Public policy apparently isn’t hardcore enough for Elon Musk, either.

Despite regulatory scrutiny in the U.S. and abroad, Twitter laid off members of its public policy team Wednesday night, Erin Woo of The Information reported.

It was unclear how many people were affected, and anyone at Twitter answering questions from the media is long gone, but Woo shared a tweet from public policy team member Theodora Skeadas reporting her layoff and saying that one-half of the team was eliminated.

In other news, Musk said in a tweet Thursday that a view count feature is being added to tweets, writing, “This is normal for video. Shows how much more alive Twitter is than it may seem, as over 90% of Twitter users read, but don’t tweet, reply or like, as those are public actions.”

Instagram’s Notes feature allows users to share posts containing text and emoji that will automatically disappear after 24 hours. Creators also have the option to delete Notes early, rather than allowing them to disappear naturally.

Our guide will show you how to delete a note in the Instagram mobile application.

Note: These screenshots were captured in the Instagram app on iOS.

Step 1: While viewing your Instagram inbox, tap your profile picture near the top-left corner of the screen. If you have a note that is currently visible, you should see the text “Your note” under your profile picture.

Step 2: Tap “Delete note.” Note: There is no confirmation window. Once you tap “Delete note,” the note will be deleted.

Black-owned media and tech company Hero Media launched its own social platform, GoodFeed, catering its content toward women-identifying audiences. The platform launched in October to select users and was made publicly available this week.

Similar to YouTube, users can create a channel to host editorial content like written articles, audio and videos.

Chief executive officer and founder Joe Anthony told Adweek his team worked on the tech for GoodFeed while its front end was steered entirely by women from Hero, like vp of social media Theresa Myrill spearheading its marketing strategy and steering its content strategy is content director Donette Lowe. According to Hero, it’s aiming to have the platform available on Android and Apple by the first half of 2023.

“At its core, it’s women impacting women,” Anthony told Adweek. “And not to sound cliché, it’s for women, by women,” he added. “You see Twitch, Clubhouse or LinkedIn. Those are great examples of communities that have been built around a specific cultural idea,” Anthony told Adweek.

Anthony points to a study by Horizon Media and Blue Hour Studios from earlier this year that shows 91% of those surveyed aged 18 to 25 said there is no “mainstream” pop culture anymore and that subcultures are now the new demographic to the audience.

“A lot of these platforms have evolved in a direction that was outside of their core mission when they launched,” said Anthony drawing to how some platforms have grown to be harmful to the impressionable, younger audience in their pursuit of social status rather than using it as a learning tool.

For marketers, there’s a bigger worry: the possible user exodus from social platforms. With Elon Musk taking over Twitter as chief executive officer and owner, it’s forecasted that 30 million users are expected to leave Twitter over the next two years, in part of Musk’s pursuit of what he terms free speech.

Anthony told Adweek GoodFeed’s purpose is to align with today’s learning economy, where people are looking for college alternatives to prepare them for real life. It’s the driver behind the deals locked down with content creators Lauren Maillian, chief executive officer of nonprofit digitalundivided, music executive Alicia Gooding and trans rights activist Jodie Patterson who will all be launching channels in the new year. GoodFeed currently has a channel live with TV personality and journalist Dana Blair discussing all things lifestyle and her hair journey.

GoodFeed will monetize with ads. Hero is splitting the ad revenue 50/50 on a per-impression basis with creators and predicts the platform will generate at least $7 million in ad revenue in 2023 but it could “exponentially increase contingent upon how fast our community grows.” Anthony said the goal is to gain 200-250,000 users by end of 2023.

For now, programmatic will make up between 50 and 60% of its ad revenue but with plans to lean more towards direct partnerships with brands.

Sephora is one of the brands working with GoodFeed, said Anthony, adding that other brands will make content like starting their own channels on the platform.

Twitter once again tweaked its Community Notes crowdsourced fact-checking initiative, which was hatched as Birdwatch in January 2021.

The company said in a tweet, “In September, we began requiring that new contributors unlock the ability to write notes by first making valuable ratings. This increased average note quality so much that, today, we are retroactively requiring that all contributors meet these criteria in order to write notes.”

Twitter said users who were admitted to Community Notes prior to September and earned a rating impact score of five or higher, or a writing impact score of one or higher, will have their writing ability unlocked, while those who have not yet reached those levels will not earn writing ability until they do so.

The social network tweeted, “Contributors spend time and energy rating notes. Today’s change means that the typical note contributors see and rate will be of substantially higher quality, making better use of all of that time and energy.”

Instagram launched a Notes feature that allows users to share posts containing only text and emojis that will only be visible for 24 hours. Each Note can contain up to 60 characters. Rather than being public content, Notes will be shared with the audience the creator selects and will appear at the top of each user’s inbox in the Instagram mobile application.

Our guide will show you how to create Notes in the Instagram mobile app.

Note: These screenshots were captured in the Instagram app on iOS.

Step 1: Open your Instagram inbox and tap your profile picture near the top-left corner of the screen. You should see the text “Leave a note” under your profile picture.

Step 2: Type your desired Note in the “Share what’s on your mind…” text-entry field.

Step 3: Notes can be shared with one of two audiences: “Followers you follow back” or your “Close Friends.” Tap the audience you want to share this Note with under the text “Share with.” Note: By default, “Followers you follow back” is selected.

Step 4: When you’re done creating your Note, tap “Share” in the top-right corner of the screen to share it with your chosen audience.

TikTok is releasing a new feature aimed at providing clarity on why a specific video appeared in a user’s For You feed.

Users can go to the share panel on a video in the For You feed and tap “Why this video,” which will bring up reasons why that particular piece of content was recommended for them.

Those reasons may include:

• User interactions, such as content they watch, like or share; comments they post; or searches
• Accounts they follow or suggested accounts
• Content posted recently in their region
• Popular content in their region

TikTok said in a blog post Tuesday, “TikTok For You feeds enable people to discover an incredible diversity of ideas, creators, products and entertainment. Our system recommends content by ranking videos based on a combination of factors based on your activity on our app, which includes adjusting for things you indicate you’re not interested in. Our goal is to serve a range of relevant and entertaining content. To help people understand why a particular video has been recommended to them, we’re rolling out a new tool over the coming weeks.”

Building on its most recent official rollout of subscription service Twitter Blue, Twitter began a pilot test of Twitter Blue for Business with a select group of businesses.

A square company badge will appear next to the display name of businesses in the pilot, and Oreo already had some fun with that design element.

Individual users can subscribe to Twitter Blue for $8 per month on the web or $11 per month on iOS. No details were available on the subscription cost for Twitter Blue for Business, and the company no longer has a media relations department to respond to queries.

Companies subscribing to Twitter Blue for Business can link affiliated brands, businesses and individuals to the account, and those accounts will display a small badge of the parent company’s profile picture next to their blue or gold checkmark.

Twitter explained in a blog post, “By creating this connection, we’re making it possible for businesses to create networks within their own organizations—on Twitter. Businesses can affiliate their leadership, brands, support handles, employees or teams. Journalists, sports team players or movie characters can all be affiliated. You name it, we got it. Each affiliate will be verified and officially linked to their parent handle based on a list provided by the parent business. We will share any new criteria, pricing or process as we update them.”

The company added that it plans “to layer more value into the offering” in the future.