- Meta Verified’s Search Optimization feature quietly shifts the game for small business marketers and creators: accounts subscribed to Meta Verified now get priority placement across Instagram and Facebook search results.
- Why Your YouTube Shorts Flatline and What You Can Do About It: Ever post a YouTube Short, see a quick spike in views, and then…nothing? It’s not bad luck—it’s a missed signal. YouTube is testing your Shorts during the crucial trial phase, and if you don’t know what metrics it’s watching, your content will quietly die on the vine.
- Instagram has finally introduced native reposting functionality, bringing a feature that has been available on other platforms since 2015. This development eliminates the need for third-party applications and provides users with an official way to share content from other accounts.
- Instagram Edits App Content Increases Reach: In an unprecedented move, Instagram has openly acknowledged that content edited using their Edits app receives algorithmic preference, representing a rare instance of the platform directly revealing reach optimization tactics.
- Instagram Adds Inbox Tools for Creators: Instagram has introduced a set of updates aimed at improving message management for creators. The new tools include multi-select filters, custom inbox folders, and shortcuts to simplify sorting and accessing key messages. Creators can now prioritize conversations based on criteria like follower count and verification status, while a new folder separates Story replies from other DMs. These changes are designed to enhance performance, organization, and user control over direct messages. Instagram via Threads
- Threads Experiments with Long-Form Text Attachments: Threads is testing a new feature that enables users to attach long-form text blocks to their posts. These text attachments appear as expandable gray boxes within the feed and support basic formatting like bold and italics. Multimedia content such as images or videos is not yet supported within the attachments.
- Enforcing Australia’s social media ban on kids is possible but contains risks, report says: Australia could use a range of technologies to implement its social media ban for under-16s but all have risks or shortcomings, a report has found.
- Ready to give up social media? ‘Advice pollution’ might just get you there: I may have found what will finally wean me off social media. It’s this “things I’ve learned” trend.
- Do social-media bans benefit young people? These data could offer clues: Australia’s Online Safety Amendment Act provides the chance for researchers to analyse the complex relationship between social-media use and …
- Trial of tech that could be used to keep Australian under-16s off social media: The official trial of age assurance technologies that could be used to keep under-16s from accessing social media has found that while there are…
- Australia’s social media ban can be enforced ‘effectively’, official report finds – Sky News: The Australian government is banning young teenagers from social media from December and commissioned the report to look into how the new rules…
- Teens getting health advice from social media warned about misinformation – ABC News: Two-thirds of teenagers get their health advice on social media, but a researcher says much of it is a “waste of time and money” and at worst…
- Social media a ‘weapon of mass destruction’: Nobel winner – AFR: Maria Ressa, a 2021 Nobel laureate and chief executive of digital news site Rappler, was scathing of the negative effect social media giants.
- New study finds social media age restrictions work, but come with risks | Sunrise – YouTube: New study finds social media age restrictions work, but come with risks.
- Australia’s government says social media age checks ‘can be done’, despite errors and privacy risks: A new report on age assurance technology leaves key questions about Australia’s looming youth social media ban unanswered.
- Jacqui Lambie raises privacy fears as Labor releases social media ban report: Australia’s world-leading social media ban for under 16s “won’t work”, crossbencher Jacqui Lambie says as the Albanese government releases the…
- Social media ban update – YouTube: A social media ban for under 16s has been given the seal of approval after a government funded trial found age restriction technology does work.
TLDR: Social Media Headlines – 1 September 2025
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Venom Charms
I took a trip to South Africa and met a Khoisan woman.
We really clicked.
Airport Hobo
Fun South African Fact: For nearly 50 years, there was a state of apartheid – white minority rule – in South Africa.