The internet has been transformed by social media, and the many platforms are now critical to how we communicate online. The Verge keeps a close eye on everything that’s happening in the social media landscape, covering key players like Meta, X, and TikTok, reporting on new features, following cultural moments, and breaking down the policies that shape how the platforms work.
Instead of relying on hashtags to disclose a promotion, creators can now use a toggle to have “Paid partnership” text appear at the bottom of their post, as shown by X head of product Nikita Bier.
It’s a posthumous one because, as Buzzfeed reported in 2019, someone on 4chan of all places confirmed Epstein’s death more than half an hour before the first media reports. Now, Business Insider reports that within the files recently released, there are documents showing how the Justice Department and FBI investigated by subpoenaing 4chan, T-Mobile, and AT&T, trying to find the source.
They were unsuccessful.
As part of a test on Threads, when you type “DM me” or “message me” in a post or reply, those words will turn into a link that people can tap to start a DM conversation.
It’s harder to clean up a mess you’re still actively making.
Regulators noticed Polymarket and Kalshi rake in cash on sports bets. So now prediction markets are cosplaying as the future of news.
The Pew Research Center surfaced data showing 3 in 10 Americans do at least sometimes, based on responses to its survey last fall, although about 62 percent said they don’t end up reading most of the newsletters they receive.
If you’d like to drive those numbers up — and perhaps without relying on prediction markets — we have a few suggestions.
Plaintiff attorney Rachel Lanier told Judge Carolyn Kuhl this morning that after she’d admonished against using smart glasses in the courthouse, they learned that one person was still wearing them in the hallway where jurors were present. After alerting Meta’s counsel, Lanier said they were told the glasses weren’t recording.
Prediction: This is going to be a mess for the Trump right.
The Meta CEO walked through the public entrance of the LA Superior Court and past parent advocates and media waiting to learn if they’d get a seat to hear his testimony.
Snap announced today that its subscriber count grew 71 percent year-over-year in Q4 2025. Its subscription offerings, including Snapchat Plus, Lens Plus, Snapchat Premium, and Memories storage plans, are projected to earn $1 billion in annual revenue. Snapchat creators will also soon be able to offer creator subscriptions to other users.
A partial YouTube outage knocked out access to Google’s video service on Tuesday night.
The outage appears to have started just before 8PM ET, but at least on the homepage, it appears to be resolved now. A note on YouTube’s support page says it went down due to problems with the recommendations system. “The issue with our recommendations system has been resolved and all of our platforms (YouTube.com, the YouTube app, YouTube Music, Kids, and TV) are back to normal!
Update: The service is back online.
Just after we entered the courtroom, we learned that a juror has been hospitalized. The parties decided to postpone today’s testimony from former Meta employees to see if the juror can return. Regardless, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is expected to testify tomorrow — either before the original juror, or an alternate.
Starting on February 23rd, Snapchat’s 946 million daily active users will be able to subscribe to specific creators in exchange for ad-free viewing of that creator’s stories, priority replies, and access to exclusive content, similar to subscriptions on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook. It’s launching first with a limited group of creators, including Skai Jackson and Jeremiah Brown, as reported by TechCrunch.
A new Sensor Tower report suggests the USDS takeover managed to retain most of its users despite a bumpy start and concerns with the new owners:
The average number of TikTok’s daily active users in the US remains around 95% of its usership compared to the week of Jan. 19-25.
Google, Reddit, Discord, and Meta have received “hundreds” of subpoenas from the DHS in recent months, according to a report from The New York Times. The agency is reportedly asking the platforms for the names, email addresses, phone numbers, and other information associated with accounts that “track or criticize” ICE.
[The New York Times]
Kamala Harris’ campaign account, @KamalaHQ, has rebranded as a digital rapid response operation.
The Tech Transparency Project identified several Iranian government agencies and officials enjoying the perks of X Premium accounts. Normally, Premium requires a paid subscription, which could violate US sanctions. Suspiciously, when Wired flagged some of those accounts to X, they were stripped of their blue checkmarks:
X did not respond to a request for comment, but within hours of WIRED flagging several X accounts belonging to Iranian officials, their blue checkmarks were removed. The rest of the accounts identified by TTP but not shared with X continue to display a blue checkmark.
Plus: DC thinks Bezos is a bastard; Newsmax goes to war with Nexstar; and more in this week’s Regulator.
The new mandate is one of several changes to India’s 2021 IT rules announced on Tuesday, TechCrunch reports. The updates also include requirements for “synthetic audio and visual content” to be labeled and traceable, and a ban on “deceptive impersonations, non-consensual intimate imagery, and material linked to serious crimes.”
Cross-platform social web tool Bridgy Fed can already send you notifications about DMs it can’t bridge back across platforms, and starting today, Bridgy Fed lets respond to those DMs right inside Bridgy Fed.
The removals — which follow the Trump administration’s previous data purging efforts — target all posts prior to the president returning to office in January 2025, with a goal to “limit confusion on US government policy,” A spokesperson told NPR that the department’s X accounts “are one of our most powerful tools for advancing the America First goals.”
