So. Many. Updates.
Bans. Copycats. "Free speech." Here's your January 2025 recap.
Uh oh: User growth on Twitter/X is “stagnant”, according to an employee email sent by Chief Twit Elon Musk. The email was obtained by The Wall Street Journal, and confirmed by The Verge. I think this confirms what many of us who still manage accounts on Twitter are seeing, amirite?
In today’s newsletter:
ICYMI: Everything You May Have Missed in January
Secret Code Unlocked: “Cute Winter Boots”
ICYMI: JANUARY RECAP
An app gets (temporarily) banned. A legacy square grid goes rectangle. Copycats go crazy. And “free speech” is unleashed. January was a crazy month for social media news and updates.
Let’s recap:
INSTAGRAM
The Instagram grid, which has traditionally displayed square images, now features a 4:5 ratio rectangle thumbnail. In a post on Threads, Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri said “rectangles do a better job showing off those photos and videos.” *Note: I tried to use the portrait shape for a carousel, and the portrait is really just a thumbnail; the other images still had to be sized as square.
In that same post on Threads, Mosseri said Instagram is considering moving Highlights into the Grid and adding them as a tab. Stay tuned…
You may have noticed your Instagram bio likely looks a bit different. Now, your name and pronouns appear above your follower count. This is similar to TikTok bios.
Instagram Reels can now be up to three minutes long (up from 90 seconds). Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri says they received feedback that 90 seconds isn’t long enough. (I would agree).
You can also now see which Reels your friends have interacted with. When you open Reels, you should see a new button in the top right-hand corner. If you hit the button, it takes you the Reels your friends have watched, and shows you who watched it 👀.
Instagram announced it’s launching an editing app called Edits in March 2025. Here’s a sneak peek. It looks like copycat of the popular TikTok editing app, Capcut.
Users on Instagram and Threads will start seeing more political content from accounts they don’t follow. Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri says he didn’t want to do this, but we asked for it.
META
In a recent blog post by Joel Kaplan, Meta’s Chief Global Affairs Officer, the company announced it is removing third-party fact checking and putting an end to demoting fact-checked content. Instead, they are copying a system used by Twitter where users can add “Community Notes” to a post. This update will roll out first in the US.
Meta is also eliminating restrictions on certain words and terms. As quoted in their blog post: “We’re getting rid of a number of restrictions on topics like immigration, gender identity and gender that are the subject of frequent political discourse and debate.”
Many are also wondering about the future of Meta, after CEO Mark Zuckerberg went on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast and said he didn’t think corporate culture had enough “masculine energy.”
Meta also killed its DEI programs (Axios has more on this).
THREADS
You can now schedule your posts in Threads.
Ads are starting to roll out on Threads as part of a test with users in the U.S. and Japan. “During early testing, ads in Threads feed will be image ads that appear between pieces of content in the Threads home feed for a small percentage of people,” according to Meta.
VIDEO UPDATES
Bluesky launched a new custom feed for videos.
Twitter/X also launched a dedicated video tab for users in the U.S.
And just in case you missed it, Canva now allows you to add captions to your videos. Here are instructions.
TIKTOK
Perhaps the biggest social media news in January was the temporary ban of the TikTok app. More than 170 million American users were cut off for about 14 hours, until it was restored following an intervention by the U.S. government. I’m glad it’s back, but I kind of miss those funny videos of people thanking their Chinese spies. Now we wait and see who will purchase the U.S. operations of parent company, ByteDance.
TikTok was given a 75-day reprieve from a ban in the U.S. while it works on securing an American buyer. CTV News says Perplexity AI just put in a new bid. Meanwhile, NPR is reporting that White House officials are pushing a deal with Oracle. Elon Musk and Mr. Beast have also expressed interest, says the BBC.
😉 SECRET CODE UNLOCKED
“Cute Winter Boots”
TikTok creators are known for being creative when coming up with alternatives to sensitive words so that videos don’t inadvertently get banned (“ice cream trucks” for ICE agents, “Dior bags” instead of drones; you get the idea).
Well, a new secret code has been unlocked. Many users are now sharing captions and text that say “cute winter boots” when talking about sensitive political or social issues.
Here’s a good explainer from TikTok creator @enby_therapist.
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