Instagram introduced new ways for people whose accounts have been hacked to resolve the issues and return to the platform, and it detailed steps it is testing to help prevent account hacking in the first place.

Users who are unable to login to their account can go to Instagram.com/hacked on desktop or mobile and choose from the following options: if they think they’ve been hacked, forgot their password, lost access to two-factor authentication or if their account has been disabled.

People with multiple accounts will be able to specify which one has been affected, and they will then be guided through a series of steps to regain access.

Instagram wrote in a blog post Thursday, “We know losing access to your Instagram account can be stressful, so we want to ensure that people have multiple options to get their accounts back if they lose access.”

In February, Instagram began testing a way for people who lost access to their accounts to ask their friends to confirm their identity so that they can regain access, and this option was rolled out globally Thursday, with users having the option to designate two Instagram friends.

The platform already removes accounts that its automated systems find to be malicious, including those that impersonate others, and it began testing warnings if an account that it suspects may be impersonating someone requests to follow a user.

In the coming months, it will do the same when an account that may be impersonating a business sends someone a direct message.

Finally, in order to help users determine whether accounts are authentic, the blue verified badge will be display in more places across the platform, starting with DMs and Stories and coming to feed soon.

On sister platform Facebook, Meta chief information security officer Guy Rosen and head of security policy Nathaniel Gleicher said in a Newsroom post Thursday that the company has been running a “small test” of live chat support, which was offered to more than 1 million people in nine countries in October, and Meta plans to expand the test to more than 30 countries.

Three other key areas Meta will address in 2023 are adding new on-platform protections, educating people to help them avoid compromise and increasing support when people are locked out of their accounts.

One-dozen official National Hockey League partners will host activations at the NHL Winter Classic Plaza Dec. 30 and 31, with newcomers including BioSteel, Caterpillar, DraftKings, Extreme Networks and Fanatics.

The Pittsburgh Penguins will visit the Boston Bruins at Fenway Park, home of Major League Baseball’s Boston Red Sox, Monday, Jan. 2, at 2 p.m. ET, for the Discover NHL Winter Classic game.

The NHL Winter Classic Plaza is a free, non-ticketed ticketed fan festival that will take place Dec. 30 and 31 at Boston City Hall Plaza.

Scheduled activations include:

• BioSteel: Fans can show off their best move at the #BioSteelNextGenMove Mini Rink and hydrate with samples of BioSteel. Those who create and capture their signature move and share it via social platforms will have the chance to win BioSteel for one month for themselves and 19 of their teammates.
• Boston Bruins: Fans can compete in trivia, get their faces painted and meet members of the Boston Pride for autographs and photos.
• Caterpillar: Fans can shoot for prizes and learn about the company’s equipment and services.
• Discover: Fans can challenge each other on a 12-foot-by-24-foot air hockey table, check out memorabilia and premium items in a 20-foot 2023 Discover NHL Winter Classic drop trailer and pose for photos on Discover’s ice throne.
• DraftKings: Visitors 21 and older can grab a beer with NHL alumni at the DraftKings Chalet.
• Extreme Networks: Fans can test their skills at the Accuracy Challenge presented by Extreme Networks.
• Fanatics: Discover NHL Winter Classic apparel and products will be available for purchase at the NHL Official Merchandise Shop—A Fanatics Experience.
• Fastenal/MCR Safety: Fans can play cornhole and win free safety gear.
• Great Clips: Visitors can test their stick skills by shooting pucks into a stacked washer and dryer unit.
• Hockey Fights Cancer: The joint initiative between the NHL and the National Hockey League Players’ Association supports official charity partners the American Cancer Society and the Canadian Cancer Society.
• Honda: The official automotive partner of the NHL in the U.S. will display vehicles at Boston City Hall for fans to check out and let visitors try their luck at the Honda Puck Drop game or show off their hockey skills with Goalie Power Play to win prizes.
• NHL Fan Access App: The application features maps, the opportunity to win prizes, schedules and virtual assistant Ask Stanley.
• NHL Network: Fans can test their shooting skills with a target inflatable.
• Stanley Cup: Fans can take a photo with the most iconic trophy in professional sports Dec. 30 from 2:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. ET and Dec. 31 from 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.
• Truly Hard Seltzer: Visitors 21 and older can face off in bubble hockey games, take pictures in the interactive photo booth or enjoy the views from the rooftop deck.
• Upper Deck: The league’s exclusive trading card partner will create personalized 2023 NHL Winter Classic trading cards for fans.
• Verizon: Visitors can play digital game Scan, Play, Score, educating them about the company’s products and services and giving them the chance to win prizes.

TikTok released its third annual trend forecast Thursday, TikTok What’s Next Report 2023, aimed at giving marketers some insights into how consumers’ wants and needs will change in the upcoming year and how they should adjust their off- and on-platform strategies.

The video creation platform wrote in a blog post Thursday, “Throughout the past 12 months, the global TikTok community reimagined entertainment. They shared real, personal stories that brought communities together and helped others discover new ways of thinking. Brands of all sizes across the globe—from #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt favorites to global car manufacturers—have created all kinds of content on TikTok to engage their communities.”

TikTok shared its findings in what it called three forces—”large-scale transformations that demonstrate how TikTok is shaping culture”—and the relevant signals that show emerging behaviors and interests across vertical sectors.

The three major trend forces the platform sees for 2023 are: Actionable Entertainment, Making Space for Joy and Community-Built Ideals.

Actionable Entertainment

Four out of five TikTok users said the platform is very or extremely entertaining, and content is curated based on what communities find to be entertaining, so the most effective messages from brands have been uplifting, funny and personalized or entertaining.

TikTok said brands can turn to editing techniques such as syncing sounds to transitions or adding text overlays to retain viewers’ attention.

The company called out e.l.f. Cosmetics, saying that its in-feed ads on TikTok “felt fun, engaging and native to the TikTok community, and adding that it worked with Tinuiti, a TikTok Marketing Partner, to effectively double spending month-over-month while dropping acquisition costs for its add-to-cart strategy by 56%.

Making Space for Joy

TikTok research found that 90% of users who took an action off-platform as a result of TikTok said the application makes them happy and never gets boring, so brands should ensure that their messaging in 2023 and beyond aligns with the TikTok community’s desire for levity and empowers them to add joy to their lives.

“Creating TikTok content that helps people carve out joy for themselves—or even provides joy through humor, relaxation and relatable points of view—could be the difference for brands in 2023,” the company wrote.

The platform put the spotlight on BMW and the custom song the automaker crafted with K-pop artist and TikTok creator Henry, which used sounds from the BMW eDRIVE, such as plugging in the electric charger or tapping on the hood.

The hashtag challenge associated with that initiative resulted in more than 45 million video views from 3,400 participants, as well as 6.29 million engagements.

Community-Built Ideals

TikTok pointed to how communities on its platform let people share hyper-niche interests, bond with each other and broaden each other’s horizons, saying the platform is 1.8 times more likely than traditional social platforms to introduce people to new topics they didn’t know they liked.

The company wrote, “TikTok is not a town hall meeting. It’s a collection of tiny clubs where people can find new ideas on how to explore their passions and live their lives … People use TikTok to start conversations in their community and find unique answers to satisfy their every curiosity. And it’s not just about learning and aspiration. It’s about individuals from around the world coming together to build a likeminded community built on shared ideals and interests, and the inspiration that comes from them.”

The #SneakerTok community has tallied more than 1.1 billion views worldwide, and TikTok said more than two out of five users said watching creator content made them feel like part of the brand’s community, so brands should “tap into niches and not be afraid to get specific. Once a brand understands its key groups, it can then amplify the voices that define them and augment those honest, authentic conversations that people care about.”

eBay tapped TikTok’s Voting Stickers to encourage users to vote in its annual #SneakerShowdown, and 1.2 million of them did so, with the campaign delivering a 54% lift in comment rate.

TikTok global head of business marketing Sofia Hernandez said in the blog post, “2022 was the year people realized they didn’t have to live their lives as they always have done, with different points of view and ideas transcending cultures on TikTok. Next year, we’re going to see more of this as our communities get more confident and inspire positive change together. Against the backdrop of the increasing cost of living and its associated challenges, our What’s Next report indicates that people will be seeking new ways to achieve success, happiness and wellbeing—and TikTok will be a tool to help them find it.”

The tidal wave of changes in the Elon Musk era at Twitter is heading toward the platform’s third-party developer community, as the Twitter Toolbox initiative that debuted in February will be shuttered Dec. 15.

Ivan Mehta of TechCrunch reported that developers involved in the project received emails earlier this week that read, “Thank you for being part of the Twitter Toolbox pilot program. We’ve made a difficult decision to sunset Twitter Toolbox, effective Dec. 15.”

Twitter introduced Twitter Toolbox in February as a way to showcase a set of low-cost, easy-to-use tools built by its developer community for use by anyone.

Twitter Toolbox was organized into three categories.

• Expression tools at launch were Buffer, which lets users organize, plan and schedule content; Chirr App, a way to write and schedule Twitter threads; and Thread Reader, which enables easy reading and sharing of threads.
• Measurement tools providing access to several types of analytics came from Blackmagic.so, Direcon, Follwerwonk, Ilo and Tweepsmap.
• And safety tools to give users access to moderation capabilities came from Block Party, Bodyguard and Moderate.

Twitter is also pausing its pilot test of tiles, an updated version of Twitter cards, which let developers and publishers include customized formats with a tweet by automatically rendering elements such as a button, image, text or video when a URL was posted.

Mehta shared an email Twitter sent to a developer, which said, “We’ve concluded that the best path at this time is to pull back from this pilot and pause broader experimentation efforts related to tweet tiles. We still believe this product concept can offer value to our users and developers like you. We’ll continue to consider this work as we undergo 2023 planning and may opt to revisit it next year.”

The Twitter Chirp Developer Conference—which had been scheduled for Nov. 16 after not being held since April 2010—was canceled shortly after Musk took over the company in late October.

Meta is switching the focus of the process of creating applications for its platform from a product-focused approach to App Use Cases, starting this week with Facebook Login.

Meta Reality Labs product manager Stephanie Curran explained in a blog post that the product-focused app creation process required developers to designated an app type and then individually request permission to API (application-programming interface) endpoints, which developers found to be confusing and difficult to navigate.

“With App Use Cases, user permissions and features will be bundled with each use case so that developers can now confidently select the right data access for their needs,” she wrote. “This change sets developers up for success to create their app and navigate app review, ensuring they only get the exact data access they need to accomplish their goals.

Why should grown-ups have all the fun? Personalized video messaging platform Cameo is thinking of the children Thursday.

Cameo teamed up with Candle Media to launch Cameo Kids, which lets parents and other loved ones book personalized videos for their kids from family entertainment stars, starting at $25.

Next-generation media company Candle Media acquired digitally native kids’ entertainment company Moonbug Entertainment last November, and Cameo Kids will debut with animated characters from the Moonbug portfolio including Blippi from Blippi Wonders and JJ, Cody, Cece and Nina from CoComelon.

They are joined at launch by Thomas from Mattel’s Thomas the Tank Engine, True from Netflix’s True and the Rainbow Kingdom and an animated Santa Claus.

Cameo said it will work with existing and new partners to expand Cameo Kids’ roster of characters and franchises on a rolling basis.

At launch, people can book personalized videos on Cameo Kids for key moments such as birthdays and holidays, as well as daily routines like bedtime and general messages of love and encouragement, and the company said more daily routines, new milestones and seasonal holidays will be added in the coming months.

Cameo Kids marks Cameo’s first investment in family entertainment, and the company said it created a dynamic booking form, external application-programming interfaces and quality control tools so that its partners can seamlessly onboard and manage animated characters.

Cameo co-founder and CEO Steven Galanis said in a statement, “We’ve seen jaw-dropping fan reactions to Cameo videos over the past few years, including truly wowed children, so we’re excited to spread even more of that joy with this new offering. Candle Media and Moonbug helped bring this to life by partnering with us to launch some of the biggest names in children’s entertainment and create endless possibilities for new characters and creative product use cases. We’re building a platform where families can get their kid’s favorite star to not just know their name, but share support for every important moment in their child’s life—big and small.”

Candle Media co-founders and co-CEO’ Kevin Mayer and Tom Staggs added, “The creator economy is driven by opportunities for fans to engage directly with their favorite personalities, and we are thrilled to partner with Cameo to allow parents and loved ones to create personalized Cameo videos featuring many of our most popular animated characters from Moonbug and, over time, additional Candle brands and franchises.”