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.

Shikhar Mehrotra     June 18

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.

M. Priyadarshini     June 17

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.

Pranob Mehrotra     June 17

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.

Pranob Mehrotra     June 15

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.

Pranob Mehrotra     June 14

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.

Paulo Vargas     June 12

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.

Vikhyaat Vivek     June 12

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.

Pranob Mehrotra     June 11

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.

S. Kumar Manglam     June 11

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.

Pranob Mehrotra     June 10

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.

Pranob Mehrotra     June 10

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.

M. Priyadarshini     June 10

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.

Vikhyaat Vivek     June 8

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.

M. Priyadarshini     June 8

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.

Shimul Sood     June 6

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.

Rachit Agarwal     June 5

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.

Shimul Sood     June 5

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.

M. Priyadarshini     June 4

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.

M. Priyadarshini     June 2

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.

Rachit Agarwal     June 2

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.

S. Kumar Manglam     May 28

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.

Varun Mirchandani     May 24

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.

M. Priyadarshini     May 23

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.

Rachit Agarwal     May 23

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.

Paulo Vargas     May 22

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.

Paulo Vargas     May 21

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.

Rachit Agarwal     May 21

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.

Vikhyaat Vivek     May 20

YouTube is giving creators a new weapon against AI deepfakes

YouTube is rolling out a new AI safety feature that could help creators spot deepfake-style videos using their face. The tool works quietly in the background, but it may become increasingly important as AI-generated content spreads online.

Shimul Sood     May 16

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.

M. Priyadarshini     May 15

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.

M. Priyadarshini     May 14

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.

Manisha Priyadarshini     May 14

Instagram’s new Instants tool is a brazen copycat of Snapchat and BeReal, but at least it keeps things real

Instagram launched Instants globally, a disappearing photo feature that borrows heavily from Snapchat and BeReal while pushing users toward more authentic, unedited sharing.

M. Priyadarshini     May 13

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.

Paulo Vargas     May 13

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.

Vikhyaat Vivek     May 12

WhatsApp Plus is here, and you can safely ignore this subscription

WhatsApp Plus has arrived on iPhone, but when Telegram Premium offers functional upgrades, and Signal gives everything away free, does Meta's new subscription actually earn its keep?

Shikhar Mehrotra     May 11

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.

M. Priyadarshini     May 11

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.

Vikhyaat Vivek     May 7