What the Facebook?
Managing Social Media is Hard Enough — Staying Up to Date Shouldn't Be.
And the winner for best headline this week goes to Mashable for: Florida man sues Twitter in a desperate bid to post again. Wondering who the Florida man is? Just think about that one for a minute... 🤨
And just a heads up: The next TSP newsletter will land in your inbox on Tuesday, Oct. 12th. I hope you have a great Thanksgiving long weekend!
In today's top stories:
Facebook faces an uglier truth
Twitter goes Professional
TikTok hits a milestone for monthly active users
And Halloween is headed for a "retro aesthetic"
Read on ⬇️
An Uglier Truth
I've been making my way through the book An Ugly Truth, a behind-the-scenes look at Facebook written by award-winning New York Times reporters Sheera Frenkel and Cecilia Kang. But honestly, it just feels like Groundhog Day, with Facebook messing up and then apologizing, messing up and apologizing. So when this latest round of news emerged about how Facebook knew its platforms were harmful, I honestly was a bit taxed by it all. But maybe, just maybe, the newly identified whistleblower behind the reports is about to bring about big changes. 🤞 Here's what you need to know...
A Timeline
Early September — The Wall Street Journal publishes a series of articles called "The Facebook Files" featuring internal documents shared by a previously unidentified whistleblower that detail the harmful effects of the company and its platforms. The report also says that despite knowing about these ill effects, there were no attempts to fix them. The key issue: An internal slide that outlines how Instagram makes body issues worse for 1 in 3 teen girls.
Sept. 16, 2021 — Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri gets in hot water after an interview with the Recode Media podcast where he says: "We know that more people die than would otherwise because of car accidents, but by and large cars create way more value in the world than they destroy," argued Mosseri. "And I think social media is similar."
Sept. 27, 2021 — Instagram and Mosseri announce that Instagram is pausing Instagram Kids (described as "An Instagram experience for people under the age of 13"). The company says that this is a necessary feature, but that pausing the project "will give us time to work with parents, experts, policymakers and regulators, to listen to their concerns, and to demonstrate the value and importance of this project for younger teens online today."
Sept. 29, 2021 — Facebook shares internal research ahead of a meeting with Congress. You can read the PDFs here. Essentially, it says that things aren't as bad as the reports suggest, and that Instagram actually helps teen girls in 11 of 12 well-being areas.
Sept. 30, 2021 — Facebook is questioned by Congress over its harmful effects following the investigation by The Wall Street Journal. The company's global head of safety, Antigone Davis, was grilled for more than two hours about why the company knew something was wrong, and did nothing. Davis said she disagreed with "how this reporting characterized our work."
Oct. 3, 2021 — The former Facebook employee behind the explosive Facebook Files speaks out publicly for the first time in an interview with "60 Minutes." Frances Haugen, who copied thousands of internal documents before resigning last May, said that while she doesn't believe CEO Mark Zuckerberg is malevolent, he allowed decisions that endangered users, and put profit before safety. She has filed eight complaints with the Securities and Exchange Commission that allege Facebook defrauded investors by lying to them about how the platform amplifies hate, misinformation and political unrest.
The Algorithm
In the interview with "60 Minutes," Haugen said the root of the issue is a change that Facebook made to the algorithm in 2018. After the change, the platform started serving up content to your News Feed based on similar types of posts you previously engaged with. And very often it features content that elicits a reaction, which tend to be posts that are polarizing and inspire anger and hate. Haugen said that Facebook understands the impact of this type of content, but has realized that if they change the platform to be safer, people will spend less time on the app, and spend less money. Watch the full interview.
And expect the story to continue on Tuesday, when Haugen appears before Congress.
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SOCIAL SNACKS
So Profesh
Twitter is following in the footsteps of Instagram, offering a new type of account. Twitter for Professionals will start rolling out this week for businesses and Creators. The company says that switching to this type of account comes with a new set of tools, including ads, advanced profile features, and future ecommerce options. It won't be widely available right away, but when it is, you'll be able to access it by swiping open the Home sidebar on the app, according to The Verge. A "Switch to Professional" tab will also appear under the profile settings. But if you've had repeated guideline violations, or your account isn't authentic with a real name, bio and picture, you likely won't ever get access.
REELS in the U.S.A.
Reels, the TikTok copycat feature launched by Instagram in August 2020, is now available to Facebook users in the U.S. The videos can be found in the News Feed or Groups. Facebook says they are testing the ability to have Instagram Reels recommended on Facebook (since Facebook owns Instagram, I would hope they would find some way to link the two). Reaction to Instagram Reels so far appears to be lukewarm. But to help warm things up, Facebook has also announced a Reels Play bonus that "pays eligible creators based on the performance of their reels, and will be available on both Facebook and Instagram." It's worth a try, I guess.
ICYMI
🔴 Facebook allows group chats across Instagram and Messenger [Messenger Blog]
🔴 LinkedIn testing paid online events as potential new moneymaker [Yahoo! Finance]
🔴 TikTok launches new creator-led NFT collection [TikTok Blog]
🔴 YouTube launches new guidelines for managing harmful vaccine misinformation [YouTube Blog]
ECOMMERCE-LIKE
You Can Tell the Holidays Are Approaching Because...
The platforms are ramping up features and research to help businesses and consumers connect. For example:
Instagram now allows businesses to directly connect their WhatsApp business account to Insta
TikTok has launched new ad features and new ecommerce partnerships beyond Shopify
And Snapchat says businesses need to optimize for mobile, advertise on social media, and when targeting, be as precise as possible
1 BILLION
That's how many monthly active users TikTok says it now has. So, how does that compare to the other platforms? The Morning Brew, a financial e-newsletter, broke it down in a recent tweet.
HALLOWEEN-LIKE
Don't Call It a Comeback
If you haven't started thinking about your Halloween costume yet, you might want to consider a way-back pick. According to Pinterest and its 2021 Halloween Report, "Retro Halloween aesthetic" is the top trending term related to this spooky holiday. On the Shop tab, searches for "vintage Halloween decor" increased by 3x, according to the report. What does that include? Black cats, ghosts, witches, and black-and-white images from Halloween parties in the 2000s (scary!). I will say that one of the Halloween costumes I'm personally the most proud of was when I went as the Y2K bug in 1999. Maybe it's time to bring that one back?
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