Happy Thursday folks! It was naive of me to think we might be closer to a resolution on the TikTok saga by the time I wrote to you today, but I’ve done my best to sum up the situation below. I’ve also taken a look at Bluesky and what’s happened since we last spoke about it, as well as a look at the other key stories affecting the world of digital marketing this week.

What’s the latest with TikTok?

• TikTok are said to be preparing to shut down the app in the USA on Sunday, and it seems ByteDance is resigned to this.
• There are numerous names linked with a potential acquisition of TikTok, most prominently Elon Musk. It seems unlikely however that this will be resolved by Sunday.
• Donald Trump is said to be considering an executive order to “save” the app. Of course, he would only be able to do this from Monday; it sounds, however, like he is on the side of keeping the platform up and running. Joe Biden and his team (let’s face it, it’s his team) are also said to be looking for solutions.
• Those same articles also state that the Supreme Court in the States is sceptical that a short-term reprieve is legally possible, so this may all just be bluster.
• In the meantime, a lot of TikTok users are turning to rival Chinese app Rednote. Indeed, the platform topped app store charts this week in the US.
• Obviously, this is a live situation, and its possible that by the time you’ve gotten round to reading this there will have been a reprieve. 
• Either way, if you’re in the US, it’s fairly obvious to say you should be avoiding investing resources in assets or ads for the platform until we know more; if you’re based in the UK or other English-speaking markets, it would be worth thinking about alternatives, as with the loss of so much English-language content from a major market, this has to have an overall effect on TikTok’s usability.

And what about Bluesky?

If we take ourselves back five weeks, it was hard to avoid conversations about Bluesky and how it was about to change the internet. I think we all knew that the reality would be far more prosaic. I’ve pulled together the key developments over the last few weeks below.

• The first isn’t really a new development, but is that I haven’t seen any figures on users or usage since the platform announced it had reached 26 million in December. This probably means that the figures frankly aren’t impressive, and anecdotally from my own experience on the platform, it feels like we’ve reached a plateau – though I can’t find data just yet to back that assumption up.
• The platform has however added a trending topics section which, while obviously calling back to Twitter, does make it feel like a more engaging experience.
• Somewhat inevitably, the platform has started to see an influx of bots and bad actors. The platform has said its tackling this and has quadrupled its moderation team, but these are inevitable growing pains. 
• There’s been a lot of talk about Bluesky’s ownership model, and how they are keen to avoid another scenario similar to Elon Musk buying up Twitter, or the dominance of Mark Zuckerberg at Meta.
• The platform will be getting a sibling “Instagram-style” app called Flashes, probably aimed at reaching disenfranchised Instagram users looking for new pastures.

In short, Bluesky has entered something of a lull. Until it can start to raise funds to drive user growth, as well as launching a sophisticated advertising offering, its not something I would worry too much about for corporate social marketing, outside of ensuring you have your handle tied up!

Further Reading

Social Media Today pulled together an interesting piece asking if this is the year social media will see a shake up (in a word, no).

Mark Zuckerburg took to the Joe Rogan podcast to criticise Apple over its random rules and “lack of innovation”. I suspect they won’t be losing any sleep, but its hard to argue too much with him on many of the points.

Google will be integrating AI into its free Gmail and Docs apps – but raising the cost of Workspace as a result.

That’s it! If you found this interesting, I would appreciate it if you shared it with your friends and colleagues.

If you’re feeling particularly generous, I won’t stop you from buying me a coffee. Otherwise, I’ll be back next week. See you then!

Happy 2025! I had originally planned to send out a newsletter last week, but with the Supreme Court hearing TikTok’s arguments on Friday, it felt pertinent to push back a few days, with my reaction below on what this all means for the likes of us. Spoiler alert: I might as well have sent this out on Friday.

I should be back in your inboxes every Thursday now for the foreseeable future. With that said, let’s get to it!

US Supreme Court reportedly leaning towards TikTok ban

TikTok made its arguments to the Supreme Court on Friday, but the news doesn’t look positive for ByteDance. The key question that the conversation kept returning to was around national security and potential Chinese interference, and it appears that the Supreme Court is inclined to uphold the proposed law.

It’s important to note that, as the BBC puts it, “the legislation does not forbid use of the app, but would require tech giants such as Apple and Google to stop offering it and inhibit updates, which analysts suggest would kill it over time.”

Donald Trump has stated a decision should be delayed until he takes office, however, as things stand, unless ByteDance sell up in the US (they’ve said they won’t), the app is due to “go dark” in the US from January 19 (i.e. this coming Sunday).

Presumably if you already have a major stake in this as a marketer, you’re already looking at alternative options in the US. Reuters have put together a useful article on what would happen next, speculating that brands might try to spend money event after January 19. It’s a rapidly evolving situation and hopefully I’ll have some clearer advice when I next send a newsletter in a few days time!

What does Meta’s 180-turn on fact checking mean for us?

Last week we also saw the headline news that Meta will be switching to a community-based fact checking approach, effectively reversing its previous policies on content moderation.

If it feels like a knee-jerk reaction following Donald Trump’s re-election, that’s because it is. There have definitely been mistakes – the time Facebook suppressed a New York Post story about Hunter Biden which turned out to be true, for instance – but standing back and allowing the spread of misinformation feels like A Bad Thing. Though for the sake of balance, The Economist have put together an interesting retort to that opinion.

We’re not here for my own views however – what does it mean for marketing? For the time-being, I don’t see this having a huge impact on Meta’s ad offerings, but much in the same way as we’ve seen brands spooked by ads appearing next to inappropriate content on X, I fully expect that we’ll start to see these cases surface over the next 12 months.

For all his detractors, Mark Zuckerberg doesn’t cut as divisive a figure as Elon Musk, so I’d be surprised if we saw an advertiser boycott on the same scale – but it wouldn’t shock me to see some brands turning away.

Further Reading

Google’s VP of global search ads has said that they are making a massive AI push in 2025. Users of the platform won’t be surprised by this development, but worth noting nonetheless.

Amazon is opening up its ad tech to other retailers, who’ll be able to use their targeting/placement functionalities.

X has noted that an upcoming algorithm update will focus even further on ‘entertaining’ content. Though if the idea of making content which entertains on some level is devastating, you’re probably in the wrong line of work.

The UK Government is due to announce on Monday how it plans to use AI to revolutionise services in the coming months and years.

That’s it! If you found this interesting, I would appreciate it if you shared it with your friends and colleagues.

If you’re feeling particularly generous, I won’t stop you from buying me a coffee. Otherwise, I’ll be back with more on Thursday. See you then!

For the last time in 2024, hello! It’s been an eventful year, but at least on my side things are starting to wind down, and this has also been reflected in the paucity of updates from the world of digital marketing as well.

The main news this week is the fallout from a US Federal Court upholding a ruling that means TikTok could be banned on January 19. Owners ByteDance are obviously pulling out all the stops to try and prevent this.

Elsewhere, global ad revenue has topped $1 trillion for the first time, and there’s a few updates around BlueSky – but it doesn’t feel controversial to say that the pendulum hasn’t exactly swung their way yet.

Before we get going, I just wanted to say thanks for reading through this year. Pulling together these updates is a genuine weekly highlight. If you’re feeling generous at this time of festive cheer, then you’re very welcome to buy me a Christmas coffee. Otherwise, you can also check out my views on the trends likely to shape digital in 2025.

With that said – let’s get to it!

TikTok requests emergency injunction

The big news at the tail end of last week was that a US Federal Court upheld a ruling meaning that ByteDance either needs to divest TikTok, or face a ban for the platform from January 19. It should be noted that ByteDance has a right to appeal, and has asked for an emergency injunction, so there’s a little way for this story to go yet.

In the meantime, Donald Trump has been reluctant to engage on the issue (he’s previously made noises that would indicate he would row back on any ban, but that was before the election). He seems to be of the view that ByteDance should sell up.

And what about us digital marketers trying to make sense of it all? Well if TikTok in the key pillar of your US-based activity, then this is the perfect time to look at Snap, Instagram, or even possibly Reddit – now’s the perfect time to diversify and explore. If it forms more of a secondary part of your ad spend, then now might be a good time to reassess your ad spend and potentially move to other platforms in preparation for the ban.

That said, I’d probably look to wait – if possible – until we find out the ruling on the emergency injunction, with the picture on whether it will be banned on Jan 19 at least likely to clear up over the next few weeks.

Further Reading

The global advertising market is set to exceed $1 trillion in revenue for the first time in 2024, driven by digital platforms.

The Guardian reported this week that X has lost 2.7 million active users over the last couple of months, while BlueSky has picked up 2.5 million. These sound like huge numbers – but they aren’t the critical mass that BlueSky needs to become a major player. It’ll be interesting to see what, if anything, has changed by the time I next write an update. It’s safe to say that subscriptions alone will not be enough to drive sufficient revenue with this current user base.

Meta endured a major outage earlier this week, though it does seem to have recovered now.

Instagram is experimenting with ‘trial reels’ that enable Creators to road-test content without it necessarily forming part of their grid. Like a focus-group, if you will.

That’s it for now! I’ll be taking a break from this newsletter for a few weeks, and plan to be back in mid-January. If you found this interesting, I would appreciate it if you shared it with your friends and colleagues.

If you’re feeling particularly generous, I won’t stop you from buying me a coffee. Have a great Christmas, and a wonderful 2025!