stuff you should read this week < ps. i suck at newsletter titles>

It’s been a quiet week for social networks launching new features or product updates. I guess that’s to be expected given Mr Trump and Mr Biden’s race is keeping the major social platforms busy with fake news, misinformation, and other moderation challenges… But fear not, there’s still plenty of nerdy stuff to talk about from the past week.

I spotted a bunch of cool new things as I bounced around the social web this week. By far, this was the most popular new tool I discovered and shared in the past seven days:

- Make an awesome profile pic from any image -

In regards to the U.S election and how Facebook, Twitter et al coped with all the BS pumped out by Trump and others (which we will get into in a bit), I’ve enjoyed seeing how brands and influencers have leveraged the trending topic.

A few highlights include budget airline Ryanair’s tweets like this one. And Greta Thunberg’s poke at Trump. Unrelated, but did you also see Burger King’s well crafted and much shared ‘Order from McDonald’s’ stunt? Seen better ones? Drop me a tweet sharing your favourite.

It’s iPhone upgrade day today for me. Once I hit send on this email, I’m going to try and find out if I can get my iPhone 12 Pro Max on Apple’s iPhone Upgrade Programme, but I fear Covid-19 has killed any chances of getting it on launch day here in the UK due to lockdown. That may be no bad thing as I’m undecided on whether to go iPhone 12 or 12 Pro Max. What do you suggest? Let me know. I trust your judgement.

After months of preparation, it was time for social media to step up to the plate and fight the waves of misinformation following the US election.

The election hasn’t quite played out like some thought. There hasn’t been widespread violence, for example, but misleading posts about results in individual states have kept the platforms busy. Twitter’s labels were applied to 38% of Trump’s tweets between Tuesday and Thursday while the company dealt with a swell of fake accounts. Facebook and TikTok have been blocking hashtags that spread election conspiracy theories, while Facebook has reportedly added more ‘friction’ to sharing to slow the spread of misinformation.

Perhaps the most disturbing story this week was BuzzFeed News’ revelation that Facebook has an internal metric for ‘Violence And Incitement Trends’… and it’s going up.

As I write, it seems like a tight win for Biden isn’t far off, which could mean the end of a stressful few days in sight for staff at the big social platforms who have to deal with this stuff. I bet Facebook is looking forward to putting up this message and hoping it means they can get a bit of a rest.

…But not for long. Misinformation and social media platform abuse will be a big part of politics from now on, no matter who is in the White House after inauguration day in January.

This feels like months ago, given how much has happened this week, but slightly lost in the election maelstrom was the news that the latest US TikTok ban (due for 12 November) was put on ice after creators on the platform successfully persuaded a judge that they would lose access to their audiences and business opportunities if TikTok was shut down in the USA.

TikTok was obviously very thankful to the creators, who, let’s not forget, are essentially small businesses who would struggle without access to the thing that makes them their money.

The election may be a headache for moderators at Facebook, but their advertising departments might not be having the greatest time either. Walgreens, Netflix, Kellogg, and Hershey are among the brands who have been shunning social ads this week.

After all, who wants their name seen next to all that chaos? It’s a reminder that ‘maintaining a functioning democracy’ is far from the only reason social platforms want to clean up the misinformation mess.

I love my job….However, being a social media manager is sometimes a thankless occupation where your creativity and ‘always online’ dedication goes unrecognised or is hidden as you operate in the shadows managing a brand’s social account. But I wouldn’t want to do anything else.

I posed this question today on Twitter. Why not check out the serious, and not so serious responses, and add your own? 👇

BURN! (Reminder: TikTok is banned in India):

BOOM! You’re done my friend.

Did you know… Our Geekout group on Facebook just hit 20,000 members! Who knew there were so many social media geeks like me out there. Not a member yet? Join here

Right, I’m off to try and upgrade my iPhone. Hopefully.

Have a great weekend!

This newsletter is edited by Martin SFP Bryant.