As Twitter continues to decline as a place to post news, media companies have been seeking out alternative platforms to promote their work, and more are turning to Reddit. But by promoting the article in a prominent snark subreddit, Business Insider’s Reddit account has raised questions about how media companies should navigate a new social media landscape dominated by freewheeling, self-policed groups.
X, formerly known as Twitter, has lost over 71% of its value since April 2022, when Elon Musk bought the microblogging app, according to mutual fund Fidelity, a shareholder in X Holdings. Fidelity — which contributed over $300 million to Elon Musk’s $44 billion takeover — originally marked down the company’s valuation in October, which decreased the value of its investment by nearly 65% over the first 11 months of Musk’s ownership.
Entertainment marketers promoting new shows and movies can now use Samba TV measurement to understand viewership conversions generated by Snapchat campaigns.
News headlines are back on X, formerly known as Twitter, nearly three months after the platform cut them, forcing users and news outlets alike to manually write them on articles shared to X — although the return of the feature comes with smaller, slimmed down headlines for reposted articles.
X argued that the law improperly compels speech in violation of the First Amendment and is meant to pressure social media companies to remove content the government deems objectionable.
Here’s a look back at some of the biggest stories in social media in 2023 — and what to watch for next year. Pictured: Characters removed from a sign on the Twitter headquarters building are piled on a street in San Francisco on July 24, 2023. (Godofredo A. Vásque/AP)
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health researchers say their study’s findings show a need for government regulation of social media since the companies that stand to make money from children who use their platforms have failed to meaningfully self-regulate. They note such regulations, as well as greater transparency from tech companies, could help alleviate harms to youth mental health and curtail potentially harmful advertising practices that target children and adolescents.
Exclusives
A federal judge on Friday gave the go-ahead to a lawsuit against the social media company X, formerly known as Twitter, in which workers claim that the company promised but never paid millions of dollars in bonuses. (Noah Berger/AP)
New Jersey lawmakers are considering a bill that would prohibit social media companies from allowing minors under 18 to have social media accounts without parental permission. The measure, which advanced Monday in New Jersey’s Assembly Health Committee, also would require social platforms to verify all users’ ages. Lawmakers in Utah and Arkansas recently passed similar laws, but those measures are currently facing court challenges.
The tech industry organization NetChoice on Monday sued to block a Utah law that requires social media companies to verify users’ ages, prohibits those companies from allowing minors under 18 to have accounts without parental permission, and bans the companies from serving ads to minors. (Henry Wang/Pixabay)
In both cases, Meta ended up reinstating the posts — one showing Palestinian casualties and the other, an Israeli hostage — on its own, although it added warning screens to both due to violent content. This means the company isn’t obligated to do anything about the board’s decision.
New research from Vizrt finds that 64% of Gen Z (64%) consume news on social media, showing the necessity for broadcasters to consider how to harness viewers’ attention on these platforms with live production solutions.
The inquiry is perhaps the most substantial regulatory consequence to date of X, which has seen a rise in incendiary content on the platform, according to researchers.
Big U.S. companies including Walt Disney and Comcast increased advertising spending on Instagram after pausing commercials on X last month, according to Sensor Tower, as marketers flee the Elon Musk-owned social media platform over antisemitic content. Disney (DIS.N) and Comcast (CMCSA.O) lifted their U.S. spending on the app owned by Meta (META.O) by 40% and about 6% respectively in the two weeks from Nov. 20, Sensor Tower data showed. Paramount (PARA.O), meanwhile, tripled its spending on Snapchat.
A team of meme-makers has been flooding social media with pro-Trump posts riddled with sexist and racist tropes. Donald Trump is cheering them on.
Democratic candidates, including Elon Musk’s most vocal critics, have spent over a million dollars to run thousands of political ads on X.
On Monday, a federal judge advanced a lawsuit from investors who say they suffered losses when they sold their shares in Twitter, now known as X, because of posts from Musk claiming the platform has a major issue with fake accounts and that he could wiggle out of the deal because of it. U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer found that several of Musk’s statements were false or misleading, in part, because he waived due diligence.
Elon Musk has restored the X account of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, pointing to a poll on the social media platform formerly known as Twitter that came out in favor of the Infowars host who repeatedly called the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting a hoax.
X Corp. owner Elon Musk on Thursday told the Supreme Court that a restriction on his ability to tweet about Tesla violates the First Amendment. The restriction, which he agreed to as part of a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission, prohibits Musk from tweeting about his car company without first obtaining approval from its lawyers. Such a restriction “is a quintessential prior restraint that the law forbids,” his lawyers say in a petition urging the Supreme Court to review the restriction.
Beginning today, each day will feature a different social media message, ranging from thank you notes from grant recipients to positive statements about radio, television and charitable giving designed to raise funds and awareness of the organization’s mission to aid broadcasters in need.
The social media platform has had preliminary talks with Amazon to sell ads through the e-commerce giant’s ad-buying software.
Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s new media company has begun building its base of paying subscribers as it moves toward launch, its chief executive told Reuters. “We’ve opened our site for membership pre-sales,” said Neil Patel, co-founder and CEO of the new venture. “Once we are comfortable that all of the systems are running well, launch and brand release will follow.” Patel said those paying subscribers will have access to members-only content and behind-the-scenes footage. He declined to comment on the pricing.
Walmart said on Friday it is not advertising on social media platform X, one of the latest brands to say it has dropped the Elon Musk-owned site. “We aren’t advertising on X as we’ve found other platforms to better reach our customers,” a Walmart spokesperson said.
TikTok, which is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, has been locked in a legal battle with Montana since the state passed the ban in April.
The social media company has stepped up enforcement, but its algorithms continue to promote problematic content.
Advertisers said on Thursday that they did not plan to reopen their wallets anytime soon with X, the social media company formerly known as Twitter, after its owner, Elon Musk, insulted brands using an expletive and told them not to spend on the platform.
X, formerly known as Twitter, is in a pair of legal battles with Adeia, an entity spun out of Xperi that holds a trove of patents, including property with ties to TiVo.
Elon Musk’s “Go f–k yourselves” statement to advertisers leaving X was defended by the social media platform’s CEO, Linda Yaccarino, who said that the owner “offered an apology, an explanation and an explicit point of view about our position.”
Elon Musk made plain his view of the widespread advertiser withdrawal this month from X, formerly Twitter at the New York Times DealBook Summit. “Don’t advertise,” he urged any marketer with misgivings. “Somebody’s going to try to blackmail me with advertising?! Blackmail me with money? Go f–k yourself. Go. F–k. Yourself. Is that clear? I hope it is.”
The former NBCUniversal ad sales chief thought she could manage the mercurial Elon Musk. Her former colleagues are baffled at the result: “She let her ego get the best of her.” (John Staley photo)
The decision follows owner Elon Musk’s bizarre embrace of the utterly debunked “Pizzagate” conspiracy theory on Tuesday.
Internal documents show companies like Airbnb, Coca-Cola and Microsoft have halted ads, or may do so, after Elon Musk’s endorsement of an antisemitic conspiracy theory.
Meta “routinely documented” children under 13 on Instagram and collected their data, according to a newly unsealed complaint.
“People of my generation know when they’re being advertised to, but they’ll accept being advertised to if it’s in their language,” says Feldman, who went from a PA to sharing the (very small) screen with Christopher Nolan and Jennifer Lawrence. (Courtesy of Tiana Michele)
Of nearly 261 companies that spent over $1 million on advertising on X/Twitter from January 2022 to October 2023, 86% of them have reduced ad spending on the platform, according to estimates from MediaRadar. Brand-safety concerns remain a major problem, according to the advertising research firm. Top 10 advertisers — including AT&T, Coca-Cola, General Motors, Capital One, Nike, and Bank of America — have reduced spending by 70% to 97%, according to the report.
A federal magistrate judge on Tuesday recommended that Meta Platforms be awarded a $36 million default judgment against four residents of Hanoi, Vietnam, who hijacked the accounts of advertising and marketing agency employees in order to perpetrate an ad fraud scheme.
Donald Trump is still very angry over the erroneous reporting about the financial losses at his Twitter clone, Truth Social, and in a new lawsuit filed Monday, the ex-president claimed that the reports were actually a vast media conspiracy involving “no less than 20 major media outlets.”
