Brain Rot is liiiiiveeee!
ICYMI, I am re-branding my newsletter to make it more of an ecosystem.
Nothing about the substance changes besides me going deeper on topics I care about from time to time, a trendy new logo, and the ability to look at all past editions at this handy link (plus, like & comment!).
Still the same updates, content inspo, and strategy deep dives every other Friday directly to your inbox.
Now, let’s get to it✨⬇️
Wait, this stuff is really happening?
And anotha one! Austria joined the growing list of countries banning social media for teens, announcing plans to outlaw it for U14s.
Meta launched its next AI model, Muse Spark, after its original models were flop city. The announcement shot their stock up by 9%. Time will tell if it lives up to the hype, but generally, in my experience, anything that says Meta, purpose-built, and prioritize people in one sentence should not be trusted.
And to prove my point…just a week after they lost the landmark California case in teen social media addiction, Meta has been documented suspending ads from law offices seeking clients under 18 who have been harmed by social media. They got a whiff of class action lawsuit and went full surveillance mode.
Elon Musk has taken his personal vendetta against Sam Altman to court—seeking $134 billion in damages and the removal of Sam Altman as CEO & Greg Brockman as President. Not familiar with the beef? Here’s a great listen with the backstory.
Judge dismisses X’s attempt to sue advertisers for allegedly boycotting the platform back in 2024.
The Latest and Greatest 🔥
Platform updates and new features
Affiliate links for Reels are out of beta and officially live. You can now tag products & earn commission (how this took 3 years post TikTok Shop’s launch beats me…)
Instagram is testing a new paid subscription level named Instagram Plus, geared at customizing or gleaming insights from your IG Stories. Potential features include the ability to create multiple audiences, view who rewatches, search your viewer list, extend expiration dates, and more. Many are calling it a mediocre Snap dupe.
YouTube launches Stations, allowing creators to create linear channels with 24/7 programming. The launch is rolling out with music artists at Coachella, but personally, I think the expansion of could be massive for Hollywood. Mimicking traditional models with a modern twist may just be exactly what the industry needs (especially since half the industry is resisting letting verts happen 💅).
TikTok partners with Cameo to bring your favorite personalized video platform right in app. This feels like a seriously smart strategic play for the big T. On one hand, it opens additional monetization opportunities for creators. On the other, it reduces moments where a consumer might fraction off to use another app. Control the whole ecosystem of interaction, stay relevant.
X brings voice notes back into chat and expands auto-translations worldwide.
Best Content I’ve Seen this Week 🎥
Let this pique your curiosity.
I am not a Coachella person. Honestly, I’m not a festival person. Heat, dust, large crowds with minimal escape routes…my overactive mind could never. But I do love the crash out on social media that happens the week leading up to it, so here are some of my Bieberchella favorites:
Brand play of the week: Hilton coming in to save alllll of the stranded Chella-ers whose Airbnb reservations got cancelled week of. The comment section may be saving the hotel industry one post at a time.
Roast of the week: The way this is satire but entirely accurate of all Coachella creators at the same time.
Series of the week: Attending Coachella as a fake influencer at 41…a series I will be watching every episode of, yes please!
Influencer of the week: If I have to pick a Bieberchella influencer to follow without cringing, it’s going to be Madeleine White.
Brain rot of the week: prepping for Coachella as a type B personality. I wish this was a joke but her admitting she got mild food poisoning from thawed out frozen chicken tenders is sending me.
The Tea on Policy 🧐
They pass it. We break it down.
Today’s deep dive ➡️ Do social media bans really do anything?
There are 12+ countries considering or enacting social media bans for teens right now.
On top of that, Meta just got served two devastating legal blows domestically—one in California deeming their product build negligent for young adults and one in New Mexico proving their algorithms serve young users to predators dangerously fast.
The ground swell push back on the tech giants is here and the door is wide open for social media regulation to pass.
Some, like Australia, have already acted on it, implementing a blanket ban to users under 16.
But do blanket bans even do anything?
A recent study conducted by Australia’s eSafety Commissioner found that even after the removal of 4.7 million underage accounts, 70% of children still had access to the platforms.
Why?
Many teens created new accounts and faced no friction in doing so—a lack of age verification process being to blame.
This unsuccessful ban implementation opens up the can of worms that is performative policy.
While noble in intention, without any tactics to get platforms to cooperate or incentives to get teens to abide, the policy becomes a sitting duck of uselessness.
So how do you get platforms to cooperate?
Fines to force age verification implementation are one route.
But for companies as big as Meta…unless they’re massive, most fines become a drop in the bucket.
The other avenue to force cooperation is an uncharted one recently made possible via the success of the landmark California case—a first-of-it-kind ruling that successfully proved the design of the platform itself was negligent.
It’s a similar tactic to the Big Tobacco cases of years ago.
If they can prove that the actual build of the platform was created with known harms & the company didn’t take proper actions to warn or re-engineer to prevent, then they are liable for any harm inflicted.
It legally circumvents all prior arguments protecting Meta via Section 230:
The TL;DR: it’s not about the content on the platform. It’s about the design of the platform itself.
Appeals are still pending, but the case opens the door for outright platform bans unless they re-build to be less addictive or stricter on age verification AND class action lawsuits that could decimate company funds.
Basically, much more serious consequences.
Seeing these consequences come to fruition though could take years.
Not to mention, they still may not be nearly as effective as age bans for tobacco or alcohol where there is a point-of-sale interaction that forces verification.
There’s also the other side of the coin: the teen user.
How do we convince teens against using the platforms themselves?
This is a route already gaining traction.
If this catchphrase means anything to you then you know what I mean:
This is your brain. This is your brain on drugs.
PSA campaigns, media literacy training, documentary creation, creators openly sharing their experiences…
Subjectively, outright bans usually incentivize secret use unless the risk of discovery is so high that you scare the masses away.
But what can convince someone to alter their action? Feeling like they came to the belief on their own.
And that is usually done through slow, consistent narrative repetition that feels like it hits you from all sides.
In my opinion, that will be the most important play of the next 5 years—intentional media campaigns, educational resources, and grassroots storytelling that reinforces the harm & un-glamorizes the use.
At least until policy can catch up and force platform re-structuring.
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And that’s all for today folks!
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You all are the best.
-Caley
Content by Caley, Inc
Social Media Consulting
Los Angeles, CA
Website | Work with Me
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