Meta temporarily blocks teenagers from accessing AI characters on Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp amid mounting lawsuits from families and political pressure, following similar restrictions by competitors after accusations that AI chatbots contribute to teen self-harm and suicide.
TikTok users express alarm over privacy policy language allowing collection of sensitive data including immigration status and sexual orientation, though legal experts clarify the existing policy merely discloses potential processing of information users voluntarily share rather than active data harvesting by the company.
YouTube CEO Neal Mohan announces ambitious 2026 vision as platform reaches milestone 200 billion daily Shorts views and surpasses $100 billion in creator payouts over four years, while rolling out new AI tools and enhanced parental controls.
X open-sources its 'For You' feed algorithm powered by Grok transformer technology, revealing how the platform combines posts from followed accounts with AI-discovered content by predicting user engagement probabilities across likes, replies, reposts, and clicks.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer condemns X's Grok AI chatbot as 'disgusting' after reports surface of the platform generating sexualized deepfakes of women and children, prompting an Ofcom investigation under the Online Safety Act while a US Representative threatens sanctions if Britain bans the social media platform.
Spotify unveils real-time music sharing and live listening features for its Messages platform, which has exploded to 340 million exchanges among 40 million users, allowing friends to see what others are playing instantly and join synchronized listening sessions together.
Instagram chief Adam Mosseri predicts AI content will dominate social media so completely that platforms should abandon detecting fake material and instead focus on cryptographically verifying authentic camera-captured images, while urging creators to embrace raw, unflattering photos to prove their content is real.
Merriam-Webster declares 'slop' the 2025 word of the year as low-quality AI-generated content now comprises 50% of English-language internet material, while most consumers struggle to identify fake content and detection becomes nearly impossible even for experts.
DoorDash launches Zesty, an AI-powered social app that delivers personalized restaurant recommendations by analyzing data from multiple platforms including TikTok and Google Maps, now available in San Francisco Bay Area and New York with social sharing features.
A new Pew Research Center survey reveals 1 in 5 U.S. teens are on TikTok or YouTube almost constantly, while AI chatbot use has surged to 64% among teens ages 13 to 17, with ChatGPT leading adoption at 59% and roughly 3 in 10 teens using chatbots daily.