As December draws to a close, we’re wrapping up the year with our final Social Media News round-up.  It’s been a busy month for Threads and BlueSky, as they continue to aim to stay ahead in the social media race.

Bluesky:

Let’s dive straight in… BlueSky, has seen a surge in user numbers in recent weeks and in response to this rapid growth, the platform is actively working on some new measures. These new measures specifically relate to verify accounts and combating harmful content.
As the user base expands, it seems like a sensible step for the platform to look at enhancing security and ensure a positive environment for all users.

Next, while BlueSky may not be directly training AI systems on user content, unlike other social platforms, this doesn’t mean third parties are not taking advantage of the data available. A recent report by 404 Media reveals that a machine learning librarian from AI firm Hugging Face accessed and used 1 million public BlueSky posts via the platform’s Firehose API for research purposes. This is a little worrying, so we’d like to remind readers that anything shared publicly on BlueSky is, essentially, up for grabs.

BlueSky is proving very popular and has recently celebrated hitting 20 million users and briefly topped the Apple App Store charts! However, the platform’s swift rise hasn’t been without its challenges. A recent analysis revealed a concerning trend of bad actors using impersonation to deceive users.

We said it was a busy one:

Despite the traction that BlueSky is gaining, it still lacks a key feature: private accounts. Unlike other social platforms, where users can restrict who sees their content, BlueSky accounts are publicly accessible to everyone.

And finally for BlueSky,  they are now working on implementing a subscription model. The platform has teased its upcoming subscription plans. Watch this space for more info!

Instagram:

Over to Instagram now, and this next piece of social media news is probably the biggest update of the month!

Instagram has a new feature allowing creators to test their Reels on new audiences before sharing them with followers. These “trial” Reels will initially be shown to non-followers, and creators will receive detailed engagement data, 24 hours after publishing. This data will help creators decide whether their content is worth sharing with their existing audience.
This is such a great update and aims to give creators more flexibility to experiment with new content ideas without impacting their established follower base.

Next, Instagram has announced new features to improve the experience of broadcast channels. Creators can now engage more effectively with their audience, thanks to the introduction of replies and prompts. These tools allow for better interaction, enabling creators to respond directly to their audience’s feedback.

Facebook:

Facebook is testing a new feature that allows users to add a note to Stories, confirming the image hasn’t been edited in the app. This update streamlines the posting process by letting users long-tap on images from their camera roll skipping the usual editing steps. The new tag highlights the unedited nature of the post, and would support more authentic, in-the-moment updates for Facebook Stories.

Meta:

Following its admission of over-moderating content and mistakenly penalising creators, Meta has announced an expansion of its new policy. This expansion is designed to protect creators from being penalised after their first violation of Meta’s Community Standards. This policy aims to offer creators a fairer approach, giving them more room to learn and adapt to platform guidelines.

Meta is exploring new ways to give users greater control over their content visibility. On Instagram, a new test allows users to make view counts on their Reels optional. This update provides flexibility in how metrics appear on their profile. Meanwhile, over on Threads, Meta is trialling a feature that lets users hide their replies tab.