Social Media Industry News & Trends: April 17, 2025 👨🏻‍💻

Here are some new social media updates, features, and trends you should be aware of:

• YouTube is updating its Course requirements. Effective April 30, content featured in a YouTube course must have an intent to teach, at least 3 non-repeating videos from the Course owner’s channel, and contain no age-restricted content. 
  
  
• YouTube is updating mid-roll ads to give creators more revenue opportunities. Starting May 12, YouTube will add automatic ad slots to existing videos. 
  
  
• Meta has made it possible for advertisers to edit attribution settings for value optimization. There is now a 1-day view option.
  
  
• Meta Ads Manager has a new feature: Conditional Formatting. This feature allows advertisers to format ads from within the platform instead of using the “Ads Reporting” tool and helps them quickly identify high- and low-performing ads. Advertisers can now create rules based on Cost Per Result and Purchase ROAS.
  
  
• Meta introduced frequency control, which allows users to set the frequency at which ads are shown to people each week. This feature is for campaigns that last 7 days or longer without bid control.
  
  
• Google introduced Server Guided Ad Insertion – a way to integrate ads into video content. It supports new innovative ad formats, gives advertisers more control over ad break scheduling, simplifies operations, and is cost-efficient.
  
  
• Google’s Performance Max will bring more goals and image controls for users. It will also introduce new customer lifecycle goals and reporting, image enhancements, and improved search controls to steer AI.
  
  
• TikTok Trend: for the month of April, the “God Forbid” and “Probably Needed a Hug” trends seem to be all over the platform.
  
  
• Instagram is testing a new locked post format that asks users to enter a secret code from the app to view the content. Here is what it looks like.
  
  
• LinkedIn launched Create-On-LinkedIn. The site offers a variety of best practices, posting tips, examples, and more to help creators produce content that engages the right audience more successfully.
  
  
• Apple announced that Apple Search Ads is now Apple Ads. According to Apple, its ad offerings have grown beyond search. This opens many more doors and opportunities for advertisers and marketers within Apple’s platforms.
  
  

Social Media Tea ☕

Got a taste for drama? Here is some recent news about today’s social media giants:

• Meta’s antitrust trial regarding the acquisition of Instagram and WhatsApp began on April 14th. The FTC stated that Meta had built a monopoly by purchasing startups that were in its way.
  
  Meta released a statement stating that the FTC is ignoring reality and that there are more social media platforms than those owned by Meta, like TikTok, YouTube, X, and more.
  
  In addition, the FTC approved the purchases of IG and WA over 10 years ago, so it’s not like they were acquired in secret.
  
  
• Meta announced that, despite privacy concerns, it will begin training its AI models on public content (Instagram and Facebook posts and comments) in the European Union.
  
  Meta stated that EU people can object to their data being used for AI training purposes.
  
  
• YouTube stated that it supports the NO FAKES Act of 2025 to protect the creators and viewers in the age of AI.
  
  
• Google launched a campaign against the California Assembly Bill 566, related to privacy and opt-out preference signals.
  
  Surprisingly, Google is now facing criticism from those who would actually benefit from this campaign. Instead of participating, multiple advertisers are advocating for stronger privacy protections.
  
  
• TikTok seems to be redirecting its focus on the EU and the UK (according to their latest update and news publications), which suggests that the platform is likely to soon become obsolete in the U.S.
  
  However, many things can happen in the near future. What are your thoughts?
  
  
• TikTok introduced its first-ever SME Council to stand up and speak up for TikTok-focused small businesses in the UK.
  
  The goal is to reach policymakers and help them shape policies that boost growth. (If TikTok sells by the deadline, it would be cool to see something like that for the U.S. side of the platform.)
  
  

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