The Year In Social Media

I've been writing a weekly(ish) Social Media blog for a while now, and with everyone jumping in on the 'year/decade that was' trend I thought it would be fun to break down the biggest Social Media stories and scandals of 2019, month by month. This will be my first go at long-form writing (so go easy), and just a heads up that most of the featured stories are related to industry/platform updates intermixed with a few 'culture' highlights along the way... enjoy!

January

SEE YA LATER, SOCIAL

The year started strong with 'Bandersnatch' star, Will Poulter quitting Social Media over a flood of shitposting and cyber-bullying (over his physical appearance). The reason I've included this is that Poulter kicked off a massive shift in sentiment toward Social Media, citing its effects on mental health in his final tweet.

Across the year celebrities including Shawn Mendes & Channing Tatum followed Poulter's lead, announcing their own breaks from Social Media (some permanent, mostly temporary).

February

VAIL GOOGLE+

In February, Google announced it's failed Social Network, Google+ would officially go the way of the Dodo. Citing low user uptake and maintenance challenges, the platform was slowly rolled to a close over the coming months.

The closure of Google+ marked Google's fourth failed venture into Social Media (excluding their acquisition of YouTube). Still, ultimately the closure was no massive surprise for the industry with most Google+ accounts created by 'accident' while users attempt to access other Google services.

March

FINALLY, SOME GOOD F*#KING LAWS

Following the Christchurch shootings (specifically the live streaming of), Social Media companies came under fire for failing to stop the rapid dissemination of the attack; with reports claiming 1.5 million copies were found and (eventually) removed from Facebook. 

Some positive's emerged in the aftermath with Australian political leaders driving new, stricter laws for Social Media companies that spread hate speech and violence. Of course, Social Media has got a LONG WAY to go with reducing the influence of far-right communities, but at least 2019 marks the start of legislation to end online extremism.

April

ONE HELL OF A BATH BOMB

Following on from our January trend Lush (UK) dropped a (bath) bomb announcing they would delete their entire Social Media presence. Aligning the decision with the brand's dedication to ethics and disenchantment with paid media, the move furthered criticisms of Social Media's ever-competitive algorithms.

This story was SUPER divisive in the Social community, and I get why; it's easy to look at the move as nothing more than a PR stunt. However, Lush stuck to their guns, and while their old content is still live, it's radio silence since April.

Ok and quickly (we are going to come back to this) this month marked the start of Instagram's removal of likes.

May

TRUMP VS ZUCK

May was a fun month with Facebook taking (some) action on far-right communities, banning multiple high profile figures including Alex Jones, Milo Yiannopoulos and Laura Loomer. Citing breaches on the companies revised 'hate speech' policy the move sparked a massive backlash from fans of banned users/brands that extended as far as the big Trump himself. 

June

STORM THE BORDER, THEY CAN’T STOP ALL OF US

Ok, this is one of my personal favourites from the year. In June, the US State Department made it a requirement for visa applicants to hand over the details of their Social Media presence. It felt a little Black Mirror-esque at the time but looking back it's a move that will likely be replicated across other countries as Social Media becomes recognised as a breeding ground for radicalisation.

Oh, and of course it would be unjust to not mention that the infamous 'Storm Area 51, They Can't Stop All of Us' was created this month too.

July

BIG OL’ PRIVACY YIKES

July was a quiet month for Social Media. Still, I'd kick myself if I didn't include the release of 'The Great Hack' a Netflix produced retrospective on the Cambridge Analytica scandal. If you haven't already seen it, you absolutely should get on it.

Oh, and of course, the whole FaceApp Russian data scandal! In my opinion, this story got a bit overblown by the media but was huge at the time.

August

THIS UNSTOPPABLE SHIT CALLED TIKTOK

This one is not strictly an August story, but according to Google Trends data and general internet sentiment, this month was the start of TikTok's explosion into the mainstream. There are a million stories about TikTok's rise to glory I could share, but instead, I figured we'd go with TIME's very wholesome Tl;DR on 'Ed' the 'Mr. Sandman' Cat which absolutely counts as one of the earmark videos that's made the platform what it is today.

September

SAD REACTS

By my count, September marks the permanent death of the 'like' with Facebook following Instagram's lead and beginning its own 'like-removal' tests. Australia was lucky enough to be the testing ground for the removal of Facebook likes with the mobile app and website the first targets.

Undoubtedly, the end of the 'like' is the biggest shake-up in Social Media this year and IMO (in my opinion) gives us a little hope that the future of Social Media might be a little less corrosive.

October

BRUH, FACEBOOK GOTTA CHILL

In one of the biggest backflips of the year, Facebook got back into the news distribution business launching 'Facebook News'. Now we still haven't seen the service in Australia yet, but reports from the states suggest the business model is similar to Apple's 'News+' service with Facebook working with and paying news publishers for their work.

The crazy part about this story is the sheer irony of Facebook, THE company that brought us fake news and wholly shattered our relationship with news getting back in the business a year after reducing the presence of news on the platform.

November

THE CLONE WARS

Rounding out the year, TikTok remains in the spotlight with the platform reaching 1.5 billion users and continuing to outpace Instagram.

Adding additional fuel to the TikTok fire November was also the month of IP theft, with Instagram, Facebook and potentially Google all developing their own TikTok clones, jealousy is killer... Chances are Instagram stands the best chance of putting a dent in TikTok's market share with their history of cloning Snapchat's most successful feature, stories.

Of course, before we all bow down to our new overlord, Instagram, make sure you give UNSW a follow.

Wow, well done if you made it to the end. This certainly IS NOT a page-turner, but I appreciate you sticking around. The suggestion was made that I should round this out with some predictions for Social Media going into 2020, but I think that might need its own article. Let me know if you'd read...

Enjoy xoxo.