered no clear reduction.
Internet’s favorite app Vine is back from the dead, and it’s called Divine
Divine, a Vine reboot backed by Jack Dorsey, is now available on the App Store and Google Play Store, bringing back 500,000 archived Vine videos and letting creators post new ones.
Social media scams caused over two billion dollars in losses to consumers last year
FTC data shows consumers lost $2.1 billion to social media scams in 2025, with Facebook driving the highest reported losses and investment, shopping, and romance scams leading the damage.
X introduces XChat messaging app for iPhone users
X has launched XChat on iOS, a standalone messaging app aimed at expanding its ecosystem and competing with established chat platforms through privacy-focused features and social integration.
If you think running a celebrity fan page on social media is a cakewalk, think again
Running a celebrity fan page isn’t as easy as it looks. What looks like harmless fandom online often turns into a full-time, high-pressure commitment.