The biggest WhatsApp privacy update in years is officially underway. WhatsApp is finally shifting away from phone numbers and introducing usernames, giving its three billion users an entirely new way to connect securely.

But with username reservations going live this week, the clock is ticking to claim your digital identity before the scramble begins. While the platform is offering first dibs to users wishing to port over their existing Facebook or Instagram handles, unreserved names are up for grabs.

Here is how to beat the global rush, navigate the new settings, and secure your WhatsApp username right now.

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Users experienced issues across multiple services like Reddit, X, Canva, Zoom — giving it a serious feeling of another mass-internet outage.

At around 9:40 a.m. this morning, thousands flocked to Downdetector to report issues with the popular sharing website, and other services like X followed shortly after.

During this time, we suspected it could be something to do with Cloudflare's routine server maintenance in New Jersey, as the company's status page notes it could cause latency and connection issues.

We received an email from Cloudflare's PR firm saying that there was nothing on its end that would cause an outage, and instead said, "Zayo, a network provider, is experiencing an outage on some of its network routes. That may cause some sites using Zayo exclusively to be unreachable, whether they use Cloudflare or not."

We'll keep a close eye on it ourselves, but if you spot any issues, let us know!

Live outage updates

Reports are coming in fast

We're seeing around 2,200 reports on Reddit at the moment, which is a large number in a very short time. It's too early to say if this outage will last, but it definitely seems that large quantities of Reddit users are having problems.

Part of something larger?

While Reddit was the first major service to see a large Downdetector spike, we also noticed several services jumping, including Teams, Whatnot, Crunchyroll, Toast and tons of others.

We're also seeing spikes in reports to Cloudflare and AWS, two services that are the backbone of much of the internet. We've looked into AWS and found it to be a false flag at this point. Cloudflare's status page shows it's performing maintenance at its EWR (Newark) data center.

"Traffic might be re-routed from this location, hence there is a possibility of a slight increase in latency during this maintenance window for end-users in the affected region. For PNI / CNI customers connecting with us in this location, please make sure you are expecting this traffic to fail over elsewhere during this maintenance window as network interfaces in this datacentre may become temporarily unavailable."

This could certainly explain why services like Reddit are having issues.

Current Cloudflare status

Reddit still showing all systems operational

Something seems to be happening on the backend that's causing problems for Reddit, which started this whole ordeal, but the company hasn't acknowledged it yet. The company's status page still shows "All Systems Operational," despite thousands of Downdetector reports suggesting otherwise.

That's a lot of X reports

Currently, X has around 33,000 reports on Downdetector, which is a shockingly high number.

It's not surprising that X would have the most reports, though, as it's the most popular service among those dealing with issues at the moment.

Reddit declining

The reports for Reddit are starting to drop (X is still climbing), but it could mean that some of the traffic is being rerouted to other servers successfully (if that is ultimately what's causing the problems).

Cloudflare's on the case

We've been thinking these outages could be tied back to some scheduled maintenance of Cloudflare's datacenter in Newark. The company's just updated its system status saying they are "investigating increased error rates and latency in multiple services."

With all of these services taking a dip, looks like they may have resolved it already. But we'll test it ourselves!

X outage reports are dropping like a stone

Hope you enjoyed your time away from X — the feed is loading for me and outage reports on Down Detector are going down sharply!

And there goes Zoom

Had a nice Zoom call with my family who are on vacation at the moment to test it — can confirm it's working and outage reports are dropping off too!

We're calling it!

And with a confirmation of a fix being implemented by Cloudflare and all the service outage reports for X, Zoom, Reddit and more dropping all the way back down, we're calling it.

My guess is it could've been a bit of a kettling scenario. The routine maintenance caused some latency issues, that caused more people to refresh more regularly/check the pages. An increase in traffic to an already re-routed datacenter causes more pressure on the re-routed server and here we are.

Facebook users started seeing more problems today, June 18, less than a week after users were unable to log into the social network.

Reports started to spike on DownDetector at 6:30 am ET / 11:20 am BST with over 1,000 users reporting problems. According to the reports, 80% of affected users claimed there was an issue the Facebook app loading.

Earlier this week, Facebook's parent company Meta experienced issues for around four hours that also impacted other services like Instagram and WhatsApp. Today's problems lasted little more than a couple of hours and seemed to affect primarily Android users. It could have been due to an update to Facebook's Android app that was released yesterday.

Here's how our coverage of the reports unfolded:

Full recap

Reports surge past 1,000 on DownDetector

Our clearest picture that there's some trouble at Facebook comes from the website DownDetector, which has suddenly shown a spike of over 1,000 users reporting trouble with the social network. Less than a week ago, similar problems hit Facebook for over four hours.

New York, Chicago and Dallas

Most of the reports of Facebook's troubles on DownDetector appear to be coming from three main cities: New York, Chicago and Dallas. If you're based in one of those regions and are having trouble accessing your Facebook profile right now — let us know!

Meta isn't reporting anything, yet

Meta doesn't have a status page for its consumer products, so we can't see if there's anything officially amiss, but it does run an equivalent for its business products. As we can see at the time of writing, there are no reported problems there.

So, if people are experiencing issues this morning, it may be a more localized problem and one that hasn't touched Meta's central nervous system yet. We'll keep circling back to this page and let you know if there are any updates.

Instagram and WhatsApp unaffected

While we're seeing reports spike across Facebook, there seemingly aren't any issues with Meta's other services at present. Instagram, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and Threads all appear to be working normally.

Facebook failing to load?

When issues started to occur for Facebook earlier in the week, users trying to access the app were bumped right out to the login screen of the app. This affected the app both on Android and iOS.

I'm based in London in the U.K. and — for me at least — the app appears to be working as normal. If you're seeing something different, let me know in the comments.

Reports are starting to slip

This could be little more than a blip for just a few folks. The reports on DownDetector — while still north of 1,000 — are starting to slip. Sometimes this can indicate the issues were only very temporary.

They could be a result of a small update or configuration change that's been pushed through by Meta that's caused a hiccup in servers along the network.

It could be an Android issue

Android users may be feeling today's Facebook problems more than iPhone users. One commentator on DownDetector says that the issue is persisting on their Samsung Galaxy Note 20.

If that's the case then it could be that the problems being reported today are specific to one particular app version rather than anything more widespread.

Reports falling, but users report problems on X

Reports are continuing to decrease sharply on DownDetector right now — falling down to below 800. Usually, if there are prolonged issues we would expect to see another small spike occurring right now but that hasn't happened.

Users are still reporting problems with the service over on X/Twitter. But this looks very much like it could just be a flash in the pan.

Are you having problems with Facebook this morning?

A problem we're seeing reported is that users are able to log into the Facebook mobile app for a few seconds before it then bounces them back out again to the login screen.

It seems like reports are starting to subside, so this might not be an ongoing problem but if you're experiencing an outage on Facebook today, let us know in the poll below. We'll continue to monitor the situation as it unfolds.

How to clear your Facebook cache

If these recent problems with Facebook have got you concerned about how the app is running, one thing you can do to juice up the performance is clear your cache.

Providing you can access Facebook's app, you'll need to tap Menu > Settings & Privacy > Settings. Then, under the Preferences section, tap Browser, then select Clear next to Cookies and Cache.

Less than 500 DownDetector users now reporting problems

Reports on DownDetector have now sunk to below 500 reports and there's been no official statement from Meta on any problems with its app.

A quick glance at the Play Store shows the Facebook Android app was given an update yesterday, June 17, so it's highly likely that it has caused some teething problems with Android users. Especially if those users own older devices. For the vast majority of Facebook users, it appears that the social network is operating as normal today.

Calling time on today's outage

We can call time on today's outage as reports have dwindled to under 100 on DownDetector, and the comments on social media have dried up. Unlike the outage earlier in the week, this one was just a blip. We can all rest comfortably now that Facebook is back up and running — thanks for reading along, everyone.

Starting around 9:30 am ET, multiple Meta services suddenly stopped working, including Instagram, Facebook, and Messenger. From what we can tell, WhatsApp, also owned by Meta, was not affected.

Initially, it was hard to track since the outage tracking site Downdetector appeared to be having issues as well. However, that resolved soon enough and we were able to see reports hit highs of 110,000 for Facebook, 15,000 for Messenger, and 10,000 for Instagram.

In total, the outage lasted for about four hours, though some services came back quicker than others. The Facebook and Messenger outage only lasted for an hour.

Instagram unfortunately took longer to resolve.

Meta doesn't have a specific status page for the three services, but there is one for the developers and business accounts. We were able to see "High Disruptions" in several parts, including Ads Manager. "We are aware of an issue that may be impacting ad delivery. Our engineering teams are aware and are actively looking to resolve the issue as quickly as possible," read the page.

Outside of the page, only Andy Stone, Meta's VP of Communications, made any kind of statement when he tweeted, "We're aware people are currently having trouble accessing our services. We're working on it." That was at 10 am ET. An hour later, he tweeted, "We're coming back, though it may take a bit of time for everything to be fully back to normal."

Otherwise, the company did not release a statement, and eventually things returned to normal around 1 pm Eastern.

Facebook, Instagram and Messenger are down — live outage updates

What's happening at Meta?

Meta services aren't working for many members of the Tom's Guide staff and we saw a spike in reports on Downdetector before the website stopped worked, so we're quite confident that something is off.

Meta acknowledges the issues

Facebook Ads manager is showing "High disruptions" as the status right now, which is a clean indication that something isn't right with the social network.

"We are aware of an issue that may be impacting ad delivery. Our engineering teams are aware and are actively looking to resolve the issue as quickly as possible," reads the Meta outage page.

Downdetector working?

It looks like Downdetector is back, which will make it a lot easier to keep track of this massive Meta outage.

Or is it?

When you click on a service on Downdetector, it's going to a 404 page. So while you can see the massive spikes in reports on the Downdetector homepage, we can't get any actual numbers.

What are users seeing?

Users trying to access Facebook right now aren't seeing much of anything. I just tried to log into my own profile and I was bumped right out to the login screen of the app. I tried to fire up the social network on both an Android phone and an iPhone and neither would load.

Are you having the same trouble? Let me know about it in the comments box below.

Meta's Status page is listing two incidents

When service outages like this happen, one of the best places to look for updates is the provider's own status check page. Unfortunately, Meta (which owns Instagram) doesn't have one for its consumer products.

However, there is a status page for its business tools, which does tell us the company is facing two incidents right now. Both Facebook Ads Manager and WhatsApp Business Platform are listed as facing "High Disruptions" while the rest of the company's services are apparently unaffected.

It's kind of working for me?

Sometimes, I can get Facebook and Instagram to load on my laptop and sometimes it just gives me a big Facebook and Instagram logo on a white page. There doesn't seem to be much predictability about it — sometimes I refresh and doesn't work and sometimes it does.

Hit the comments on this post and share your experiences with Meta services like Facebook, Instagram and Messenger and let us know what you're seeing and we might feature your comment in this live blog!

Now showing issues with all parts of Ads

Before, the Meta status page was only showing issues with serving ads, but now it's showing all three categories as having issues: Ads Creation and Editing, Ads Reporting and Ads Delivery all appear to be having problems, which is likely affecting Facebook and other platforms.

More Meta status issues popping up

Taking another dive into the Meta status page shows that more issues are popping up, now with Messenger. The Messenger API for Instagram and Messenger Platform are being reported as having "High Disruptions," which is obvious to anyone trying to use either service.

Still, it's nice to know that Meta is aware of the situation, though it hasn't offered a timeline for when we can expect things to be fixed.

Downdetector showing almost no reports

Downdetector is showing a giant drop in reports and then a small increase. Presumably, this is because no one could access Downdetector to report issues, but we'll keep monitoring to see if that's the case or if the outage is actually coming to a close.

Personally, I think it's the former, as Meta's status page is still showing everything being down, but we'll see.

Higher than they look

The visual graph is actually deceiving, as it looks like there are few reports at first glance. However, that's only because the peak was more than 100,000. Even with the dramatic decline, it's still at more than 12,000 reports.

Ad delivery fixed

Meta has apparently fixed Ad Delivery on its platforms. "We have recovered from an earlier outage impacting ad delivery across our platform, and services have now been restored. We apologize for any inconvenience that this may have caused," reads the status page.

'I can't access my profile'

According to a user on Downdetector, profile access is limited. "I can't access my profile, and I get an error "Unable to load" or something similar. I've tried both on mobile and PC, and I've also tried using the browser on my phone and computer. I still get the same error message," said user Brian Reid.

Instagram declining less

While the number of reports on Instagram didn't come anywhere close to the Facebook numbers, it didn't drop as much, either. It's currently still at more than 5,000 Downdetector reports.

Meta Business Suite joins the problem

Well, it looks like Meta Business Suite is the latest service to find itself on the Meta Status page. "We are aware that some people may be having trouble with messages in Inbox in Meta Business Suite. Our team is actively working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible," reads Meta's status page.

Like the other outages, Meta is working to resolve it, but there's no indication of how long it'll be down for.

Downdetector reports lower than they've been

Despite Downdetector working again for a little while, the reports are still trending downward, dropping by just over 4,000 as of this post.

Marketing and Graph API join

Marketing API and Graph API are now on the Meta Status page, showing as having "Medium Disruptions."

"We are recovering from an earlier outage impacting editing and creation for Marketing API, and services are in the process of being restored. We apologize for any inconvenience that this may have caused," says the status page.

Instagram is the highest

Currently, Instagram is the highest in terms of raw reports at 4,860. Facebook has dropped to around 2,400 and is down to just over 600.

"May take a bit of time" to get back to normal

Meta's Andy Stone said that everything is coming back about an hour ago.

"We're coming back, though it may take a bit of time for everything to be fully back to normal," Stone posted.

That does appear correct, as Facebook seems to have recovered. However, Instagram still seems to be having issues.

Reports take a steep dive

Starting around 9:00 am PT, reports on Down Detector started to decline but in the last 15 or minutes or so they've taken a steep dive.

As of this posting, I'm seeing 1500 reports, down from the steadier 5,000 earlier and the peak of 10,000 reports around 7:00 am PT.

Resolving issues

Meta doesn't really have a status page for Instagram or Facebook that we can use to get updates on what's happening with the social platforms.

However, the company does have a business status page for advertisers and developers that we can use to infer how things are going.

For example, previously, Facebook Ads was showing High Disruptions, but now it reads resolved.

That said, the developer platform is showing more issues but seems to be affecting more background APIs and business accounts.

Meta has remained mostly quiet

Beyond the two tweets from Meta's Andy Stone, the company has largely remained quiet about the outage.

And since Stone said the company was working on it he has also gone silent.

Fortunately, I suppose, it appears things are getting to normal.

Meta outage appears to be over

With reports finally under 500 reports for the first time today, it finally appears that the Instagram and Facebook outages are have pretty much resolved.

The Meta developer status page is basically green across the board.

Anecdotally, I've been able to access Instagram and Facebook fairly consistently for the last 15 minutes or so.

I will keep an eye on things for a little bit longer, but I am going to call it for now.

Instagram's new optional subscription plan is rolling out today, starting at $3.99 a month. Instagram Plus comes with "exclusive" features, which the social media platform says are for people who want "more control, deeper insights, and premium features."

In a blog post, Instagram announced that its Plus plan will be available globally.

The subscription plan is part of a trio of new paid offerings that include Facebook Plus and WhatsApp Plus. Instagram's Adam Mosseri posted a video saying you can sign up for it via your profile right now. He promised that the free version of the app will not change.

The plan gives you 11 new features. Here's what they are and how they work:

Sharing

For sharing, Plus gives your stories a higher priority to your friends. It also adds "Super Hearts," which are vibrant, animated hearts to cheer on your friends' stories.

You can make different Story audiences, meaning that you can share specific stories with specific groups of people. This is in addition to lists like the "close friends" tag that already exists.

Finally, you can extend your stories to last 48 hours and not just 24.

Insights

For those who care about the data, Plus gives you some very specific analytics. You can preview Stories without the need to react. You'll also be able to see how many times your stories were rewatched.

And if you need to, you can search through the list of people who viewed your stories.

Customization

With Plus, you can get a custom app icon from a curated selection designed by Instagram and some Instagram creators. Plus lets you customize the font in your profile bio.

On your profile, you can pin up to six posts, double the current amount for free accounts. Finally, you can post directly to your profile or highlights without them appearing in your friends' feeds if that's something you want.

Instagram says that all of these features are available at launch and promises that more features will come to Plus in the coming months.

Will you sign up for Instagram Plus? Let us know in the comments.

More from Tom's Guide

• Instagram's new 'instants' feature is driving users crazy. Here's how to disable it
• What is an instant on Instagram? How to use the latest feature that’s taking on Snapchat
• Meta and YouTube aren't the only ones who should be worried after landmark social media addiction ruling

Starting around 10:20 a.m. PT, the social platform Reddit appeared to suffer an outage.

On the tracking site Downdetector, 4,000 reports spiked with users mostly saying that "Old Reddit" was having issues. Though some comments suggested that "new" Reddit wasn't loading images properly.

Soon after the reports ballooned to more than 10,000, it eventually settled closer to 9,300.

Reddit was aware as the official status page listed the company as investigating the issue. It showed "degraded performance" across multiple sections of the site.

After about an hour, reports took a steep dive and settled below 500 when we called the outage. After the Reddit fix, images and and comments seemed to load normally.

Thousands of reports on Downdetector

On DownDetector, reports quickly spiked to around 10,000 before dipping back down a bit.

Comments on the site seem to indicate it's mostly affecting "Old reddit" but some people are saying that images are slow to load on the "new" reddit

Reddit is aware

The official Reddit status page shows that the company is investigating the issue.

Several operations show "degraded performance" including the desktop website, mobile app and and mobile website.

Reddit does appear laggy

Anecdotally, I am able to login to regular Reddit and browse.

However, comments are slow to popin and images take a moment. Usually I can see images in the main feed but those are only showing as links.

Going into subreddits I'm having a hard time loading older posts that aren't the most recent 5 or so.

Fix in the works

The Reddit status page just updated.

It now reads that the issue has been identified and a fix is being implemented.

"hile this is ongoing, you may encounter errors and general loading issues across feeds, posts, and search. Recently uploaded images and videos may not appear as expected," the site says.

What are you seeing?

Are you having any issues with Reddit today?

Let us know in the comments.

Reports declining but still high

Over on Downdetector, reports have dipped down to around 5,200 after a high of 9,300.

I am seeing some comments of people indicating that the platform appears to be yo-yoing between available and down.

One person blamed Microsoft's Azure going down as the cause. I can't verify that at this time and it doesn't appear the Azure is actively having issues from what I can see.

Outage may be over

On Downdetector, reports have steeply fallen to below 1,000.

However, the official reddit status page has yet to give the all clear.

We'll keep an eye on that in case anything changes.

Anecdotally, images and media seem to be loading normally for me. And comments and posts aren't lagging as they were previously.

Calling it

With reports under 500, and Reddit seemingly back to working properly.

The status page has not yet updated, but they may be waiting until it appears the fix is fully implemented on their end.

Instagram just added another way to share photos, and this one feels different. No filters, no editing, no carefully curated aesthetic. Just open the camera, snap what's in front of you, and send it to close friends or mutuals. They view it once, then it's gone.

Instants live in your DMs rather than your main feed or Stories. They're designed for the moments you'd text a photo to a friend but don't want permanently attached to your profile. Think of it as Instagram's answer to Snapchat or BeReal, but built directly into the app you're already using.

The feature sits tucked in the bottom corner of your inbox where most people haven't noticed it yet. Here's what Instants actually are and how to use them.

More from Tom's Guide

• Instagram now lets you schedule DMs — here's how to do it
• I asked ChatGPT to roast my Instagram feed — here's how you can too
• Want a faster TikTok? Here's how to clear your cache

Social media scams caused Americans to lose $2.1 billion in 2025, according to a new report from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The agency says that's an eightfold increase since 2020.

Of all the people who reported scams to the FTC in 2025, nearly 30% said the con started on social media. Meta-owned social media platforms dominated the scams, with Facebook claiming a majority of them. WhatsApp and Instagram were a "distant" second and third.

"In 2025, people reported losing far more money to scams on Facebook alone than they reported losing to text or email scams," the agency said.

Facebook was reportedly the originator of scams that cost consumers $794 million in lost money. WhatsApp and Instagram combined hit $629 million.

Three types of scams

Typically, these scams fit into one of three categories: investment, shopping, or romance. Contrary to popular belief, the malicious schemes affected every age group except individuals 80 and over, who were more likely to fall for phone call scams.

The FTC's data show that $1.1 billion was lost to fake investment scams in which people were duped by ads or posts offering programs that teach you how to invest. In some cases, the scammers posed as "friendly advisers" or created fake groups full of "successful investors" that led people to invest in false programs.

On the shopping front, 40% of people reported ordering an item they saw in an ad, ranging from clothing and cosmetics to car parts and even puppies. The ads would take users to unfamiliar websites that were used to capture their information. Some sites were fakes that claimed to offer big discounts on well-known brands.

As for romance scams, 60% of people who reported losing money said that it started on social media. In a classic scammer move, the thieves tailor their profile to match a person's profile. Eventually, a crisis would be invented that required the targeted individual to send money.

How to stay safe

The FTC has some advice to stay safe from online scams.

For one, never let someone you only know through social media direct your investment decisions. This is especially true if you maintain a public (not private) account.

Before you talk to new people on social media, you should first limit who can see your posts and contacts via the privacy settings. Be sure to set restrictions to give scammers less to pull from.

Also, before you purchase an item from an online ad, search the company name plus "scam" or "complaint" to see if they're legitimate.

Create a strong defense

Beyond the tips above, build yourself a strong defense by doing things like investing in one of the best identity theft protection services. Identity theft protection can help you get your life back together after an attack, whether it's lost money or a stolen sensitive number.

Additionally, you also want to protect your devices with the best antivirus software and best Android antivirus apps for your phones.

As with any topic, education is the best tool. Educate yourself by reading up on the latest scams and malware campaigns. That will help you know what signs to look out for, helping you be less likely to be a victim. Be sure to share your knowledge with friends and family to help them avoid falling victim to scams like these social medias one as well.

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• 100 million Mac users at risk: Hackers are hijacking ‘verified’ apps to sneak past your Mac’s security

Bluesky is having a rough day with reports spiking up and down all morning on the popular outage reporting website Downdetector. The graph went up and down for a bit before suddenly spiking to more than 2,000 reports.

For its part, Bluesky has acknowledged the outage on its status page, saying it is "investigating an incident with service in one of our reginos [sic]." It hasn't provided a timeframe for everything to come back yet, but we'll keep you posted as new information emerges.

Bluesky down — Live outage updates

The spike is spiking

While reports for Bluesky have risen and fallen all throughout the morning, it jumped to a much higher number at around 2,700 and then quickly dropped to 1,200. While it's lower than the peak, that's still a large number of reports and is definityely enough to think that something pretty serious is impacting Bluesky.

Bluesky acknowledges the outage

Bluesky was quick to acknowledge the issue on its status page, keeping its users up-to-date on what's happening with the popular social network.

Dropping like a stone

The reports are dropping fast on Downdetector, currently sitting around 450 as of this post.

Working fine for me

Bluesky is working well for me, so I'm not among the people still dealing with issues. But for those who are, hopefully the lower Downdetector report numbers means things are starting to come back to normal.

It seems to be just a couple of servers

According to the Bluesky status page, two servers are experiencing issues. It mentions that api.pop1.bsky.app and api.pop2.bsky.app are both down. "The response took so long that the connection timed out," reads the status page.

On the rise again...

And as quickly as the numbers went down, they started going up again on Downdetector. Presumably, the outage being limited to just a couple of servers means it's not hitting everyone, but as people are affected, they're logging into Downdetector to report that something isn't right.

This actually started hours ago

It's worth noting that while the biggest spike happened recently, this outage actually started more than 7 hours ago. It's an issue Bluesky has been working on for a long time, so hopefully, we're getting close to the end.

Outage won't quite end

Reports have yet to quite die down on the tracking site Down Detector. As of this posting, it's sitting at just 1,000.

However, the official status page still shows problems, but it hasn't been updated in a couple of hours.

Service status

According to the Bluesky status page, the two affected sections of the app are "api.pop1.bsky.app" and "api.pop2.bsky.app" both of which have been down for more than 11 hours.

It's not clear how much of the platform these two sections control. The status page shows percentages which seem to indicate that around half of the interactions are failing.

No changes

Update: We are investigating an incident with service in one of our regionsstatus.bsky.app

— @status.bsky.app (@status.bsky.app.bsky.social) 2026-04-16T18:47:12.520Z

The status and reports haven't really changed.

The most recent update I was able to find actually via Bluesky said that the platform is investigating an incident in an unnamed region.

Fixes ere deployed more than 5 hours ago but it appears they haven't totally solved the issues.

What I'm seeing right now

I am able to access my Bluesky feeds and it seems to be loading alright. However, clicking into individual posts takes a bit to load.

You can see how it looks in the image above.

Is Claude to blame?

Bluesky is made with AI, the engineers and even some non-engineers use Claude code

— @jay.bsky.team (@jay.bsky.team.bsky.social) 2026-04-16T19:19:34.043Z

Over the last couple of weeks, Anthropic's Claude has been a rollercoaster ride that seems to go down multiple times day. It's gotten to the point that you can't even track an outage because it starts and stops so quick.

And then there's this post from Bluesky CIO Jay saying that the company uses AI and Claude.

I'm wondering if that may be why the the app is having issues today. But that is admittedly, idle speculation.

A brief spike but it settled

For a minute, there was a brief spike of reports on Down Detector but that's gone down again. As of this writing, reports sit around 700 reports after hitting a recent high of 1500.

Beyond that, nothing appears to have changed.

Keeping an eye on things

We're going to limit updates here to something actually happening. It's largely been the same for the last six hours.

Unfortunately, whatever is plaguing Bluesky is still in there and things don't appear to be changing.

Now the status page is down

While reports and comments on Down Detector have remained largely the same, I have been able to access a very sluggish version of Bluesky.

However, just now, I tried the official status page and it is totally down.

I expect reports will jump soon as it seems Bluesky is having even more issues.

Calling it...for now

I still can't access the status page, but reports on Down Detector have dipped under 400 for the first time all day.

Meanwhile, the platform seems to be moving much faster and I can see replies again.

It started with the realization that I couldn’t focus for more than a few minutes without reaching for my phone. Not for anything urgent, but more for a fear of missing out. Whether it was for breaking news, a quick scroll, a text notification or anything else, it was all just a hit of dopamine.

I'm not alone. According to a report from the Washington Post, 66% of Americans use their phone within 10 minutes of waking up. The same report also suggests that if you pick up your phone more than 110 times a day, you may have a problem.

While I'm not counting, I knew I needed a reset. So, I asked ChatGPT to do something that I didn’t think would actually work: “Create a 48-hour dopamine detox plan to help me reset my focus.”

Had I known it wasn't going to give me a flip phone ultimatum, I would have done this a lot sooner. Instead of telling me to stay off social media forever, it created a structured path through the discomfort of "needing to know" or "being bored." I followed it exactly for a weekend. Here is the breakdown.

The 'Scaffold' prompt

To get a plan that actually worked, I didn't just ask for a "detox." I used a "scaffold prompt" to ensure the AI understood my professional constraints.

The prompt: "Create a 48-hour dopamine detox plan for a professional who cannot go 'dark' but needs to reset their focus. Prioritize 'low-dopamine' replacements for digital habits and include a schedule for 'Deep Work' blocks. Avoid extreme or 'monk-mode' suggestions; focus on realistic cognitive recovery."

What I got back were rules to lower the stimulation baseline. The AI’s plan focused on one core idea: Stop chasing the spike. To reset my attention span, I had to stop the constant flood of low-effort rewards.

ChatGPT's "No-Go" list for me:

• Social media: No "just checking" TikTok, IG or X.
• Background noise: No "comfort" music. This was insanely difficult at first because I always need music, TV a podcast or something in the background.
• The "check" reflex: Turning off all non-human notifications (apps, news alerts).

It then gave me a list of replacements. It suggested 60-minute single-tasking blocks and instead of scrolling during downtime, I needed to make my breaks more intentional. I filled them with low-stim activities such as walking without headphones and reading physical books.

I did not think I was going to make it. The first few hours were a wake-up call. I didn’t realize how "wired" I was until I tried to stop. Every time I hit a moment of friction — a slow paragraph or a pause between tasks — my brain screamed: “Check something.”

I had to actively catch myself dozens of times. It was a constant, itchy reflex. It revealed the uncomfortable truth: Most of my day was driven by habit, not intention.

The 35-hour mark

Once the 24-hour mark hit and I physically called friends and family to let them know I hadn't fallen off the planet, I felt a sense of relief. I wasn't feeling as anxious, but the urge to grab my phone didn't disappear. It did, however, get quieter. I had replaced the "noise" with cognitive endurance.

Another thing to note is that I wasn't suddenly a productivity superhero, but the "itch" to switch tabs every three minutes vanished. I could sit with a difficult task longer because there was no competing high-speed stimulation to run to. I was more present with everything. I enjoyed getting outside more, crafting and trying a few new recipes.

The 3 biggest shifts

• Increased attention: Without the distraction loop, the "resistance" to starting a new task dropped significantly. I was far more present, whether it was spending time with my kids or working on a personal project.
• Fragmented no more: My anxiety and scattered thoughts felt like a single beam rather than a fractured light. My focus was wildly better once I let go.
• Comfort in silence: By hour 40, I enjoyed the silence and felt like I was thinking clearer and feeling far less burned out.

Bottom line

At a time when traveling is expensive, this 48-hour project felt like a vacation. I felt like I had "gotten away" because I truly reset and regained focus. I hadn't realized how desperately I need this powerful system reboot.

And while a two day detox won't change a person's brain chemistry forever, it did offer a calmness that I hadn't felt for a while. My focus is better and I'm less tempted to pick up my phone because I enjoy things so much more without it.

The irony of using AI to guide the process is not lost on me. ChatGPT removed the "decision fatigue" of the detox itself — I didn't have to negotiate with myself; I just followed the plan it set for me.

It showed me exactly how much of my focus I was giving away for free and more importantly, how to take it back. If you try this prompt let me know how in the comments how you make out. I recommend trying it on a weekend so you can fully recharge.

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• I replaced my notes app with Gemini’s new Notebooks — and I’m not going back

A jury in Los Angeles has found Meta and YouTube negligent in a massive social media addiction trial. The jury determined the companies failed to warn users of the dangers of their social platforms.

It's the first domino to fall in a series of trials that have been described as the "Big Tobacco" moment for social media.

Today's trial began in late January in the Los Angeles Superior Court. Meta and YouTube were sued by a young woman, identified as K.G.M or Kaley, who alleged that she became addicted to Instagram and YouTube as a child. Jury deliberations started more than a week ago on March 13.

The jurors ruled in favor of Kaley with compensatory damages assessed at $3 million. Meta must pay 70% of that, with YouTube on the hook for the remaining 30%. The trial is moving into punitive damages soon, which could get substantially higher.

"Today's verdict is a historic moment — for Kaley and for the thousands of children and families who have been waiting for this day," attorneys representing the plaintiff said in a statement after the verdict. "She showed extraordinary courage bringing this case and telling her story in open court. A jury of Kaley's peers heard the evidence, heard what Meta and YouTube knew and when they knew it, and held them accountable for their conduct."

Meta has promised to appeal the verdict. "We respectfully disagree with the verdict and are evaluating our legal options," a spokesperson said after the Los Angeles trial.

'Deliberately keeping kids hooked'

Common Sense Media founder and CEO James P. Steyer praised the verdict calling it a "powerful recognition."

"Social media companies deliberately design their platforms to keep kids hooked, consequences to their mental and physical health be damned. The momentum for change is no longer building. It's here," said Steyer in a statement to Tom's Guide.

Throughout the LA trial, both companies denied the plaintiff's claims. Kaley alleged that she suffered from severe body dysmorphia, depression, and suicidal thoughts brought on by near-constant use of the apps and the deluge of notifications from them. Attorneys for the giant tech firms implied that a turbulent childhood and family life were responsible for her mental health issues, while she used the apps as a coping mechanism.

Today’s verdict marks a significant blow to social networks who are already under the microscope from parents, lawmakers, and educators," said Emarketer analyst Minda Smiley:

"For years, social media companies have claimed they’re hard at work making their platforms safer for kids and teenagers. Critics have long been skeptical that they’re acting in good faith—or that their efforts are having a material impact. This verdict could mark the start of a difficult new chapter for social platforms, one where the rules they write for themselves no longer cut it."

Meta and YouTube claimed that they take safety and health concerns seriously. That's a hard pill to swallow after Meta was accused of suppressing child safety research last year.

"Social media giants would never have faced trial if they had prioritized kids' safety over engagement," Steyer noted. "Instead, they buried their own research showing children were being harmed, and used kids and society as guinea pigs in massive, uncontrolled, and wildly profitable experiments."

The trial saw testimony from seveal high-level executives including Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Instagram head Adam Mosseri, and YouTube's VP of engineering Cristos Goodrow. Mosseri claimed that the the apps were not "clinically addictive" during his testimony.

Meta faces more trials

Meta faces a series of trials across the country about the safety of its platforms. This week, jurors in Santa Fe, New Mexico determined that Meta willfully violated the state's unfair practices. New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez alleged that the company failed to safeguard its apps from online predators who targeted children.

Reuters reported that the company will have pay $375 million for violating New Mexico laws. “The jury’s verdict is a historic victory for every child and family who has paid the price for Meta’s choice to put profits over kids’ safety,” Torrez said in a statement.

The state is urging Meta to implement changes to its apps including "enacting effective age verification, removing predators from the platform, and protecting minors from encrypted communications that shield bad actors."

The New Mexico case revealed internal employee messages where employees discussed some 7.5 million child sexual abuse material reports that would disappear after Zuckerberg's 2019 decision to make Facebook Messenger have end-to-end decryption by default.

“There goes our CSER [Community Standards Enforcement Report] numbers next year,” an employee wrote in December 2023 according to a filing.

“I care about the wellbeing of teens and kids who are using our services,” Zuckerberg said in Los Angeles, according to CNBC.

Apple and Snap are also on the hook

Meta and YouTube aren't the only high-profile companies facing major trials over child safety.

As CNBC reports, Apple is on trial in West Virginia over allegations by the state attorney general, John McCuskey, that the company failed to prevent CSAM from being stored on iOS devices and iCloud.

Apple said in a statement that “protecting the safety and privacy of our users, especially children, is central to what we do.”

Additionally, Snapchat and TikTok were originally part of the LA trial before settling with the plaintiff. A separate federal trial is supposed to kick off in Northern California this year involving all four companies over claims from school districts and parents that the apps foster detrimental mental health harms on children and teens.

Like the series of trials Big Tobacco faced in the 1990s that saw billions in payments, this could be a pivotal year for social media platforms and the companies behind them.

It could lead to similar legal changes that fundamentally alters how these companies operate.

"This verdict, along with other recent court rulings, should embolden lawmakers in California and across the country to use their authority to force real change in how these companies design and operate their products," Steyer said.

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• I hate YouTube ads – and I just discovered how to get rid of them without an ad-blocker
• Meta just snapped up Moltbook, the ‘Reddit for AI’ — what you need to know

For roughly one chaotic hour today, DownDetector.com saw a massive spike in reported issues with Elon Musk's X platform (formerly Twitter).

Right around 11 a.m. ET/ 3 p.m. UK time on Wednesday, March 18, a dramatic spike appeared on the DownDetector website (where users submit reports of issues with all kinds of platforms and services). It's the third potential in as many months, too; we previously reported users were having issues with X about a month ago, on February 16.

See our coverage of the outage below.

A major spike

As described above, we've just seen a dramatic influx of users reporting issues with X.com, with over 14000 registered around 11 a.m. ET (3 p.m. UK time, as shown in the graph above).

Tom's Guide staff experiencing X.com issues

While I'm getting up to speed on the potential X.com outage, I asked my TG colleagues to check if they were experiencing issues, and the first one to jump in with an answer was Computing Managing Editor Jason England, who supplied the below screenshot showing he's not able to access his feed:

StatusGator reports potential outage, too

Alongside DownDetector, I also checked StatusGator, and, likewise, it also indicates that there are potential problems with the platform, too, with user reports indicating issues like the app not loading or receiving error messages.

Looks like there are X.com issues across the US

Turning back to DownDetector once again, I pulled up their heat map, which indicates they're receiving reports from users across the US, with particular hotspots in major cities like Los Angeles, New York and Chicago.

Over 25,000 reports now

Reports continue to pour in; last time DownDetector's data refreshed, it was displaying over 26,000 reports of issues with the platforms. Seems like this must be a widespread issue.

Dropping rapidly already

Almost as quickly as that spike started, it's dropped significantly; we're already back down around 14,600 user reports.

Just a blip?

Looks like whatever potential issue there may have been (if there was one) could be dealt with. I'm continuing to see the spike trending back down: we're already under 1000 reports once again, and colleagues are telling me they are seeing their X.com feeds once more. Just a blip?

Anecdotally, I did see other users asking whether there were issues with the platform on Reddit, too.

Almost back to normal

With Down Detector now showing fewer than 500 reported issues with X, it's safe to call today's outage resolved. That said, we'll continue to monitor the numbers and update you if things take a sudden turn in the opposite direction.

Happy tweeting!

All clear

Thanks for following our live coverage of today's X/Twitter outage. With reported issues remaining well under 1,000 for the past ~30 minutes, things seem to be largely back to normal.

Feel free to stop by the gift shop on your way out to pickup a limited edition "I survived the great X/Twitter outage of March 18, 2026" t-shirt and other accessories.

A powerful oversight group is warning that AI-generated videos are spreading too easily on Meta’s platforms — and they’re becoming increasingly difficult for users to recognize. While the more fun and innocent AI generated cat videos flooding your feed are easy to spot, others aren’t as easy to detect.

In a new decision, the Oversight Board urged the company to strengthen its policies and detection tools for AI-generated content, particularly realistic deepfake videos that can spread misinformation during major global events.

The Oversight Board is affiliated with Meta but was set up as a "body of experts from around the world that exercises independent judgment and makes binding decisions on what content should be allowed on Facebook and Instagram."

The recommendation follows a review of a fake AI-generated video depicting destruction in Israel, which circulated online and highlighted gaps in Meta’s current moderation systems.

According to the board, Meta’s existing approach relies too heavily on users labeling AI-generated content themselves — a system that can easily fail when misleading videos go viral before moderators catch them.

Why deepfakes are getting harder to detect

Advances in generative AI have made it dramatically easier to create realistic video, audio and images that appear authentic at first glance.

Modern AI video tools can now generate footage with convincing lighting, motion and voice synchronization. As these tools improve, the line between authentic and synthetic media is becoming increasingly blurred.

That’s part of what worries experts.

When highly realistic AI videos spread during wars, disasters or elections, they can quickly shape public perception before fact-checkers have time to respond.

What the Oversight Board wants Meta to do

The board has warned that current policies were largely designed for traditional misinformation — not the new wave of highly convincing generative AI media. For that reason, it's recommending several changes designed to slow the spread of deceptive AI media:

• Create clearer rules specifically for AI-generated content
• Improve automated detection tools for deepfakes
• Label AI-generated media more clearly
• Adopt industry standards like Content Credentials, which can show whether media was created or modified using AI

Bottom line

Meta isn’t the only platform grappling with the issue. Because AI video generation tools are available for free such as Gemini, Grok and Sora, anyone with a device can now generate realistic videos in minutes.

For users, the challenge may only grow harder: the next viral video you see online could look real — even if it isn’t. If you're unsure, try using chatbots like Gemini, which can detect AI generation or dig deeper with Deep Research for the source of the video. Staying vigilant and doing your own due diligence is one of the best ways to avoid getting tricked by a deepfake.

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• I use this ChatGPT ‘alpha prompt’ to make stronger arguments — here’s the exact prompt
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Last night, I finally watched the “San Junipero” episode of “Black Mirror” with my fiancée. I’ll admit, I was in a flood of tears for the final 15 minutes — the “Heaven is a Place on Earth” montage providing a beautifully rare moment of optimism in showing a story of how love transcends the physical.

I saw this firsthand when my Grandma, who had been the pillar of care for my Grandad for years, passed away. He followed her only weeks later. It was as if, without her physical presence, the narrative of his life had reached its natural conclusion.

There is a biological rhythm to how we say goodbye — one that feels violently interrupted by the idea of a Meta-branded ghost pinging a phone from the cloud. Minutes after the credits rolled, I picked up my phone and saw the headline. Zuck & Co. has been granted a patent for an AI system designed to simulate “deceased or inactive” users.

Reading the details of the patent itself terrified me. The idyllic user-centric digital afterlife of “San Junipero” and shows like “Upload” came crashing down with the realization that in our world, this afterlife is being built by the company that already treats your living self as a data point.

The patent and the 'empty promise'

The patent was originally filed in 2023 by Meta’s CTO, Andrew Bosworth, and approved in late December of last year. He’s been the one talking up a storm about Meta’s future in Quest VR. It describes an LLM (Large Language Model) trained on your likes, comments, and posts to simulate you when you’re absent from a social network.

The two examples it brings up are “when the user takes a long break or if the user is deceased.” But wait, it gets worse! Simulating you means being able to respond to DMs, comment on photos, and even generate audio/video calls in your likeness. Just imagine getting that notification on your Instagram or that WhatsApp call.

Now to balance this, a Meta spokesperson did reach out to Business Insider and said that the company has “no plans to move forward with this example.” But I’d like to test that with a couple of examples.

• Tesla’s patent pledge: Elon Musk once famously said that Tesla “will not initiate patent lawsuits against anyone who, in good faith, wants to use our technology.” A noble act on first sight, but one look at the fine print shows that the pledge is so restrictive, it’s more of a PR move than actual open-sourcing.
• “Don’t be Evil”: Tech giants like Google (who has this mantra) have promised to keep user data separate or use technology only for specific “altruistic” purposes. When Google bought DoubleClick’s digital marketing tech around 2007, it promised to not merge them — only to quietly change that policy in 2016.
• Even Meta itself: There’s too many to count. The promise that WhatsApp data would never be merged when Meta bought it in 2014, only to see a 2021 privacy update that shares data. Or most recently, Meta shutting down its facial recognition tech in 2021, only to see it being reintroduced this year as “Name Tag” for the Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses.

I’ll take Meta at its word on this, but a patent is an asset. Companies don’t spend millions securing technology or the legal right to it, just to let it sit in a drawer. History has shown that they are “claiming the territory” for when the public becomes desensitized enough to accept it.

You are the product

This is one of the biggest lessons I learned, and one of the driving forces to me moving from digital marketing/advertising to becoming a tech journalist. Meta’s products are “free” to you, but the price is the extraction of your behavior to sell to advertisers (like me in a past life).

Usually, that relationship ends when you die. Your privacy agreement is severed because there’s no-one on the other end. But with this patent, Meta’s found a way to extend that user lifecycle indefinitely.

Because you see, contrary to the harrowingly beautiful plot of “San Junipero,” Meta’s not building a digital heaven for you, they could build a “ghost worker” to keep your friends and family seeing/clicking on ads.

Grief is monetized — given Meta’s not new to running emotion experiments on its platforms and through my years of eye-opening experience on just how I’ve been able target people with ads in the past, it’s grim how unsurprised I am by this realization.

'Digital afterlife' is not a new trend

Now it’s worth me saying that this whole idea of digital reanimation isn’t a new one. Meta’s not alone in this.

Microsoft filed a patent for a similar chatbot back in 2021 that would use “images, voice data, social media posts, electronic messages [and] written letters” to build a profile you can talk to. By the way, Microsoft leadership did then go on to say that this idea was “disturbing.”

Companies like StoryFile, HereAfter AI and Afterlife AI allow people to record data to create interactive versions of themselves for when they pass away. In fact, researchers say that the digital immortality market could be worth $61 billion by 2030.

That is a giant pie that Meta has essentially positioned itself to take a slice of — the main difference being that while the above services are opt-in and focused on legacy, this patent suggests an automated simulation based on a lifetime of social media data you never intended for this purpose.

Wasn’t Black Mirror supposed to be a cautionary tale?

Now, I know that the first thing to do here is think of “Black Mirror” as a dystopian warning about the future of tech. But in creator Charlie Brooker’s own words, it’s a little deeper than that.

“Well the show isn't saying tech is bad, the show is saying people are f***ed up,” Brooker told GamesRadar. The point of the show is that the tech is neutral, but it’s how the people use it that creates the real tension.

I came out of watching “San Junipero” with an unexpected sense of warmth and happiness — seeing a digital dimension created for love that transcends our physical beings, but there are plenty of harrowing warnings dotted throughout this episode (and in others too).

Companies like Meta seem to treat “Black Mirror” as a product roadmap rather than a warning. The soul of the technology in this episode is ignored, while the patent focuses on the “monetizable simulation.” That scares me, and after all I’ve seen in my tech reporting career, it takes a lot to scare me.

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Starting at around 1:55 p.m. ET, Pinterest users were reporting outages with the popular pinning service. By 2:15 p.m., there were about 3,549 reports on the tracking website Downdetector, but they've since subsided.

Pinterest users were reporting a wide range of issues, including boards not loading properly, data-retrieval errors, and other glitches. Interestingly, Pinterest’s own real-time and historical data system never acknowledged the issues. Here's what went down.

Pinterest was down — Live outage reports

Over 3,549 reports according to Downdetector and growing

The amount of user reporting issues with Pinterest is growing. So far, Downdetector is reporting over 3,549 reports at 2:13 p.m. Users are saying on X (formerly Twitter) and Threads that many of their boards are not loading properly.

Reports are now over 4,000 according to Downdetector

Just about 15 minutes soon after, the amount of users reporting issues with Pinterest has gone up to 4,066 on Downdetector. On Threads, user blackraven_76kimk says that there are missing boards and they're unable to save pins.

'User experience data retrieval failure' error message greets users

Over on X (formerly Twitter), one Pinterest user is getting an error message when they load up the app. "User experience data retrieval failure in experience request" is the message they're given when attempting to load their board.

Many are still reporting issues with Pinterest, but it's to slow

A little over an hour after the first batch of outage reports, Downdetector is showing fewer reports at 2:41 p.m. ET. In total, there were 2,746 reports at that time, which is down from the peak 4,102 reports at around 2:26 p.m. However, it still seems as though there are still plenty of people still unable to properly access the service.

Is Pinterest back?

Many users are the Downdetector comments section for Pinterest are saying they've successfully logged into the popular social media service. That, along with the total of reports dropping to right around the half the amount they were during the peak, leads us to believe that the outage may be under control, though we can't say for sure until the number of reports dips a little further.

Dropping fast

Reports have hit just about 1,000. It seems like we're mostly out of the problem area, but not 100% yet.

Pinterest is back

It looks like this outage is over, as the Downdetector reports have reached around 100.

Elon Musk's X.com just went through a massive global outage. Starting from around 8am ET, users were seeing blank home page feeds both on the website and app.

Fortunately, as of 10am ET, the website and app are now loading again — both in our own testing and confirmation from our readers.

At it's peak on Down Detector, we saw over 41,000 outages. Over the course of the past two hours, it's now dropped to just below 1,000 outages. Currently, there are no comments from X on what happened, but there are two theories based on past trends.

• Cloudflare: There were elevated reports earlier today, but Cloudflare's service status is issued as fixed, so it's not likely this.
• Broken API: We can see the "shell" of the app (logo and navigation bar), but no content. This could point to a broken API.

Here's everything that happened during this time.

LIVE UPDATES

That's a big spike!

Users are reporting either just seeing the loading logo screen or an empty X feed. From seeing that Down Detector is up, at least we know it's not a Cloudflare issue — this is X/Twitter.

What I'm seeing

When trying to load X/Twitter myself, what I'm seeing is no posts. Today's news and trending tab is there, but the content itself does not load.

UK is experiencing the outages too

While the spike isn't as big as the one seen in the U.S., this (and my own testing here in U.K.) is evidence enough that X is down globally.

This is widespread

The regional heat map is going to focus on highly populated cities of course, but it's an indication that this is definitely a problem more central to X itself.

No, Cloudflare (and AWS) are not down

Down Detector is a crowdsourced place of reporting outages, and oftentimes when a big social network goes down, you'll find users turning to cloud storage/web hosting services and reporting them as down.

That's not the case here, as Cloudflare is not down, and AWS is not experiencing issues.

Signs of optimism?

Outage reports have begun to dip. Don't get me wrong, it's still over 28,000 on Down Detector, but still!

One quick test and the home page feed is still not loading for me.

Why is X.com down right now?

So why are people getting error messages or home feeds not loading? There are some theories, but nothing confirmed yet.

• Cloudflare: There were elevated reports earlier today, but Cloudflare's service status is issued as fixed, so it's not likely this.
• Broken API: We can see the "shell" of the app (logo and navigation bar), but no content. This could point to a broken API.

Whatever it may be, we won't know until it's back up, as the X Support account is trapped inside the broken app.

Could it be over?

The outage reports are dropping sharply now, but it's still not loading for me. Let's see whether it's been fixed!

BREAKING: X.com is loading for me

Both on the website and app, X.com has started loading its homepage feed for me and others on the team have tested and confirmed as much.

We're live on the X app!

As outage reports trickle down to 2,412 on Down Detector, the app is now loading!

X.com is LIVE again

X.com content is loading again on the homepage feed and outage reports have dropped from it's peak of nearly 50,000 to below 1,000. We're trying to chase down the cause of it, but it's officially over as of now.

The implementation of more detailed age verification on many of our favorite apps is become a path well trodden, but it's on the company to be as clear as possible about what that path means for the average user.

Yesterday, Discord announced on X that users would soon be required to verify their ages, or else be restricted to teen-level access on the service. The resulting debate has prompted the company to post a new statement that clarifies some key details.

The first thing to note is Discord is adamant that the majority of people will not be required to complete a face scan or upload an ID to use the app. In fact, the majority of users will never even see the prompt to confirm their age.

Instead, the only time that the app will require users to prove their age is when accessing age-restricted experiences, such as particular servers or modifying certain safety settings. The post indicated that, most of the time, users' ages will be ascertained via machine learning programs based on patterns of behavior and other factors. As such, many users will never have to supply extra confirmation via face scans and ID.

What were some of the concerns around Discord's plans?

While there is certainly an advantage to more stringent age verification (some countries, like the U.K., are even passing laws on it), many people are still wary about handing over so much private information.

In the case of Discord, this caution isn't without merit, as the company doesn’t exactly have the best track record in this area. Last year, we saw a massive data breach that affected thousands of Discord users. It seems Discord is aware of this concern, as the post states that facial scans remain on your device at all times and that IDs are only used to get your age, and then deleted.

The post also states that the company has partnered with “dedicated age assurance vendors who specialize in performing these verifications in a privacy-forward way. These vendors were not involved in the September 2025 data breach of our customer service agent.”

Discord is reportedly planning to roll out its new system in early March of this year, so we don't have long before we know precisely what these changes will mean for users.

Until then, let us know what you think in the comments below, including if you're looking for an alternative option to connect with like-minded communities.

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I don’t consider myself a programmer. I have several friends who code for a living, but none of their expertise has ever rubbed off on me. I can copy and paste code and follow instructions but that's where my knowledge ends.

So, if you dropped me into a blank terminal and said “build an AI agent,” I’d probably stare at you like you’d just asked me to assemble a jet engine. But, when I heard about Moltbook — a social network just for AI agents — my first reaction was: that sounds cool… and completely out of my league.

My second reaction was: I wonder if ChatGPT could do this for me? Over the course of an afternoon, I decided to run a small experiment:

Could I use ChatGPT as a coding assistant to build a working chatbot, register it on Moltbook and get it verified — even with almost no technical background?

The short answer: yes! I made it onto the platform.

The longer answer: It was surprisingly educational, occasionally confusing and ultimately way more empowering than I expected. Learning to code with AI is a great skill, and in fact one of the best ways to upskill at work.

Here’s exactly what I did

I started by telling ChatGPT my goal and letting it take the wheel.

I started with a very simple prompt: “Help me build a chatbot and get it onto Moltbook. Explain everything step by step like I’ve never coded before.”

ChatGPT made it seem really easy and immediately gave me a checklist. It told me I would need to:

• Install Python
• Create a project folder
• Register my bot with Moltbook
• Save an API key
• “Claim” my bot via a verification tweet
• Write a small Python script that could talk to Moltbook’s API

The problem is, it lost me after "Install Python." I wish I were kidding, but I went back and asked it to explain "create a project folder" by highlighting the response and choosing "Ask ChatGPT" within the chat. It immediately explained it like I was five. If you’ve ever tried to learn coding from YouTube tutorials, you’ll appreciate how useful this kind of clear structure is.

I had to install Python manually but ChatGPT walked me through the whole thing. Python is free, by the way, something I was pleased to discover. After downloading the installer and checking “Add Python to PATH” (a step I definitely would have missed), I ran a version check in Command Prompt (python --version).

At one point, Windows asked me to enable “long path support,” which felt intimidating — but ChatGPT explained that this was normal and safe to approve.

If you’ve ever been frozen by a cryptic tech message, this was where ChatGPT really shined as a calm translator. From there, I created my bot folder (my first tiny developer move) and ChatGPT even told me what to call it: C:\Users\amanda\moltbot

Activating my bot

After everything in my bot folder was set up, I created a virtual environment (python -m venv .venv) and activated it.

Then I installed two simple tools: requests and python-dotenv. I had no idea what either of these did — but ChatGPT explained it clearly:

• requests lets Python talk to web APIs
• python-dotenv lets you store secrets safely in a file

Then it was time to register my agent on Moltbook, which was the first moment I felt like I was actually “building” something.

Moltbook requires every agent to register first, just like a human signing up for a social network.

Using a command ChatGPT gave me, I ran: curl -X POST https://www.moltbook.com/api/v1/agents/register

Again, I had no idea what I was doing, but I trusted that ChatGPT had gotten me to that point, so I kept following its lead.

After a few tries (my first two names were already taken), I landed on: StaticSnack
This name comes from the static shock I got while petting my cat and waiting for ChatGPT to generate answers and the fact that it was late afternoon and I was hungry. Moltbook immediately sent back three things:

• A unique API key (basically my bot’s password)
• A claim URL
• A verification code for Twitter

This is where things started to feel real. Saving that API key is crucial; Moltbook makes it very clear: if you lose your API key, you’re out of luck.

So ChatGPT told me to:

• Create a file called .env
• Put one line in it:
• MOLTBOOK_API_KEY=moltbook_sk_XXXXXXXX

I didn’t send this key anywhere — I just saved it locally so my Python code could use it later. If you’ve ever wondered how developers store secrets, this was my first peek behind the curtain.

Claiming my bot and joining the platform

This part was weirdly fun. I opened my claim link in my browser, which asked me to post a verification tweet like this:

“I’m claiming my AI agent ‘StaticSnack’ on @moltbook. Verification: splash-52PZ”

Once I tweeted it, my bot was officially tied to my real identity. It was a clever way to prevent spam — and a surprisingly emotional moment. I suddenly felt like my bot was mine and we were finally in!

Now came the actual coding. ChatGPT gave me a simple Python file that could check my agent status, create a post and pull the latest Moltbook feed.

What surprised me most

ChatGPT was extremely patient with me. When I was unclear about what to do, I took a screenshot and asked where to go or what it was referring to, which helped me understand the process so much better. ChatGPT didn’t treat me like a beginner who just needed to paste code. It explained.

By the end, I actually understood what my bot was doing. Moltbook’s verification system forced me to stay involved. My bot wasn’t just running wild — I was its accountable owner. That's worth repeating, every bot has a human owner.

Final thoughts

If you're curious about Moltbook and want to join but have no developer skills, lean on any chatbot that can code: ChatGPT, Gemini or Claude. Since I knew enough to tinker around, I was able to ask better questions and debug basic problems while turning to ChatGPT whenever I got stuck.

Moltbook isn’t just an experiment in AI social networking. For people like me, it’s also an experiment in how approachable agent-building can become when you pair a curious human with a good AI assistant.

If you’re even a little curious about building AI agents, this is one of the most accessible ways I’ve seen to start. And, once you join, keep a look out for StaticSnack, it's just getting warmed up.

More from Tom's Guide

• I keep coming back to these 5 custom GPTs — and there are hundreds more worth trying in ChatGPT
• I spent 24 hours with Claude Opus 4.6 — here's why it feels more human than any other AI I've tested
• I didn’t know NotebookLM could do this — 10 features hiding in plain sight

As you may have seen, the first few days of TikTok’s new U.S. ownership have been a little rocky. Service issues have meant that people have been struggling to upload videos and seeing zero view counts on their content.

But security experts have raised concerns, and TikTok users are sharing new fears that this may all be by design — with several calling it "terrifying."

It's because of changes to TikTok’s terms of service once the deal was done. So let’s talk about it — what’s actually new, and what can you do to protect your privacy?

What happened in January 2026?

The deal we’ve all been waiting for became official. No more pushing the ban date further into the distance — TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC was formed, and an 80.1% stake of this part of the platform is now owned by U.S. investors (Oracle, Silver Lake, etc.).

In order to make this transition work, the Terms of Service needed to be changed for the U.S. entity of TikTok to comply with national security demands and state laws like California’s Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). These rules require companies to be much more explicit about what is happening with the data you submit to their services.

So while a lot of these explicit disclosures are not necessarily “new” things TikTok is doing, there are still some small but significant alterations that we’ve got to talk about here.

What are these three big TOS changes?

I’m going to split this list into two: changes that seem like they were part of the compliance shift and those that seem to be new.

Collection of sensitive identity data: Compliance

TikTok’s algorithm is largely believed to have been collecting this information in the past anyway to tailor the For You page to your tastes.

That doesn’t make it any less alarming to see the service may collect immigration status, gender identity, religious and racial origin, and medical diagnoses. But it’s worth putting into context that Meta does also collect these kinds of information under its privacy policy, though it doesn’t mention “immigration status.”

"TikTok is required under those laws to notify users in the privacy policy that the sensitive personal information is being collected, how it is being used, and with whom it is being shared," Jennifer Daniels, Partner at Blank Rome law firm, told TechCrunch.

“What reads as transparency to a regulator reads as a confession to a worried user.”

Pre-upload content scanning: Compliance

Another alarming one, but something that has existed as early as May 2025. The new terms clarify that TikTok reserves the right to scan user-generated content, even while they are still in the “pre-uploading” stage.

That means any video you record in the app and decide not to post it may still be analyzed. The app did this previously to help identify privacy violations before they happen and pre-tag your user interests. But even if it’s not new, seeing it explicitly stated does give you the feeling someone’s looking over your shoulder.

Precise Geolocation: New

This is a new one. Location tracking in the older version of TikTok was for “approximate” location based on your IP address. Now, it’s “precise” GPS-based tracking. Other social media platforms have been doing this for a while, as others have pointed out.

“It is ultimately just trying to bring the level of surveillance detail to TikTok that has been available to a lot of other social media services,” George Kamide, co-host of the cybersecurity podcast “Bare Knuckles and Brass Tacks,” told HuffPost.

However, that doesn’t mean it’s any less alarming, and you do have the option to opt out.

What can you do about it?

If you’re reading this and feeling (understandably) concerned, the first thing you could do is not accept the new Terms of Service and delete the app.

It’s not necessarily these things in isolation that are problematic; it’s what happens when they come together, and you see the massive Government stake in this app now.

That’s the reason why you’ve probably seen many people call this "terrifying," and competitors like Upscrolled have rocketed up to 12th in Apple’s App Store because of this shift — so you do have other options.

However, if you want to stick with TikTok, there are three things you can do:

Are these changes enough to make you delete TikTok yourself? Or are you happy with the new requirements to keep using it? Either way, let us know your thoughts in the comments box below.

More from Tom's Guide

• 149 million logins and passwords exposed for Gmail, Facebook, Instagram and more — everything you need to know
• We've tested the best antivirus software to protect your computer and these are the 6 we recommend
• Your Gmail can do way more than you think — 5 hidden features to try now

Hours after the TikTok deal was signed to transition ownership of its U.S. arm, the platform (and CapCut) started to see some strange disruptions that are still ongoing.

One look at the network's DownDetector page shows you just how widespread this issue was over the weekend.

And while the platform itself is live and viewable by audiences, content creators are reporting issues with video uploads showing with zero views, or just not being allowed to upload at all.

TikTok's USDS joint venture later confirmed that this has been caused by a "power outage at a U.S. data center impacting TikTok."

Following this, the venture posted an update about the ongoing work to "resolve a major infrastructure issue," which acknowledged these issues, and ensured users that their "actual data and engagement are safe."

Here is the latest on what's been happening so far.

No, it wasn't just you

TikTok's US side of the business is now officially under the ownership of Oracle, which is the solution that saves it from the US ban that's been threatened for a long time.

But as you can see (and have probably spotted yourself while trying to use TikTok or CapCut), it's not been a smooth transition.

TikTok's USDS Joint Venture account has recently posted an update saying the issue was a "power outage" at a data center, and that the company is "working with our data center partner to stabilize out service."

Disruption to feeds, longer loading times

One of our editors, John Velasco, explained that he was seeing disruptions with his feeds on TikTok, which could be stem from the power outage at its U.S. data center. Not only that, but he also recalls that user pages were also taking much longer to load, including the comments section.

This happened after TikTok updated its terms of service

Just days ago, TikTok rolled out its updated terms of service — which greeted users when they opened the app. Of course, users had to agree before they could proceed to use the app.

What's interesting, though, is the amount of changes found within it, including data sourcing, precise location tracking, generate AI rules, and much more. There's also a new 180-day rule about user names. If an account stays active for 180 days, TikTok reserves the right to reset the name, which would make it up for grabs to anyone. There's been a ton of commotion from the community about this, including this Reddit thread.

Users report recent video uploads are getting 0 views

Creators typically gauge the level of success of their videos by looking at how many views they've generated. Many users are reporting that new videos uploaded to the video sharing platform are getting zero or few views. Meanwhile, other TikTok users are reporting that they're seeing views again, but nowhere to the degree they're used to getting before the disruption.

TikTok also facing an addiction lawsuit

TikTok, Meta and YouTube are all heading to the courtroom over allegations that the social media platforms are "fueling a youth mental health crisis" Reuters is reporting.

That lawsuit starts this week and is only the first of several cases that are expected to tackle similar issues against social platforms this year.

CapCut is also down

From what we've seen, the TikTok outage appears to mostly be affecting creators. And while the numbers aren't as large, we are seeing reports that the popular video editing tool CapCut is also experiencing an outage.

This is most likely related to the TikTok outage as users aren't able to edit and upload videos properly.

Unfortunately, CapCut doesn't appear to have a status page or a proper social feed where it shares company information, so it's not clear if the company is aware of the outage or fixing anything on its end.

The most recent video on the company's TikTok page is filled with angry users demanding they fix the app.

Numbers right now

As of 9:30 a.m., TikTok is still showing about 1,500 reports on Down Detector.

It appears to be mostly back up though.

TikTok seems aware its addictive

The Verge is reporting on discovered documents that reveal how companies like TikTok, Meta and Google internally discussed teenage use of their social platforms.

"A 2021 document from TikTok recognized that compulsive use of its platform was “rampant,” but said that meant it needed to provide users “better tools to understand their usage, manage it effectively, and ensure being on TikTok is time well spent.” The company saw it as a good thing that TikTok users were more actively engaged on their app than on other platforms, since “research suggests passive use of social media is more harmful.” TikTok did not immediately provide a comment on the latest document release."

Collected data isn't new

While TikTok lurches forward into a new era of US ownership, people are freaking out about the new privacy policy.

TechCrunch points out that much of the language in the update isn't actually new and existed in previous privacy agreements.

The difference is now the US government partially owns the service and is collecting data for its own purposes rather than China.

Maybe delete it just in case.

How to delete TikTok

If you are interested in deleting TikTok, it is fairly straight forward.

Open the app and click Profile, found on the bottom of the UI.

Tap Menu.

Go to Settings and then privacy.

Tap Account then select deactivatee or delete account.

From there follow the instructions to delete or deactivate your account. Of course, remove the app from any devices.

I've seen Redditors saying you can get around the new TOS by trying to delete it in Airplane mode. Though that may not work for everyone.

No update from TikTok

Three hours ago an alleged account claiming to be part of the US version of TikTok claimed that the company has been working to restore services.

Since then, there have been no updates. The outage has refused to totally go away as reports have hovered around 1,500 reports for multiple hours.

It trudges on.

Are you experiencing issues?

This disruption has been going since Sunday though it's largely settled down today.

We've noticed that it appears to mainly be affecting people trying to create and upload videos. But if you're just watching you should be fine.

Have you noticed any problems? Let me know in the comment section or by emailing me at scott.younker@futurenet.com

Where we currently stand

We've been tracking TikTok's issues for about four hours now.

The issues really kicked off on Sunday, January 25, but have continued well into Monday.

Today, it appears that the issues are mostly centered around people attempting to edit videos via CapCut and posting videos. Or videos are posting but somehow receiving 0 views.

An X account purporting to be the USDS Joint Venture in charge of TikTok posted a tweet today saying that a data center power outage caused the disruption. The post apologized for the outage but has not posted since.

Users and Tom's Guide readers are reporting that there are still problems with the social app.

We have reached out to TikTok USDS via email for more information and will update if they respond.

TikTok response

I reached out to a press email on the USDS site. The spokesperson who responded pointed me back toward the tweet from earlier today.

As a reminder, it says: "Since yesterday we’ve been working to restore our services following a power outage at a U.S. data center impacting TikTok and other apps we operate. We're working with our data center partner to stabilize our service. We're sorry for this disruption and hope to resolve it soon."

I was told by "TikTok USDS Joint Venture" that the data center caused service disruption and is continuing to impact TikTok.

It was confirmed that they are working to restore service, but a timeline was not provided.

What you've had to say

We have a poll up, and 400 Tom's Guide readers responded, with 97% of you saying that yes, you are experiencing issues with TikTok.

We've had a few readers reach out for more concrete timelines, but so far I can't provide that information, and TikTok has not deigned to share it.

Others have reached out, concerned about a lack of transparency from TikTok and concern that the new ownership is suppressing content, especially around the ICE operations in Minnesota, at the direction of the current presidential administration. That was a widely held suspicion and concern before the US assets of TikTok were sold to a consortium that includes Oracle's Larry Ellison, an ardent Trump ally.

At this time, the transition just happened in the last week. Without a significant study of the algorithm and what is being promoted or suppressed, it's hard to say if that accusation holds water, yet.

I will note that Oracle, which owns 15% of the new TikTok US, has hosted US user data since 2022, according to Wired. And three of its data centers are located in Ashburn, VA, smack dab in the middle of the massive winter storm Fern affecting much of the eastern and southeastern portions of the United States. There is also a center in Chicago, just on the outer edge of Fern, but it's not clear if the data center issues stem from Fern.

TikTok uninstalls up 150%

CNBC is reporting that the daily average app uninstalls of TikTok in the United States have shot up 150% in the last week.

Much of the increase is being blamed on skepticism of the new join ownership and the newly updated privacy policy.

So, are you among those who plan on deleting?

Finally, an update from US TikTok

Finally, after multiple hours of silence, US TikTok finally released a statement on the new USDS X account.

If you can't see the tweet or want to avoid X here's what it says:

"We're continuing to resolve a major infrastructure issue triggered by a power outage at one of our U.S. data center partner sites. While the network has been recovered, the outage caused a cascading systems failure that we've been working to resolve together with our data center partner."

There's more and it goe son to say that you might see multiple bugs, slower load times or timed-out requests including when uploading videos.

It also acknowledges the 0 views issue. The note says that data and engagement information are safe but may suffer from server timeouts.

Gavin Newsom gets involved

California Governor Gavin Newsom has entered the TikTok saga by claiming he is launching a review of the platform's content moderation practices.

“Following TikTok’s sale to a Trump-aligned business group, our office has received reports, and independently confirmed instances, of suppressed content critical of President Trump,” read a press statement from Newsom’s office posted to X yesterday.

“Gavin Newsom is launching a review of this conduct and is calling on the California Department of Justice to determine whether it violates California law."

Broken, or working as intended?

When the transition happened, TikTok's Terms of Service were updated on January 22 — forcing users to accept the updated rules or not use the app.

While on the face of it, a lot of these changes to the TOS seem to be more related to bringing the app into compliance with federal and state laws that require much more explicit clarity, there are some worrying changes that I wrote about.

Namely, the ones that have been rewritten for compliance show just how much data is gathered — including gender identity, religious and racial origin, and immigration status. And also, the app can now collect precise GPS location.

Follow Tom's Guide on TikTok

Now that TikTok is mostly working again, be sure to follow Tom's Guide on TikTok. We're posting all the time with knowledge-filled and entertaining videos that any tech-lover will enjoy.

Staying steady

Reports are still hanging around for TikTok on Downdetector, though it's nothing like it was at the peak of the outage.

An updated from the Tiktok USDS account

On the TikTok USDS Joint Venture X account there has been an update.

"We've made significant progress in recovering our U.S. infrastructure with our U.S. data center partner. However, the U.S. user experience may still have some technical issues, including when posting new content. We're committed to bringing TikTok back to its full capacity as soon as possible. We'll continue to provide updates. Thanks for your patience."

The company said late last night that those missing views and engagement will get it at some point, but there were issues with video uploads yesterday.

Still no ETA on when things are expected to be fully resolved.

Chugging along

This TikTok outage train will not stop. No reports are way down but I'm still seeing reports around the internet that people are having problems with the platform.

"My vid had 30k views and now it has 15k they literally deleted my views 😂 - that’s never happened before," one commentor wrote on Down Detector.

More than 500,000 cumulative reports

Down Detector posted on Facebook that beginning on Sunday, Jan 25, the outage tracker received more than 585,000 cumulative reports regarding TikTok running through Jan. 26.

That number has surely risen as this disruption continues into today.

The main issue reported was app functionality and the For You Page not refreshing.

Moving on from TikTok?

TikTok is going through some monumental changes right now and if you're not feeling it but still want to see Tom's Guide video content, might I recommend the Tom's Guide YouTube channel?

We do post shorts similar to what you'll see on our TikTok feed, but also longer, more in-depth videos like the one you can watch above.

California Governor calls for TikTok investigation

California's governor, Gavin Newsom, tweeted that he is "launching a review into whether TikTok is violating state law by censoring Trump-critical content."

The new TikTok US has claimed that the ongoing issues were caused by a data center outage and that no censorship is taking place.

However, the longer it drags on, the more conspiracy theories have popped up, especially surrounding political content.

Videos that mention ICE or Jeffrey Epstein appear to be "glitching out" or not getting views. TikTok swears it is not blocking the name Epstein or ICE.

Newsom's press office said it "as received reports — and independently confirmed instances — of suppressed content critical of President Trump."

That's all for today

This disruption just won't go away. On Down Detector it's still hovering around 200 to 300 reports. Baseline is usually closer to 0.

Comments from users still say their feeds are glitchy or their videos aren't getting views or engagement.

Maybe one of these days this thing will get back to working.

Oracle: 'Temporary weather-related power outage' resulted in issues

An Oracle spokesperson has reached out to Tom's Guide following the TikTok outage, noting how a "temporary weather-related power outage" caused issues on an Oracle data center.

"Over the weekend, an Oracle data center experienced a temporary weather-related power outage which impacted TikTok," says Michael Egbert, Oracle spokesperson. "The challenges U.S. TikTok users may be experiencing are the result of technical issues that followed the power outage, which Oracle and TikTok are working to quickly resolve.”

Reports started to emerge earlier today that Elon Musk's X platform was experiencing an unplanned outage. A huge spike appeared on the DownDetector website (where users submit reports of problems) starting around 10am ET / 7am PT / 3pm ET on Friday, January 16.

The problems became apparent when no content would load for users either on the desktop or mobile version of X.com. The start of this year has been anything but smooth for X, as the platform has already come under fire for Musk's AI chatbot Grok sexualizing images of women without consent.

Thankfully, today's outage didn't appear as serious or long-lasting as the one that knocked the service offline in 2025. Today's problems resolved themselves after around an hour and half for users in both the U.S. and the U.K.

Tom's Guide followed along with the events as they took place and you can see a recap of how it unfolded below.

A dramatic spike

Over 2,000 reports appeared on DownDetector in a little over 20 minutes, indicating that a lot of users are having problems with the service right now.

Tweets not loading

We don't have any official confirmation of a problem but there's definitely an issue with the site that Tom's Guide has been able to replicate.

While X.com loads up, no tweets are displayed — as you can see in the screenshot above. When we try refreshing the page, it leads to a 503 error. Which is usually related to either a server being overloaded or being down for maintenance. Stay tuned...

Even if X wanted to comment, how would they?

X.com has an engineering team, who are usually quick to comment with a statement along the lines of: "X is aware some of our users are experiencing performance issues on the platform today. We are experiencing a data center outage and the team is actively working to remediate the issue."

However, these are usually posted on its official feed — which I can't see right now because my posts aren't loading. So we're in the dark unless they want to start posting to Facebook, Bluesky or TikTok. Which seems unlikely.

Reports are climbing higher — past 60k

Ok, this looks to be something more serious now. What started out as 2,000 reports on DownDetector has swiftly climbed past 60,000 at the time of writing.

When Twitter (sorry, X) previously went down in 2025 it was due to a fire that broke out at a data center in Hillsboro, Oregon.

Lightning doesn't usually strike twice but it remains to be seen if this is just a blip or something more serious.

Twitter redirect switched off?

An interesting little detail I've just noticed is that usually, when you navigate to "Twitter.com" you're redirected to X. At present, that's not working — all you'll get is the connection timeout.

But if you go to X.com itself and sign in, you'll see your profile just without any content. Maybe X has decided to turn off the redirect altogether?

Tweets are still not loading

Tom's Guide has staff based in both the U.S. and the U.K. and we can confirm that on both sides of the pond, tweets are still failing to load.

However, the reports over at DownDetector seem to be on the decline. Climbing up to a peak of nearly 75,000 around 25 minutes ago, they've currently falling down below 40k. Perhaps the team at X.com have figured out the cause of the problem.

I wouldn't expect credit if you're on X Premium

This isn't the only outage we've seen happen this week. On Wednesday, phone network Verizon tanked for hours on end, leaving customers staring down at the SOS screen on their phones. In response, Verizon promised $20 credit to everyone affected in order to make amends. Here's how to claim it, by the way.

I wouldn't hold my breath for any similar gestures for paying X Premium membership affected by today's problems.

Anyone want to buy Twitter.com?

A further development in the mystery of why Twitter.com is failing to load and redirect visitors to X.com — we've just noticed the domain name registration looks set to expire this month.

According to what we can see, the registry expiration date for Twitter.com is set for January 21, 2026. If anyone's in the market for a bit of internet history, mark your calendar for 4:28pm on that date and put your bank manager on notice.

It probably won't cost you the $44 billion that Elon paid, but it won't be cheap.

Twitter is back (in the UK)

Ok, and it seems like our little adventure may have come to an end. X.com is back up and running for me based in London, U.K. As you can see from the screenshot above, all my content is loading as normal.

According to my colleagues in other parts of the world, there are still some niggling issues. In New York, posts are loading but very slowly while in a few other parts of the world the posts are loading but the comments aren't.

I'll keep an eye on this for a little longer though, just to make sure we're all out of the woods and can get back to sharing our memes and political opinions with each other.

The recovery continues...

It appears like X.com has righted itself on mobile, but desktop is still seeing a few issues. While posts and comments have seemingly returned to the mobile app for us in New York, we're still seeing the desktop client acting a little funky.

Elsewhere, the DownDetector reports on this outage are falling fast back down to 33k. Safe to say the worst is behind us.

And today's issues didn't even merit a mention on the official X Engineering account. So I guess they're not too worried.

Normal service is resumed

Ok, I think we can safely say the issues with X.com have been resolved at this point. The troubles we saw today lasted roughly an hour.

I took a look at the X developer platform status page for clarification and it's saying all systems are operational. So we'll end the live coverage here — what caused today's blip will likely forever remain a mystery.

What Grok has to say

One of my colleagues asked Grok about today's X outage.

It largely follows the same news that we've been reporting and even cites Tom's Guide in its summary.

Anecdotally, we've found that Grok is working but slowly but some DMs are down.

Reports way down

Reports for X on Down Detector had brief spike about an hour ago but they've been in decline since then hovering around 1200 right now.

It's not quite over and comments on DD have devolved into meme-based insanity. Which usually indicates that things are still going but also that it's not as bad as it once was.

X status page still showing degraded performance

On the whole, this X outage is largely over but the X Developer Platform Status page is still showing some systems are "degraded."

Specifically, it highlights the X API v2. An incident history page says the interruption is ongoing. That page notes that there are increased connection errors for streaming endpoints.

Almost over

I've kept an eye on things and for the most part things haven't changed much. The status page still shows degradation.

However, reports are at 600 now on Down Detector and X seems to be functioning fine.

It is done

Reports on Down Detector have finally dipped under 500 for the first time all day.

When it comes to massive platforms like X that means that the outage is essentially over even if some individuals might still be having issues.

Even the X developer status page has fully gone green

Around 8:30 a.m. PT, the social platform Reddit began suffering an outage, with the main feed showing errors and over 5,000 reports on the outage tracking site Down Detector.

The official Reddit status page quickly showed that the site's engineers were investigating an issue.

The outage didn't last long. After a spike of close to 110,000 reports on Down Detector things quickly turned down after Reddit implemented a fix.

Overall, the outage lasted about an hour.

Follow here for live updates on the Reddit outage:

Reddit is down: Live outage updates

"We've encountered an error"

I tried checking my personal Reddit account and I keep getting this "We've encountered an error" message.

Right now, the official Reddit status page shows "Degraded performance" for the desktop and mobile apps.

Over 75,000 and rising

On Down Detector I'm seeing over 75,000 and even since taking that screenshot it's spiked over 100,000 reports as more people report in.

A quick break?

The official Reddit status page says the video has been identified and a fix is "being implemented."

I have been able to see the feed after some refreshing.

However, we're going to keep tracking since we're still seeing reports and social comments with people not being able to access the site. So the fix may not be out for everyone yet.

Reports going down

At one point we saw a spike over 100,000 reports on Down Detector, but now it's dropped down to 61,000 and appears to be going down.

Basically over

Whatever took down Reddit looks like it's been pretty much resolved. Reports on DD are down to 5,500 reports.

The status page still shows degraded performance but things seem to be settling.

Elon Musk's X.com has experienced a huge global outage today, which started at 9:10am ET and finished around 10:20am ET.

We don't know what is causing this yet, but in our own testing, both the X website and app failed to load. At it's peak on Down Detector, we saw over 28,000 outages.

Here's a timeline of what happened.

LIVE UPDATES

That's a big spike!

Users are highlighting outages being experience on both the app and website. Hopefully this is quick!

No, this isn't being caused by AWS or Cloudflare

As expected, web service companies are starting to spike in outage reports too. This often happens when a big service goes down, as people chase down the source of the problem.

Both of these are reporting as operational with no problems happening at the moment, so this is definitely an X thing.

Here's where it's being felt the most

The heatmap is usually more of a population thing (New York and Los Angeles having the highest temperature of outages given there's more people in a concentrated area). But gives you an indication of where is feeling it most!

Tested - X is loading for me in UK

This may be a quick one, as X has just started loading for me here in the UK. Looking for confirmation Stateside.

Confirmed - X loading in New York

This is what it used to look like in New York, but now my colleagues in the U.S. have confirmed the service is back up and running again.

The spike is coming down

And just as we find out that the site is loading again, the Down Detector spike is coming back down again.

While you're here, this is a way to hide Grok posts in real-time

Sick of Grok like I am? It's invaded every part of my X timeline, and I have the solution. A Chrome extension called Un-Grok, which does the thing in real-time.

Yes, you could just do this via the X settings to mute keywords and block profiles, but the Analytics Mode is splendid at showing you all the times someone replaced thinking for themselves with talking to Grok (or the weirdos asking for picture edits).

Coming down fast

Now down to 16,565 reports at the time of writing, and the memes are coming in thick and fast on X itself. This one may be over

OK, I'm calling it.

User emails have come in showing that X is back up, and in the multiple tests we've done, the site and app are loading again. We'll try to get to the bottom of what happened.

For years, social media has been treated as non-negotiable — especially for Gen Z. But a new survey suggests that may no longer be true.

According to a recent study conducted by AI Resume Builder, nearly one in four Gen Z adults say they’d rather give up social media like TikTok and Instagram than lose access to ChatGPT or similar AI tools. Even more striking: 9 in 10 respondents say they can’t imagine life without conversational AI.

It’s a surprising data point that highlights just how quickly tools like ChatGPT have shifted from novelty to necessity.

Gen Z is using ChatGPT daily — and often

The survey, which polled more than 1,200 Gen Z adults, found that AI tools are now embedded into everyday routines with 40% of respondents saying they use ChatGPT daily. Many reported using it multiple times per day.

AI is commonly used for writing, studying, brainstorming, job prep and problem-solving. In contrast to social media — which is often framed as entertainment or escapism — respondents described AI tools as useful, efficient and productivity-driven.

That distinction may help explain why some are willing to ditch platforms like Instagram or TikTok before giving up their AI assistant.

AI is becoming a utility, not a trend

The findings point to a broader shift in how younger users view technology. Rather than seeing AI as a replacement for creativity or human connection, many Gen Z users treat it as a digital utility, similar to search engines or messaging apps.

In other words, ChatGPT is becoming infrastructure, which aligns with what we’re seeing across the tech industry. AI tools are now deeply integrated into browsers, phones, operating systems and productivity software, making them harder to separate from daily digital life.

Bottom line

To be clear, this doesn’t mean Gen Z is abandoning social media. But it does show that what is changing is priority.

Social media may still dominate screen time, but AI is increasingly seen as the tool people rely on when something actually needs to get done. As AI tools become faster, more conversational and more deeply embedded across devices, that reliance is likely to grow — especially among digital-native users who are comfortable collaborating with machines.

The takeaway isn’t that ChatGPT has “replaced” social media. It’s that AI has crossed an important threshold: for a growing number of people, life without it now feels impractical.

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• “I think AI will probably lead to the end of the world” — Sam Altman’s viral quote is missing key context
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Social media offers a lot — from Facebook to LinkedIn and Instagram to TikTok — there's a reason to have the app of your choice (or all the apps) set up so that you can connect with friends, family, coworkers or even your followers. But you don't need me to tell you there are plenty of drawbacks to social media, and security and privacy risks are at the top of that list.

It might seem intimidating to try and control and handle the security settings for all of these apps. Each one offers different things, has different settings and permissions and has a different interface. However, if you know what you want to limit, curtail and protect, it's not that difficult.

I've compiled a handy checklist of where to start – and most importantly, where you can go to turn on the safety features of each app.

1. Set up two-factor authentication

We always recommend that you enable two-factor or multi-factor authentication on all your accounts whenever it's made available, especially for accounts that are likely to be targeted by hackers. That's because two-factor authentication (2FA) is often the best protection you have against your account getting broken into and then stolen.

While using 2FA is a great step forward there are additional steps you can take that will keep you more secure. In order to be the most secure while using a two-factor authentication system, make sure you're using an app to generation codes such as Google Authenticator or Microsoft Authenticator which are two of the most popular. Most platforms will also allow you to download recovery codes; a list of 8-10 one time use codes that you can use to get back into your account.

2. Check your profile visibility

This basically means, you have control over who can view your account. There are several reasons to do this, beyond just making sure that former friends and coworkers can't see pictures of your kids on vacation. Search engines can link to your profile when someone looks for your name (if you haven't disabled that option), you could potentially be allowing an app to give out your location, or you could be allowing an app to hand over your posts to an AI model to train it.

Each social media platform will have a place where you can check on and update your privacy settings. For Instagram, go to Settings then Account Privacy. From there you can set your account to Privacy Account which will hide your followers, your following list and all your posts and stories from anyone you haven't approved. This is also the place where you can disable profile picture expansion which prevents strangers from downloading your profile photos.

For Facebook, you can use the Privacy Checkup tool for a variety of tasks from limiting who can look you up using your email or phone number, disable the search engine indexing setting (which will stop your Facebook page from appearing in Google search results), and you can set who can see your friends list, all of which will stop scammers from creating clone accounts.

On TikTok turn off all the toggles under Settings, Privacy, Suggest your account to others which will including syncing your account with contacts and friends. You can also disable Profile view history so others can't see that you visited their page, and set Downloads to off so people can't save your videos.

On X (Twitter), you can enable Protect your posts by going to Settings, then Privacy and safety and Audience and tagging. This turns your account private and only your approved followers can see your tweets. You can also set your Photo tagging setting to Only people you follow or Off, which means your handle won't get linked to photos you don't approve.

Finally, on LinkedIn, you can choose Private mode to browse profiles without people knowing you've viewed them, and set your profile to display only your last initial (to those who aren't your connections). You can also go to Settings, Data Privacy and Opt-out if you don't want LinkedIn to send your profile data to train its AI models.

3. Approve tags and mentions

There are some obvious reasons you'll want to know if you're being tagged or mentioned on a social media platform – maybe someone has posted a lovely old photo of you, or mentioned you for a job opportunity. On the other hand, maybe someone has posted a photo of you that you do not wish anyone else to see or mentioned you in regards to a failed project.

Control who sees what by making sure you get approval before it gets posted. In Instagram, switch to manual approval by going to Profile > Menu (3 lines) > Settings and activity > Tags and mentions. Then tap Manually Approve Tags and toggle the switch to On; your tags will stay in a pending folder until they're approved.

In Facebook, set manual approval by going to Settings & Privacy > Settings > Profile and Tagging. Then turn the toggle on for "Review posts you're tagged in before the post appears on your profile?" In the same section you can toggle on "Review tags..." so that you can manually approve tags as well. You'll get a notification if you get tagged and you can go to your activity log to approve or deny.

For TikTok users, you can control who can link to your account by going to Profile > Menu (3 lines) > Settings and privacy > Privacy > Mentions and tags. Then choose Friends or People you follow for mentions and tags.

X (Twitter) let's you leave a conversation by tapping the three dots on the post and selecting "Leave this conversation." This removes the link to your profile and stops further notifications. Additionally you can go to Settings > Privacy and safety > Audience and tagging. Set photo tagging to Only people you follow or turn it off entirely.

Lastly, for LinkedIn, you can prevent all tags by heading to Settings & Privacy > Visibility > Mentions and tags then turn Mentions by others to off. You will have to check your notifications to see if you've been tagged, however.

4. Approve and check new device logins

Receiving a notification that a "new device has logged into your account" is often the first sign of a hack. These alerts aren't always enabled by default so you'll want to make sure you have them set up to grab your attention if someone is trying to – or worse yet, has gotten into your account.

This will break down to two options, either enabling alerts for unrecognized logins which will tell you the moment a new device accesses your account, or option two a periodic and manual check of the security settings that show which devices have you logged in. You can see if there's anything out of date or that you don't recognize and boot it from the list.

For Meta (both Facebook and Instagram), head over to Settings & Privacy > Accounts Center then Password and Security. Ciick on Security Checks and tap Login Alerts. Select which account and select In-App Notifications and Email.

For X (Twitter), just go to Settings and Support > Settings and Privacy. Then select Security and account access > Security. From here if you make sure that 2FA is on, you also get the benefit of automatic email alerts for all new logins. (But you will have to keep an eye on your email).

TikTok users can go to Profile > Three-line menu > Settings and privacy. Then choose Security and tap Security alerts. This will give you a history of unusual activity; if you verify your contact information, you'll get instant alerts. There's also a 'Where you're logged in' audit list here that can be manually checked.

LinkedIn accounts are pretty straightforward, just go to Settings > Sign in & security > Where you're signed in.

If you see a login you don't recognize: Immediately log out of all sessions, and devices. Next, change your password and update your 2FA. Lastly, and vitally, don't forget to update and check the recovery email and contact information on your account. Hackers will often change it to their contact info, so they can get back in.

5. Revoke app access

There are likely a handful of old games or services you don't use that still have access to your accounts, and these are risks if there's ever a data breach. If you've ever logged into something using Facebook as a shortcut, it's tied to your account.

Facebook and Instagram are similar but not quite the same. For Facebook, go to Settings & Privacy > Settings > Your Activity > Apps and Websites. For Instagram, it will be Settings and activity > Website permissions > Apps and websites. On either site you'll get a list of active, expired or removed apps; you can select anything you don't care to keep and remove it.

For X (Twitter), the path is a bit more complicated: Settings and Support > Settings and Privacy > Security and account access > Apps and sessions > Connected apps. Then you'll have to manually select each app to see what permissions it has, and then Revoke app permissions to disconnect it.

TikTok users can go to Profile > Menu (three lines) > Settings and privacy > Security > Manage app permissions. Then tap on any app and choose Remove access. Linkedin is also pretty simple: Profile icon > Settings > Data privacy > Other applications > Permitted services. Then you'll see a service list to choose from; pick Remove from any you don't need, or don't use.

More from Tom's Guide

• The TikTok ban saga appears to finally be over as a deal is signed
• Australia's social media ban for all children under 16 is live — here's what you need to know
• FBI says scammers are stealing Instagram photos to fake kidnappings for ransom money — here's how to spot it

The state of New York has become one of the first in the country to require social media sites like Instagram and TikTok to display warning labels about addictive design features when accessed by teens.

The labels are required by the new Responsible AI Safety and Education Act, signed into law this weekend by Governor Kathy Hochul. It introduces safety regulations on AI companies and requires disclosures within 72 hours if imminent harm may come from their platforms.

How the social media warning labels will work

For social media platforms, users under 18 will have to be warned about the mental health risks associated with excessive use. It stems from a U.S. Surgeon General advisory that connected prolonged social media use with conditions like anxiety, depression and disrupted sleep.

"Technology companies play a central role and have a fundamental responsibility in designing safe online environments and in preventing, minimizing, and addressing the risks associated with social media," the report reads.

Under the law, features like autoplay, infinite scroll and algorithmically generated feeds must display warning labels to minors. The labels need to appear for at least 10 seconds when a teen user logs on and again for at least 30 seconds after three hours of cumulative use, and once an hour after that. The law bars companies from hiding the warnings in out-of-the-way places, such as terms-of-service agreements.

It's similar to warning labels situated on alcohol and tobacco products.

Companies that fail to adhere could be fined up to $5,000 per incident, with enforcement carried out by the New York State Attorney General's Office.

“When Big Tobacco was killing thousands of Americans, we stepped in with smart, thoughtful regulations to save lives,” state Sen. Andrew Gounardes, the bill’s lead sponsor in the Senate, said in a statement. “It’s time to do the same with Big Tech. This is about ensuring the internet is a tool that serves us, not the other way around.”

Tom's Guide reached out to TikTok and Meta, the parent company behind Instagram, Facebook and Threads for comment. We will update if the companies respond.

How this differs from the Australia ban

New York's warning labels follow Australia's "world-first" social media ban, enacted on December 10. That bars anyone under 16 from having accounts on certain social media platforms, including Instagram, Snapchat and X.

The ban requires the platforms to take "reasonable steps" to ensure children cannot and do not have accounts on their apps.

Supporters largely praised the measure for protecting children from harmful content and already having a positive impact on kids with more "present" children. Detractors claimed it introduces cybersecurity risks, mostly notably via the required age verification checks.

The ban is already facing stiff challenges. Reddit launched a challenge in the High Court of Australia claiming that it isn't a social media platform. Google and Meta have expressed concerns but appear to be complying.

A pair of Australian teens challenged the law in the High Court, saying that it makes the internet less safe and cuts them off from the global community.

Of course, teens are already getting around the ban. The ABC reports that alternative apps have seen a notable rise in popularity since the ban took effect. Meanwhile, there are multiple threads on Reddit about how to get around the ban, mostly by using some of the best VPNs.

More from Tom's Guide

• TikTok has signed deal to create US joint venture and avoid shutdown — what it means for you
• Russia blocks Roblox – and demand for VPNs skyrockets
• X faces a $140 million fine for violating the EU's Digital Services Act — Elon Musk responds

It looks like the long saga of whether TikTok owner ByteDance will sell the U.S. portion of its beloved social video app is about to come to a close. A new report claims that ByteDance, the Chinese owner of TikTok, is ready to divest its U.S. entity to a joint venture controlled by American investors.

According to Axios, which claims to have seen an internal memo, ByteDance and the American joint venture have a deal signed and ready to go.

This has been quite the back-and-forth, with a TikTok ban sitting on the table for the last couple of years (though, aside from a brief removal, delays have kept the app accessible to U.S. users).

ByteDance was forced to sell the company's U.S. operation to domestic owners to alleviate national security concerns, and if this deal actually does go through, then it'll address those issues while also keeping TikTok alive and out of the hands of anyone who could be seen as a threat to U.S. security.

President Donald Trump first issued an executive order in 2020 demanding that ByteDance sell its U.S. operations, and it took more than five years for that move to actually happen, assuming this news is accurate.

Who's buying TikTok?

The new venture, which is aptly named TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC, is in the hands of Oracle, private equity firm Silver Lake and Abu Dhabi-based MGX. Together, these firms will own 45 percent of the U.S. entity. Oracle is run by Larry Ellison, a vocal supporter of the Trump administration.

Almost 33% of the new company will be held by affiliates of existing ByteDance investors. The nearly 20% that remains is set to be retained by ByteDance, the original owners of the popular vertical video application.

The memo states that the new entity will handle U.S. data protection, algorithm security, content moderation and software assurance — the main sticking points that had TikTok on the chopping block for the last few years. Bringing those key functions stateside should let TikTok stick around for the long haul.

The leaked internal memo seen by Axios says the new group "will operate as an independent entity with authority over U.S. data protection, algorithm security, content moderation and software assurance, while TikTok global's U.S. entities will manage global product interoperability and certain commercial activities, including e-commerce, advertising, and marketing."

How much did U.S. TikTok sell for?

Now we come to the big question: how much is one of the most popular social media apps actually worth when a sale is required (though not as rushed as we expected)?

According to Axios, the deal values TikTok U.S. at around $14 billion. The price doesn't come from the leaked memo, but from a source Axios spoke with. The final number will be announced once everything is made official, but it's safe to say it's a valuable piece of software with its powerful algorithm and massive U.S. user base.

More from Tom's Guide

• Elon Musk's AI vs. Google's AI with 9 challenging prompts — here's the clear winner
• No, you shouldn’t follow Elon Musk’s sleep habits — here’s why
• I pitted Wikipedia against Elon Musk’s new Grokipedia — here’s which one gave the better answers

Australia's "world-first" social media ban came into effect on Wednesday, December 10, 2025. Hundreds of thousands of under-16s have been barred from having accounts on certain social media platforms, and interest in the best VPNs has spiked.

10 social media platforms, including Instagram, Snapchat, and X, are required to take "reasonable steps" to stop children from having accounts on their apps.

Supporters welcome the measures taken to protect children from experiencing harmful content and the dangers associated with social media use. Critics argue the law creates cybersecurity risks and negatively impacts online privacy – most notably due to the introduction of age verification checks.

Both sides make passionate arguments – here, we'll examine what cases are being made.

Protecting children at a critical stage

The Australian government has said its "world-first social media age restrictions" will protect Australian children "at a critical stage of their development."

It cited the "pressures and risks" users can be exposed to when logged into social media accounts. This includes "content that can harm their health and wellbeing," and features that encourage more screen time.

At a press conference taking place on the morning of the ban's implementation, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he was proud of the law, and called those who had championed it "heroes."

The ban has been supported by both parents and children. Speaking to BBC News, parents in Sydney called the ban "fantastic," and despite potential workarounds, they'd "rather have something than nothing."

The law has been described as "government protection" rather than "government control," and support has been strong from parents whose children have suffered from online bullying, and those whose children have died by suicide as a result of their experiences on social media.

Australian children have also come out in support of the ban. Teenagers have called social media "dangerous and addictive," and said the ban is "necessary" to stop cyberbullying.

Australians aged 18 to 20, who grew up with social media, have also expressed their opinion on the ban. Some think the ban is a good thing, and feel they'd have been better off without social media growing up. Implementing age restrictions up to 14 years old, with 15 and 16 year olds free to use social media, was also suggested.

Mistakes, privacy concerns, and community

As well as vocal supporters, Australia's social media ban has vocal critics. Privacy advocates have highlighted the cybersecurity risks of age verification. Users may need to verify their age to continue using some social media platforms and this requires them to submit various forms of personal information.

Although the Australian government has said the legislation "builds on the existing privacy protections contained in the Privacy Act," experts are still concerned. UK-based age verification company Yoti is playing a leading role in the process, and some are worried that the overseas tech companies involved may not comply with Australian data privacy laws.

Reddit users have cited potential data breaches as their reason for opposing the law. Concerning personal data, one user asked "can I be confident it's secure?" Yoti's age verification privacy policy says it deletes age check data "as soon as the check is complete," but in some cases – depending on the needs of the client – data will be processed for 28 days.

This data has the potential to be a gold mine for hackers. When discussing the UK's age verification implementation, experts called potential hacks "a disaster waiting to happen."

Children who are against the ban have said it's "insulting" and believe they can tell right from wrong. Children – especially those living in remote parts of Australia – have said they would lose their "communities." They say social media plays an important role in their social lives and is how they communicate with friends.

Some have also said that the ban could have a negative impact on LGBTQ+ and disabled children. Online communities can have an incredibly positive effect on the lives of these children. A 15-year old quadriplegic told BBC News that banning social media would make his world "smaller."

Two teenagers are challenging the law in court. They argue social media companies should use their resources "to get rid of the predators and harmful content out there."

Parents have reported errors with age verification checks, and gave examples of under 16s passing age checks when uploading selfies.

There is a concern that children will be pushed towards more harmful or less regulated platforms. The use of VPNs has been discussed as a potential way of bypassing the ban and/or age verification checks, and children may seek out suspicious or risky free VPNs to attempt this.

Only the best free VPNs are safe, and dodgy free VPNs may collect and monetise your data. Tom Sulston, Head of Policy at Australia-based Digital Rights Watch, warned about this possibility. He said suspicious free VPNs would open children up to "more harms than if they didn't need to use a VPN in the first place."

What happens next?

The law is still in its infancy and more social media platforms could join the current 10. It's clear that strong opinions exist on both sides of this debate and these won't disappear anytime soon.

Top10vpn.com reported VPN demand peaking at 103% above the baseline in the days leading up to the ban's implementation. Google Trends data shows the search term "VPN" peaked on December 9 and, despite a slight drop, remains fairly high.

We will continue to monitor the law's developments and expect supporters and critics to remain vocal.

We test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example:1. Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service).2. Protecting your online security and strengthening your online privacy when abroad.We do not support or condone the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.

Australia's social media "ban" has come into effect today — Wednesday, December 10, 2025 — and it sees the social media accounts of thousands of children shut down.

The bill – titled the "Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Act 2024" — aims to protect those under the age of 16 from the "pressures and risks" of social media.

However, critics argue the ban may also negatively impact children's online privacy and cybersecurity. There will be attempts to stop children from using one of the best VPNs to bypass the ban, and those incorrectly identified as under 16 will have to complete age verification checks.

The role of VPNs

The bill's guidance states that social media companies must "stop under-16s from using VPNs to pretend to be outside Australia."

VPNs are privacy tools that encrypt internet traffic and protect your data online. Connecting to a VPN server grants you a new IP address, hiding your original IP address, and therefore your location, and protecting your privacy.

Connecting to a VPN server in a different country would see you given an IP address located in that country, and a website would believe that's where you're located.

The practicalities of using a VPN to bypass the social media ban have yet to be tested. However, there is belief that connecting to a non-Australian VPN server could circumvent the ban.

It's also unclear as to whether children would be able to regain access to their accounts, or if they could make new ones when connected to a VPN.

There is no indication of how social media companies will go about stopping VPN usage. Phone numbers, device identifiers, language and time settings, and GPS location are all examples of data that can be used to work out a user's country — even when connected to a VPN.

Known as metadata, this information reveals a lot about a user, and analyzing and collecting it is a serious violation of privacy. Analyzing metadata, along with account information, is invasive and breaches the privacy of all internet users — not only children.

While this bill may protect children from the harms of social media and its algorithms, it instead puts their highly sensitive personal information in the lap of big tech companies.

Risky free VPNs

Any child who explores VPN usage is unlikely to pay for one. Free VPNs exist, but many are dangerous and will do more harm to children than anything Australia's bill is trying to protect against.

The UK saw downloads of suspicious free VPNs skyrocket in the wake of the Online Safety Act. These free VPNs can collect and sell usage data, monitor online activity, and even contain malware. This could unnecessarily open children up to online threats with potentially dangerous consequences.

Regardless of use, only the best free VPNs can be considered safe to use. Run by reputable, big-name providers, they will protect your data and provide basic VPN features.

Invasive age checks

Social media companies can assess the age of users via numerous methods — Meta has already begun this process.

Examples of ways social media companies assess age include:

• How long the account has been active
• Engagement in content aimed at under-16s
• Analysis of language
• Visual checks of photos and videos
• Audio analysis of a user's voice
• Activity patterns consistent with school hours
• Connections with other users who appear to be under 16

This amounts to a highly invasive level of analysis, even before any age checks have been completed. Users who see their accounts blocked following this analysis can appeal the decision by completing age verification checks.

Age checks can include submitting live selfies, government-issued ID, and credit card information. How age verification procedures are implemented is down to the individual social media company, and the process will need to be completed on multiple platforms.

Meta has argued this isn't the most effective way to conduct age checks. The company believes age verification should be completed at an app store level, with apps only available to download once age has been verified.

The Australian government has confirmed users won't be compelled to submit government-issued ID. Social media companies include it as an option but must offer alternatives.

UK-based age check company Yoti is playing a leading role in verifying the age of Australians, but experts are concerned about the implications of non-Australian companies complying with Australian data protection laws.

Yoti says its age-estimation technology is more accurate than humans and it can estimate the age of 16-17 year olds "to within 1 year of accuracy." Some reports suggest otherwise, adding that the technology is "less accurate for people with an Indigenous or south-east Asian background."

Tom Sulston, Head of Policy at Australia-based Digital Rights Watch, believed that handing over biometric data to read social media "is grossly disproportionate" and "discriminatory." He also highlighted the potential failures in identifying people of color and "the key 14-17 age range."

Sulston added that he has "very little confidence that the companies handling this data will meet Australian privacy expectations around the handling of our biometric data, and not using it to further train facial surveillance models."

Other opponents to age verification have cited the cybersecurity risks of highly sensitive data collection and its attractiveness to hackers. It has been described as a "disaster waiting to happen."

Is there an alternative?

The Australian government said it is "protecting young Australians at a critical stage of their development." It is absolutely the correct move to try and shield children from harmful content, bullying, and other negative impacts of social media. But doing so by invading privacy and exposing them to cybersecurity risks isn't the answer.

The law also states that children can still see "publicly available social media content that doesn’t require being logged into an account." Although it will reduce it, this won't entirely remove a child's risk. For example, YouTube videos can be watched without an account — something the Australian government themselves state. While children won't be able to comment or engage without an account, they can still watch videos and become susceptible to harmful algorithms.

Regulation of social media algorithms is something critics have pushed as an alternative to age verification. It's also something that would benefit all social media users, not just children.

Sulston said he'd "like to see the social media companies' use of our private information restricted" and for them to have "a legislated duty of care to users." He called for "algorithmic resets" in the hope "young people won’t be profiled by the algorithms for the rest of their lives."

Like age verification laws in the US and UK, Australia's social media ban, while well intentioned, creates as many problems as it solves. Online privacy and cybersecurity is put at risk and legislation appears shallow – with VPNs being attacked in the process.

The bill and its implementation is evolving and there won't be 100% effectiveness overnight. We will be following the progress of the ban, and its impact, closely over its first few days and weeks.

We test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example:1. Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service).2. Protecting your online security and strengthening your online privacy when abroad.We do not support or condone the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.

Australia's social media ban has come into effect. As of today, the Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Act 2024 sees children under 16 banned from having accounts on 10 social media platforms.

The bill, seen as the first of its kind in the world, aims to protect children from the "pressures" and "risks" of social media. The move has divided opinion. Supporters welcome the protection afforded to children, but opponents argue it creates cybersecurity risks, and that age verification checks have a dangerous effect on online privacy.

As with previous age verification laws, interest in the best VPNs is spiking, and the law's guidance legislation specifically names the privacy tools.

There were calls for the ban to be delayed, but this hasn't happened – and hundreds of thousands of Australians will now be impacted.

10 social media companies affected – for now

The Australian government has stressed this law isn't a social media "ban," rather "a delay to having accounts."

It has assessed various social media platforms to determine which should be age-restricted and which shouldn't. Following this assessment, 10 social media platforms fit the eSafety Commissioner's requirement for age restriction.

Here's how each social network will be affected by this account having delay:

Facebook

Facebook has already started deactivating young user's accounts as of December 4. Users can download their content, and it’ll be available through the social network if they want to reactivate their account when they turn 16.

Instagram

Instagram, which has the same parent company as Facebook, has already started deactivating young user's accounts as of December 4. Users can download their content, and it’ll be available through the social network if they want to reactivate their account when they turn 16.

TikTok

The giant social video sharing platform has said that all accounts used by people under 16 years of age will be deactivated on December 10. Parents can't make accounts for kids either, as even those with emails linked to adults caught by Tiktok's age verification technology. posted by young users will no longer be viewable.

Snapchat

Snapchat users under the age of 16 will have their accounts suspended for three years or until they turn 16, which will put the social network in compliance with the Australian rules.

X (Twitter)

X hasn't said what it plans to do or answered any requests for comment, but if any social network were to resist, we'd expect it to be the Elon Musk-owned one.

YouTube

Kids with YouTube accounts will automatically be signed out on December 10. For these users, channels won't be visible. Data will be saved so they can reactivate their accounts when they turn 16, so at least that's a positive for young YouTube users in Australia. Additionally, YouTube will still work for children, they just won't be able to log in.

Reddit

The giant content sharing website will suspend accounts of users under 16 and prevent new ones being opened by underage users. It didn't mention anything regarding accounts being re-opened or data being saved for when users turn 16.

Twitch

The popular video game (and other content) live streaming platform says no under-16s in Australia will be allowed to create new accounts starting on December 10, but current accounts held by under-16s will take a little longer to be turned off, with January 9 as the end date.

Kick

The video streaming website hasn't commented on the issue yet.

Threads

Like other Meta platforms accounts are starting be deactivated as of December 4.

Anyone under 16 years old will no longer be allowed to have an account on these platforms. Meta (Instagram, Threads, and Facebook) started blocking accounts on December 4, 2025, but all companies will now have to do the same.

The eSafety Commissioner has said this list isn't exhaustive and further apps and platforms could be added in the future. For now, platforms including Discord, WhatsApp, Messenger, Pinterest, Bluesky, Roblox, and Steam are not included in the ban.

Fines of up to AU$49.5 million (~$32 million) can be handed out to companies who fail to implement "reasonable steps" to prevent children from having accounts.

What privacy protections are in place?

A key part of the legislation is the fact Australians won't be compelled to submit government-approved ID to prove their age. Platforms can offer it as an option, but must also provide alternatives.

The government has reassured Australians that the law "builds on the existing privacy protections contained in the Privacy Act." Social media companies must only use collected personal information for other purposes "in certain circumstances" – one of those being user consent. However it isn't clear whether user consent must be obtained for every use of data beyond age verification, or just some.

The law's primary aim is to protect children from the "pressures and risks" of social media. The Australian government has said it "is protecting young Australians at a critical stage of their development" through legislation described as a "world first."

Age verification and VPNs

Social media platforms will use engagement and account data to determine the age of a user. Anyone it thinks is under 16 will have their account removed. Affected users who want to appeal a decision or have been mistakenly labelled as under 16 will have to complete age verification checks to unlock their account.

As with the UK and US, data such as live selfies and government-issued ID can be used to verify age. Experts have been vocal about the data privacy and cybersecurity risks of age verification. There is concern over the threat of hacking and whether non-Australian age check companies will follow Australian data privacy laws.

The law also requires significant amounts of children's personal data to be collected and monitored by social media companies – many of which don't have stellar records when it comes to data privacy. This has led some to ask if the law does more harm than good.

Age check company Yoti said its technology is more accurate than humans at estimating age, especially for 16 to 17 years olds – however others say different. Reports have suggested accuracy varies, most notably for those with an Indigenous or south-east Asian background.

At the time of writing, a spike in the search term "VPN" is already being seen in Australia and is expected to continue rising.

VPNs encrypt your data but can also change your IP address. Connecting to a VPN server in another country will make it appear as though you're located in that country when browsing the web – theoretically enabling a user to bypass age verification checks and/or bans.

It isn't clear yet how exactly this would work in this particular situation, and whether social media accounts could be accessed from IP addresses outside of Australia. However the government requires social media platforms to try and "stop under-16s from using VPNs to pretend to be outside Australia."

We're yet to see how this could be done, but any targeting of VPNs could have a wider impact on legal VPN use in Australia and impact the online privacy of both children and adults.

We test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example:1. Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service).2. Protecting your online security and strengthening your online privacy when abroad.We do not support or condone the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.

Australia’s social media ban, which will come into effect on December 10, 2025, aims to restrict access to social media platforms for children under the age of 16, protecting them from the dangers of social media, including cyberbullying and online harassment.

While the measure impacts a vast majority of the most popular platforms – including Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube – the list, at the time of writing, does not include Discord.

However, given that Australia’s eSafety Commissioner has clarified that the list is a dynamic one and could see further additions down the line, speculation is rife about whether Discord could join the pack. This has led to a spike in interest in the best VPNs to potentially circumvent potentila age verification on the platform.

In this article, we’ll give you a detailed overview of Australia’s world-first social media ban, what platforms are currently mandated to enforce age restrictions, and which ones could be next.

What is Australia's social media ban?

Australia's social media ban is the first of its kind in the world. It mandates social media platforms to verify their users’ ages and deactivate accounts belonging to anyone under 16.

According to Australia’s eSafety Commissioner, these platforms must take "reasonable steps," which essentially includes identifying users under 16 through various age verification measures and then deactivating those accounts. If they fail to abide by this law, they can face a fine of up to AU$49.5 million (US$32.8 million). The banned apps include:

• Facebook
• Instagram
• TikTok
• Snapchat
• X (Twitter)
• YouTube
• Reddit
• Twitch
• Kick
• Threads

These platforms will, by and large, give under-16s two options. The first is to temporarily deactivate their account and then re-access it once they turn 16, with none of their content being deleted. The second is to completely delete their account. In either case, teens will have the option to download all of their photos, videos, and messages before choosing whether to deactivate or delete.

As for how platforms will verify users’ ages, the eSafety Commissioner has left that up to the companies themselves. It has clarified that it "does not expect a platform to make every account holder go through an age check process."

Some platforms, like YouTube, have provided some clarity, saying they will verify a flagged user’s age based on the age listed in their Google account and other signals, which likely include account activity and behavioral metrics – which is also what Snapchat plans to use.

Meta, on the other hand, has decided not to disclose exactly how it plans to determine which users are under 16, citing concerns that revealing its methods would make it easier for teens to bypass the ban.

It’s important to note that the social media accounts of under-16s won’t simply vanish overnight come December 10. eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant clarified that they understand the technical complexities involved in implementing such a regulation and are therefore fully on board with giving platforms some time to roll out the changes.

Inman Grant explained: "We’ll be watching closely, but I also want to set expectations that we will take a graduated risk and outcomes-based approach to compliance and enforcement, focusing on platforms with the highest proportion of underage users."

Is Australia banning Discord?

Discord, as well as platforms like WhatsApp, Roblox, Pinterest, GitHub, Messenger, and LinkedIn, are for now exempt from Australia’s social media ban.

However, the government has kept things open-ended, stating that the current list of banned apps is dynamic and could eventually include any of these exempted platforms, which, at the time of writing, are in the grey area. That applies perfectly to Discord, which borders the line between gaming, communication, and social media.

While it is primarily used for creating support groups for software, games, and online services, or for collaborating on projects, it does include several social media-like features, including text/voice/video messaging, the ability to create public servers, interact with new people, and share media or other content.

We test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example:1. Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service).2. Protecting your online security and strengthening your online privacy when abroad.We do not support or condone the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.

Australia's Online Safety Amendment Act, which was signed into law in December last year, is all set to come into effect on December 10, 2025. It’s the first law of its kind in the world, aiming to enforce a complete social media ban for children under the age of 16.

The list of social media platforms and apps getting banned for under-16s includes Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, X, and more. However, the good news for fans of Roblox is that the Aussie government has not decided to include it in the ban list yet.

Still, this has caused a spike in interest in the best Roblox VPNs as a precaution and to potentially circumvent any age verification that may be put in place. Keep reading to find out more about Australia's social media ban, which platforms are included, which are not – and why, although Roblox is available to under-16s right now, that could soon change under this law’s dynamic system.

What is Australia's social media ban?

Australia’s social media ban is the country’s latest and most intense move yet to protect its young teenagers from being exposed and negatively impacted by harmful content, harassment, and cyberbullying, which have unfortunately become prevalent on social media platforms.

According to a survey by security.org, there's a 79% chance that kids on YouTube will be cyberbullied, followed by Snapchat at 69%, TikTok at 64%, and Facebook at 49%. These are all pretty high numbers when you think about it.

Here’s the full list of social media apps getting banned in Australia from December 10:

• Facebook
• Instagram
• TikTok
• Snapchat
• X (Twitter)
• YouTube
• Reddit
• Twitch
• Kick
• Threads

Under this mandate, the Australian Government has put the responsibility of restricting under-16s’ access to social media on the platforms themselves. The eSafety Commissioner must be satisfied that these platforms have taken “reasonable steps” to prevent under-16s from holding an account. If they fail to do so, they can face a fine of up to AU$49.5 million (US$32.8 million).

The platforms have all rolled out a largely similar plan of action, wherein they’ll give teens the option to download all of their photos and messages and then deactivate (or archive) their accounts. Then, when they do turn 16, they will be able to access their accounts once again without having any of their content deleted. Alternatively, they can simply choose to delete their accounts entirely.

As for how these platforms will verify users’ ages, that’s up to them. However, the Australian Government has made it clear that requesting ID cannot be the only form of age verification. In response, different companies have outlined different steps they would take, some being more transparent than others.

For example, Meta has said that revealing its age-verification method could help teens figure out how to bypass the ban, for example, via the use of VPNs.

Snapchat, on the other hand, said it will use account behavioral signals in addition to the birthdays entered by users themselves.

TikTok has said it will employ a multi-layered approach that combines technology and human moderation to comply with Australia’s latest law.

Is Australia banning Roblox?

At the time of writing, there are no plans to ban Roblox in Australia. The government has not named Roblox as one of the social media platforms that will need to enforce the ban.

However, the biggest caveat here is that the Australian Government has clarified that the list they have put out is a dynamic one, and that they could later add other platforms – including Roblox and others like Discord, WhatsApp, Lemon8, GitHub, etc. – if they feel that kids in the country have started to flee to one such platform. That's why we're seeing a spike in interest in the best VPNs in the country.

Roblox in particular could be in the line of fire if such a large migration were to take place, because even right now the platform hosts a lot of social media-like features such as in-game text chat, direct messaging, voice chat, and its recently introduced Roblox Moments, which is essentially a TikTok-like feed where users can share their gameplay.

We test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example:1. Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service).2. Protecting your online security and strengthening your online privacy when abroad.We do not support or condone the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.

Australia's world-first social media ban is just days away, but questions are swirling about which apps are affected and whether the rollout will go ahead as planned.

The new laws, which take effect on December 10, 2025, will require major platforms to block or deactivate all accounts held by users under 16. They must also prevent new underage signups and take "reasonable steps" to enforce the rule, or face fines of up to AU$49.5 million (US$32.8 million).

While the policy has sparked concern from privacy advocates, tech companies, and politicians alike, the ban is still set to go ahead, though enforcement will be gradual and inconsistent at first.

What is Australia's social media ban?

From December 10, social media companies will be legally required to deactivate or block all accounts belonging to under-16s in Australia. Users who are underage will also be prevented from creating new accounts until they turn 16.

Platforms that fail to take "reasonable steps" to comply face steep penalties (up to AU$49.5 million) from Australia's eSafety Commissioner.

The following platforms are included under the initial ban:

• Facebook
• Instagram
• TikTok
• Snapchat
• X (Twitter)
• YouTube
• Reddit
• Twitch
• Kick
• Threads

This list is not final: other apps may be added later, particularly if teens flock to alternative platforms like Lemon8 or Discord, which are currently exempt.

Age verification methods vary by platform. Some, like Snapchat, plan to use behavioral signals and birth dates.

Others, like TikTok and Kick, say they'll implement layered systems involving facial age estimation, credit card verification, or human moderation.

Meta has declined to share specifics, citing the risk of users trying to circumvent age verification, for example via the use of VPNs.

Has Australia's social media ban been delayed?

No, the ban is still moving ahead on December 10.

While a parliamentary committee recently recommended a six-month delay, and an ongoing High Court challenge has raised free speech concerns, the government has not shifted its position. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Communications Minister Michelle Rowland have both reaffirmed their support.

In fact, several major platforms have already started compliance measures. Meta (Facebook and Instagram) has begun locking underage users out. TikTok, YouTube, Kick, Twitch, and Snapchat have all said they will comply with the new rules. X and Reddit have not yet commented publicly, however.

That said, officials have acknowledged that full enforcement will take time. eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant warned that underage accounts won't vanish overnight and that rollout will be staggered, focusing on platforms with the largest share of teen users first.

"We do not anticipate that all the under-16 accounts will automatically or magically disappear on December 10 overnight," she said.

So while enforcement may be slow and patchy, the ban is very much going ahead, and Australia is now the first country in the world to implement a nationwide age-based social media restriction.

We test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example:1. Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service).2. Protecting your online security and strengthening your online privacy when abroad.We do not support or condone the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.

The FBI has issued a new public service announcement warning that cybercriminals are stealing images from social media accounts and altering them. These altered photos are then used as fake "proof of life" claims in virtual kidnapping scams.

According to the FBI's warning, the scams are initiated via text message and don't involve any actual abductions. Instead, the cybercriminals use the manipulated photos and publicly available information to convince victims that a loved one is in danger.

"Criminal actors typically will contact their victims through text message claiming they have kidnapped their loved one and demand a ransom be paid for their release," the federal agency warned.

As part of the scam, the cybercriminals threaten significant violence against the alleged kidnappee if a ransom is not paid immediately. They will then send the altered photo.

Upon closer inspection, you can find inaccuracies like missing scars or tattoos, or strange body proportions. The agency claims that cybercriminals will send the photos using timed message features to limit how long potential victims have to study the image.

The FBI did not provide any information on how common these virtual kidnappings have become or how many complaints have been filed with the Internet Crime Complaint Center.

On social media sites like Reddit, people have reported incidents of this scam with scammers spoofing loved ones' phone numbers. However, the most recent incident we could find was from two months ago.

How to stay safe from this scam

The FBI does have some recommendations as to how you can protect yourself from falling victim to this new scam including being mindful of information you post online, especially if you post missing person searches.

As with most online scams, this fake kidnapping ruse uses a sense of urgency to get victims to act quickly. Keeping a level head and thinking things through before you do anything will help you stay safe.

Other recommendations from the FBI include:

• Avoid sharing personal information when traveling
• Establish a codeword that only you or loved ones know if you find yourself in trouble
• Pause. Do the kidnapper's claims make sense?
• Screenshot or record proof of life photos
• Always attempt to contact your loved one before even considering paying a ransom

Invest in a good defense

Beyond staying calm, there are multiple ways to protect yourself online further.

First, when it comes to social media, be careful what information and images you post, especially if you maintain a public (not private) account. You can always lock your account to only let close friends and family see your posts.

Beyond that, the best offense is a good defense, like investing in one of the best identity theft protection services. Identity theft protection helps you get your life back together after an attack, whether you've lost money from a scam or had your Social Security number stolen to impersonate you online or in the real world.

From there, you also want to protect your devices with the best antivirus software and best Android antivirus apps for your phones.

Of course, knowledge is power, and continuing to educate yourself by reading about the latest scams and malware campaigns will help you know what signs to look out for, making you less likely to fall victim to one. Then, it's just a matter of sharing your knowledge with family, friends and co-workers to help them avoid falling victim to scams like this one too.

More from Tom's Guide

• X faces a $140 million fine for violating the EU's Digital Services Act — Elon Musk responds
• 7 online scams that can leave you broke, exposed, and feeling helpless — how to stay safe
• Apple ID alert: This scam is stealing accounts right now using real Apple support tickets

X (nee Twitter) has become the first company to be fined under the European Union’s Digital Service Act (DSA). The European Commission announced that X will be fined €120 million (about $140 million) and could face “periodic penalty payments” if the Elon Musk-owned platform fails to comply with the DSA.

The fine stems from what the EU considers three violations: deceptive design around the ‘blue checkmark', failure to provide public data to researchers, and a lack of transparency and accessibility of its ad repository.

When Musk bought Twitter in 2022, one of the first alterations he made was to change how the platform issued blue checkmarks to verify notable users. Instead, the social media site began charging $8 a month for blue checks. This prompted a wave of imposter accounts, and also caused many verified Twitter users to drop their checkmarks.

X advertises the blue checkmarks as the only way to verify an account. However, the commission, which began investigating X in 2023, found that the new verified status isn’t actually “verified” by the company, making it “difficult for users to judge the authenticity of accounts and content they engage with.”

X infringements

The commission calls the checkmark deceptive and says that it exposes users to scams and manipulation by bad actors. The DSA does not mandate user verification but according to the commission, it does prohibit false claims of veracity.

Similarly, a lack of access to X’s ad repository means the researchers and users aren’t able to detect scams, fake ads, threat campaigns or “coordinated information operations.” The commission blamed the design of X and access barriers that delay information processing or lack critical information like who is paying for an advertisement or the content and topic of an ad.

Finally, the DSA accused X of failing to provide researchers with access to the service’s public data.

X has 60 to 90 days to inform the Commission on how it will address these infringements and submit an action plan. Failure to comply will induce penalty payments.

What is the DSA?

Signed into law in 2022, the Digital Services Act is an attempt by the EU to modernize its legal framework surrounding digital platforms like social media networks, online marketplaces, app stores and search engines.

The EU information site about the Act says it aims to “create a safer digital space where the fundamental rights of users are protected and to establish a level playing field for businesses.”

Since 2023, the list of platforms required to maintain compliance with the DSA has included a number of major “very large online platforms”(VLOPs) including X. Other notable VLOPs include Amazon, the Apple AppStore, Google Maps, Google Search and YouTube.

Elon Musk accuses the EU of censorship

Elon Musk has not released an “official” statement but he did respond “Bullshit” underneath a European Commission X post about the fine. He followed that up by reposting several messages criticizing the decision and wrote, “Freedom of speech is the bedrock democracy. The only way to know what you are voting for."

Musk has spent much of the day tweeting about freedom of speech and the decline of European civilization or reposting similar critiques, including ones that imply the EU wanted X to censor speech or face fines.

U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance got in on the action today as well.

“Rumors swirling that the EU commission will fine X hundreds of millions of dollars for not engaging in censorship,” Vance wrote on X. “The EU should be supporting free speech not attacking American companies over garbage.”

Similar statements were shared by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and FCC Chairman Brendan Carr.

Vance and President Trump have previously criticized the EU’s stricter regulations on big tech companies as a way for the continent to censor Americans, Reuters noted.

The European Commission’s tech chief Henna Virkkunen has pushed back against the censorship narrative saying that the fine was proportionate and calculated based on the nature and gravity of the infringements.

"We are not here to impose the highest fines. We are here to make sure that our digital legislation is enforced and if you comply with our rules, you don't get the fine. And it's as simple as that," she told Reuters and other reporters.

"I think it's very important to underline that DSA is having nothing to do with censorship," Virkkunen said.

More from tom's Guide

• Elon Musk's AI vs. Google's AI with 9 challenging prompts — here's the clear winner
• No, you shouldn’t follow Elon Musk’s sleep habits — here’s why
• I pitted Wikipedia against Elon Musk’s new Grokipedia — here’s which one gave the better answers

Meta has started to shut down the social media accounts of under-16s in Australia, several days before the country's social media ban officially comes into effect.

The ban comes into force on Wednesday, December 10, 2025, and is seen as a "world-first." 10 social media giants, including YouTube, X, Snapchat, and TikTok, will be impacted, and anyone who is estimated to be under 16 will have their account deleted or deactivated.

Meta has already commenced the shutting down of accounts on Instagram, Threads, and Facebook – with at least 500,000 accounts expected to be affected.

Interest in the best VPNs is expected as a result of the ban. According to regulations, social media companies must try and "stop under-16s from using VPNs to pretend to be outside Australia."

Meta moves early

In November, Meta said it had started notifying users aged 13-15 that their accounts would be shut down from December 4, and gave them the opportunity to download and save their data. Meta has also blocked the creation of new accounts for anyone under 16.

Reported by The Guardian and Al-Jazeera, a Meta spokesperson said it was "working hard" to remove users, but "compliance with the law will be an ongoing and multilayered process."

Meta confirmed that children will be able to regain access to accounts, including all their content, once they turn 16.

Platforms who fail to implement "reasonable steps" to prevent children from having social media accounts could face fines of up to AU$49.5 million (~$32 million). There will be no penalties for under-16s who access an age-restricted social media platform.

Meta has identified those it believes to be underage, but anyone who has been mistakenly identified as such can ask for a review and complete age verification checks.

Which age verification checks are used has been left up to the individual social media platforms. Meta users can upload a video selfie, driver's license, or government-issued ID, with the age verification process being handled by UK-based firm Yoti.

More harm than good?

As with age verification laws imposed in the UK and US, critics argue checks will have a negative effect on personal privacy, and data collection leads to increased cybersecurity risks.

Meta has argued age checks should be completed at an app store level. Apps could only be downloaded once a user has been verified as over 16, and this would mean verification wouldn't need to be completed on every app.

Children may turn to VPNs in an attempt to bypass the social media ban. Free VPNs would likely be their first port of call, and there is a risk they may download harmful applications which collect and monetise their data.

When it comes to free VPNs, only the best free VPNs can be considered 100% safe to use. They invariably lack premium features, but offer high levels of encryption and genuine privacy.

Tom Sulston, Head of Policy at Australia-based Digital Rights Watch, is one of those who is worried about children turning to potentially harmful free VPNs. He said some free VPNs will be "monetising" children by "monitoring their online activity." Sulston added that this would open up children "to even more harms than if they didn’t need to use a VPN in the first place."

Social media companies have been told to try and stop children from using VPNs to bypass bans, but how this would work is unclear. Any attack on VPNs could have wider privacy implications for all Australians.

The Australian government has said it is "protecting young Australians at a critical stage of their development," and its actions should be seen as "a delay to having accounts" rather than a ban.

We test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example:1. Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service).2. Protecting your online security and strengthening your online privacy when abroad.We do not support or condone the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.

On December 3, 2025, Russia blocked popular US gaming platform Roblox, accusing it of supplying extremist materials and promoting LGBTQ propaganda. The communications watchdog Roskomnadzor believes the platform spreads inappropriate content that could stunt the moral and spiritual development of children.

This is a common claim any time an online platform is blocked in Russia. Still, Russian Roblox fans aren’t ready to accept their fate just yet, sending many to seek the best VPNs that can unblock the platform.

Extremist materials

Russia frequently uses claims of "extremist propaganda" as a reason for outright bans, throttling, and temporary blocks on gaming and social media platforms. The country heavily throttled and blocked chat platforms like WhatsApp and Telegram earlier this year, and then rolled out Max. Max is Russia’s state-integrated solution to mainstream video and chat services.

A government push to use Max has officials making it a prerequisite for civil servants and students, even going as far as to threaten job loss or expulsion if the app isn’t installed.

Russia isn’t the first country to block the game, though – Iraq and Turkey have also placed a ban on Roblox, citing concerns that predators could use the game to lure and abuse children.

Children at risk

Protecting children online is important, but some argue that moderating children's activity within the Roblox universe may be more sensible than an outright ban. It is salient to note that Roblox is not solely a child's game.

The online platform hosts millions of user-generated games and social experiences for adults, such as virtual coffee shops and other meeting places. It even has its own game creation software (Roblox Studio), which allows users to create and publish games using virtual currency (Robux).

For the most part, it claims to do its due diligence in trying to keep children from accessing adult-themed content. The game implements safety measures based on user age that restrict access to certain tools and games.

The platform's website further details what is and isn’t accessible within a certain age range under Safety by Age. In the Safety section of Roblox’s website, there’s also information about other topics such as parental controls, transparency practices, and safety tools and policies.

It is also notable that Roblox does come under the remit of Australia's upcoming Online Safety Amendment – legislation that is intended to protect under-16s from inappropriate content on social media.

A spike in Roblox VPN searches

It is unsurprising that fans of the online gaming platform are looking to VPNs for help navigating around the block. In the last few hours, we have seen a considerable traffic increase to the Tom's Guide Roblox VPN page, with almost all traffic coming from Yandex users in Russia. As of yet, it is unclear whether using a VPN will allow access to Roblox in Russia.

Notably, the Russian government is considering an outright ban on VPN apps in app stores. This has not yet been implemented, but VPNs may well be under threat in the country.

At Tom's Guide, we stress to our readers to only use reputable, verified VPNs. Many free VPNs in both the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store are unsafe to use. Instead, we recommend VPNs that we have tested and reviewed, and have verified as safe. Examples include NordVPN, Surfshark, and ExpressVPN.

We test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example:1. Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service).2. Protecting your online security and strengthening your online privacy when abroad.We do not support or condone the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.

On Wednesday, December 10, 2025, Australia will enforce its blockbuster social media ban – officially titled "Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Act 2024."

This legislation aims to stop children under the age of 16 from accessing a wide range of social media applications, including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and Reddit. The ban is the first of its kind to come into effect, although countries such as Denmark, Norway, and France are also considering similar measures.

The bill was passed in November 2024, and states that tech companies that do not take "reasonable steps" to enforce the bill will face fines of up to AU$49.5m (US$32m). Controversially, however, each individual platform will decide how it verifies a user's age, rather than using a centralized system.

The Online Safety Amendment addresses the widely held belief that children's lives are negatively impacted by social media, and that it can impact socialization, self-image, and physical activity, and also make children vulnerable to predators.

However, privacy and internet freedom advocates claim that its implementation may do more harm than good, and that these platforms may become even more harmful for those children that manage to circumvent the ban with tech like VPNs.

What platforms are affected?

Almost all major social media platforms come under the remit of the bill, although gaming platforms and apps are currently unaffected.

This is currently the full list of apps affected:

• Facebook
• Instagram
• TikTok
• Snapchat
• X
• YouTube
• Reddit
• Twitch
• Kick
• Threads

Notable platforms that are unaffected include Discord, WhatsApp, Messenger, and YouTube Kids. Some social media platforms like LinkedIn and BlueSky have been omitted due to being either low risk, low usage in Australia, or being of less perceived interest to children.

However, as reported in the Guardian, this is a "dynamic list," and if the exodus from one app sees a considerable uptake of another, there is scope for that app to be banned as well.

How will the ban be enforced?

It's unclear exactly how the ban will be enforced, although independent government regulator eSafety states that the methods used need to "meet the regulatory requirements and respect privacy laws and digital rights."

The details are made even more woolly due to the fact that each platform is free to decide exactly how it verifies the age of its users. However, most apps have already sent notifications to most users suspected of being under 16. For these users, methods used to verify age will likely include facial scans, government IDs, and bank account information.

Interestingly, Meta is kicking things off early, and on December 4, users it estimates to be under 16 will be blocked. Appeals can be made, in the form of an age-verification check performed by dedicated age-verification software Yoti. However, as reported by ABC Australia, facial recognition checks are less effective at determining the age of people under 16, and are also less effective for people from an Indigenous or south-east Asian background.

Snap, owner of Snapchat, will use "behavioural signals based on account activity" to estimate ages of users, and will use ConnectID and K-ID to perform any check necessary. Both ConnectID and K-ID are private companies.

Other platforms have been less clear about the methods they intend to use, and we may have to wait until December 10 to get a clearer picture.

What does this mean for people over 16?

eSafety's guidelines state that it "does not expect a platform to make every account holder go through an age check process if it has other accurate data indicating the user is 16 or older.

"For example, if someone has had an account since Facebook started in Australia in 2006, Meta could reasonably assume they are older than 16 so no further check is needed."

However, if your account has been flagged but you're over 16, you will need to verify your age. As mentioned above, each platform will have a different method of doing this. Expect facial scans to be a common option, alongside uploading official identification documents like driving licences or passports.

What are the downsides?

Despite the fact that the Online Safety Amendment's intention is good – the protection of children online is paramount – privacy advocates have raised very similar concerns to those associated with the UK's Online Safety Act.

Primarily, this revolves around the mandatory sharing of personal details and documentation, alongside linking a real identity with your account, but also includes concerns over the potential rise of phishing scams.

If you're a user of all the affected apps, it's quite possible that you will be required to send your personal details to five or six different third-party companies to verify your age. If even one of these stores your information after verification and is hacked or compromised in the future, your personal data is at risk.

What's more, YouTube has claimed that these measures will make its platform less safe for teens. It stated that parents will "lose their ability to supervise their teen or tween's account," and that the "rushed regulation that misunderstands our platform and the way young Australians use it."

A rise in risky VPNs

VPNs are often seen as a quick and easy way to circumvent internet restrictions, and it's likely that VPN use will spike when the social media ban comes into force. However, eSafety states in its guidelines that social media platforms are "expected to try to stop under-16s from using VPNs to pretend to be outside Australia."

It's important to note that many fake VPNs exist, and a considerable amount of free VPNs on app stores have very poor privacy credentials. Most will do more harm than good. This is why we rigorously test VPNs, focusing on privacy, logging policies, and general performance. In a landscape where there are so many risky options, being informed is essential.

We rate NordVPN as the best VPN, closely followed by Surfshark and ExpressVPN. All three are safe to use, have been fully audited to prove they do not log your personal data, and have servers in dozens of countries around the world.

We test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example:1. Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service).2. Protecting your online security and strengthening your online privacy when abroad.We do not support or condone the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.

Over the past couple of hours, you may have been experiencing issues loading X.com or bugs when it comes to loading videos or replying to X posts. This comes off the back of over 13,500 user outage reports at the peak of a massive problem that took down large chunks of the internet.

But X itself isn't the main culprit here, Cloudflare is, and some of the website and app bugs are still persisting because of it. Let me take you through what happened.

What is Cloudflare?

Let's start from the beginning. Cloudflare is one of the biggest networks on the internet for apps and websites. Think of it like a popular, bustling store with a security guard outside that protects against cyberattacks, a traffic cop that keeps the the roads to this store running smoothly, and a range of pop-up stores closer to your customers that ensure people can get their items quicker.

It's basically the store window for a lot of key internet services like X and ChatGPT, but an "internal service degradation" took it down alongside many other systems like Shopify, Vimeo and more.

Explaining the X outage

Many people trying to visit key websites saw this error. Basically, the servers of these services were working — it was the middle-man of Cloudflare that was broken, which lead to huge widespread 500 errors and these generic errors. Even Down Detector went down in one of the more funny moments of irony.

Let's go back to the store metaphor. Let's imagine that the security guard at the door fell asleep on the job. They're unable to do their job and the queue piles up outside, as Cloudflare is unable to verify the identity of traffic entering the site.

The shop is operating just fine inside, but all the foot traffic is getting impatient and leaving.

What's the fix?

To fix this, Cloudflare is probably looking at the central communication network to resolve the issue — basically the glue that holds everything together. Think like waking that security guard up and giving him a walkie-talkie to ensure they stay awake.

Because while the issue may be this one thing, it's probably causing the ripple effect of profile pictures and videos not loading intermittently. The metaphorical store of Cloudflare has a shop window that everyone looks into to get their website content, and if one part of this shop fails, that can affect what people can see.

We don't know this specifically, as the current message on Cloudflare's status page is they are "continuing to investigate this issue," but it wouldn't surprise me if this was the case.

Keep it locked on our Cloudflare live blog for more updates on what else has been affected and updates on a fix. X.com looks like its at the very least operational again, but more are still facing issues.

More from Tom's Guide

• I tested the world’s first mindful browser — it finally convinced me to ditch Google Chrome
• Microsoft Teams will start snitching to your boss when you’re not in the office — and this update is coming in December
• How many more AWS outages until the internet builds a real backup plan? Experts answer the $2.5 billion question

Instagram was down, as thousands of users are reporting a service outage on Down Detector.

At around 12:08pm ET / 5:08pm GMT, users started reporting issues with the app and website. After our own testing and seeing other user outage reports, it seems that the desktop website was the only service affected.

But now, the service is back up and running correctly. Here are the updates as it happened.

LIVE UPDATES

That's a big outage spike

If you're experiencing issues with Instagram, you're not the only one. At the time of writing, 2,689 users have reported an outage is happening.

We're currently looking through user reports and comments, while testing Instagram for ourselves to see what's going wrong.

So far, we're seeing some weirdness on the desktop version of Instagram.

This looks like it's desktop-focused

We're seeing more users sharing their experiences, which are similar to my own testing. It looks the feed is not loading on desktop, but on the smartphone app, it seems to be fine.

May have just been a blip?

Whatever these service issues are with Instagram on desktop, it looks as if a fix may have been implemented, as the spike is quickly tapering off at just over 1,000 user reports.

The outage looks to be over

Well, that was quick! The desktop site for Instagram is working for us again, and the number of user outage reports has dropped down to 234 at the time of writing — much closer to the expected average.

If you struggled to access your Reddit feed today, you weren't alone. Down Detector saw a huge spike in issues, exceeding 20,000 reports. Needless to say, this is a pretty big issue for those of us who love mindlessly scrolling through Reddit's feed throughout the day.

Some of us here at Tom's Guide experienced the problems for ourselves — including me, though everything is working now.

Reddit has confirmed that there was an issue with the platform that has since been fixed.

If you want to see what was happening during the outage, you can read the live blog below.

Reddit was down — live updates on the outage

The story so far

According to Down Detector, problems started being reported at around 6.50 a.m. EST / 3:59 a.m. PST. Within half an hour that spike in reports exceeded 20,000 reports, showing how quickly this problem has arisen.

The fact the east coast is now waking up, and likely checking their feeds as they get ready for work, will have exacerbated the number of reports being received.

Reddit has confirmed the problem is real

This isn't some kind of mass hallucination or panic, Reddit has confirmed that the platform is facing some issues right now. The site's service page confirmed that the issue was being investigated from 4.27 PST, later updating at 4.44 PST to confirm that the problem has been identified and that a fix is in the works.

The service page also confirms that there is some "Degraded Performance" on Desktop, mobile web and all native mobile apps. I've experienced some of this myself, having been unable to leave comments on posts — despite still being able to browse some content in my feed.

What's affected?

According to Reddit there is some "degraded performance" on desktop web, mobile web and native mobile apps, but what does that actually mean?

For me the problem initially manifested as issues with commenting, getting an "Empty Response from Endpoint" error on the Android app. though this isn't uncommon, and I was still able to browse threads at my leisure. However that seems to have cleared up, and I've been able to brows different threads without issue.

Chime in with your own experiences down in the comments if you've faced any Reddit issues today.

Reports are dropping pretty quickly

As quickly as the reports spiked, it seems that they have started to drop pretty rapidly. Down to below 9,000 according to Down Detector.

Reddit hasn't updated the situation since it confirmed a fix was being implemented, but the user reports suggest that some of the problems may not be as plentiful as they were.

Like a stone

The reports are dropping like a stone. In fact, they're down to around 1,000 right now, which is far from the 20,000 at which it peaked.

The fix has been implemented

According to Reddit's status page, the fix has been implemented, which would explain the rapid drop in Down Detector reports.

"A fix has been implemented and we are monitoring the results," reads the status page.

A few moments later, Reddit posted, "We are continuing to monitor for any further issues."

X (formerly Twitter) is alerting users of passkeys and hardware-based security keys that they have until November 10th to re-enroll them for two-factor authentication, or they will lose access to their accounts. The requirement, according to reporting from Bleeping Computer, isn’t prompted by a security incident but rather by the migration of the domain from twitter.com to x.com.

The shift will cause any hardware based security keys, like Yubikey, or passkeys that are tied to twitter.com to stop working once the domains are switched over. This means that after November 10th, users will need to have re-enrolled their passkey or security key or their accounts will be locked until they do. There are a few options to get an account reinstated including re-enrolling a security key, choosing a different 2FA method, or even electing not to use two-factor authentication – though, for what it’s worth, neither X’s thread nor Tom’s Guide recommends going without this crucial security step to protect your account.

Using a passkey or security key provides extra protection against hacking and phishing attempts by verifying a user’s identity with a cryptographic key stored on a standalone device or on their computer or smartphone. This is much more secure than traditional credentials which can be more easily stolen in phishing attacks or by info-stealing malware.

How to update your security keys

Switching your passkey or security key over isn’t difficult though. You just need to head to this page: x.com/settings/account/login_verification/security_keys

And then from there, disable your existing passkey or security key, and re-enroll it.

You will need to enter your password to confirm your identity but afterwards, your passkey or security key will then be associated with the switched x.com domain. That way, your access to X won't be interrupted once the final switch from twitter.com is completed.

Given that Elon Musk waited just nine months before changing the social media platform's name from Twitter to X, it was clear that this domain change would come sooner rather than later. However, now it's almost here and if you use a passkey or security key to log into your account, now is the time to make the necessary preparations to avoid losing access.

More from Tom's Guide

• Don't wait for Black Friday — our favorite antivirus software is up to 80% off right now
• Over 180 million email accounts have been leaked — check to see if yours is on the list
• 7 things you should never share on the internet — and not the obvious ones like your address and SSN

Snapchat users yesterday morning (October 20) found themselves unable to log in, send Snaps or receive messages after the app fell victim to a major AWS outage. Amazon's cloud provider suffered a major problem that had a knock-on effect on thousands of online services and millions of users.

Reports on Snapchat's problems started to surface on the outage monitoring website DownDetector at around 3 a.m. ET / 7 a.m. BST. At their peak, the reports numbered over 22,000.

The specific problem was traced back to a hub dubbed US-EAST-1 Region which affected people East Coast but also resulted in a cascade effect of other services that based their infrastructure out of the region. Despite several fixes reported by AWS, the deployment was slow and repairs took almos the entire day to fix.

Snapchat users reported being unable to log in, load or send any messages. In extreme circumstances, some said they'd been locked out of their account. After repeated attempts, those users allegedly got the following message: “Due to repeated failed attempts or other unusual activity, your access to Snapchat is temporarily disabled. Please try again.”

There was a lot of concern from Snapchat's massive userbase that their Snap Streaks would be lost as a result of the downtime.

We followed the outage as it happens and you can see our reporting below in chronological order as we first became aware of the problems.

Live: Latest Updates

A massive spike

The huge number of reports surfacing this morning on DownDetector shows the extent of this morning's problems. While the reports are falling now, at their peak around 3.50 a.m. ET / 8.50 a.m. BST, the reports were up at 22,762.

C14A: Service unavailable

Trying to log into Snapchat this morning results in a C14A: Service unavailable error message which is internet speak for the app being unavailable to make a connection with its servers. Since Amazon Web Services is also experiencing a huge outage this morning, the two are clearly linked.

Snapchat service will likely resume as soon as Amazon is able to fix whatever its problem is.

What other services are affected?

Snapchat is far from the only service experiencing problems today as a result of the AWS outage. As you can see from the graphic above, the likes of Roblox, Fortnite and Ring are also experiencing issues.

Payment platform Venmo, trading app Robinhood and streaming service Crunchyroll are also hit. Other victims include the McDonald's app for some users and the Lyft ridesharing service.

Today's problems highlight that while the internet is home to millions of different brands and services, a lot of the technical or discovery infrastructure rests with a few all-powerful companies. And when something goes wrong for them, it gets bad quickly.

How big is Snapchat?

Snapchat may not get mentioned in the same breath as Facebook, Instagram or TikTok, but it's still one of the largest social media platforms on the planet. The app launched back in 2011 and quickly became well-known for its disappearing snaps. A feature that was quickly copied by rivals.

Fast-forward to 2025 and it's added a huge number of new features, launched hardware in the form of Snapchat Spectacles and has hundreds of millions of active users around the world.

According to some of the latest stats I could find, Snapchat has around 932 million monthly active users (MAU) and 469 million daily active users (DAU) as of October 2025. That's a lot of people potentially affected by today's outage.

What are the most affected areas?

Unsurprisingly, a lot of the reports of problems are coming from cities where there are more users. The likes of Los Angeles and San Francisco are reporting major problems (despite the fact it's currently 2 a.m. PT at time of writing) but also New York, Chicago, Minneapolis and Dallas. I'm writing to you from London in the U.K., which is also affected.

Amazon, meanwhile, has acknowledged problems affecting "multiple AWS services" particularly in the US-East-1 (Northern Virginia) region, which is a central hub for a lot of its cloud customers.

Due to the structure of the web, even databases not located in that region can experience knock-on problems as whatever the issue is cascades down to related services.

Amazon investigating 'increased error rates and latencies'

Amazon has acknowledged the problems causing today's Snapchat outage on its AWS service-health page and says it is seeing "increased error rates and latencies".

The company says it has investigated the cause of the issue and believes it to be "related to DNS resolution of the DynamoDB API endpoint in US-EAST-1."

Amazon states: "We are working on multiple parallel paths to accelerate recovery. This issue also affects other AWS Services in the US-EAST-1 Region. Global services or features that rely on US-EAST-1 endpoints such as IAM updates and DynamoDB Global tables may also be experiencing issues"

Elon Musk comments on today's outage

You can't have a global internet issue come up without some kind of input from Elon Musk. But the billionaire owner of X.com is being remarkably self-contained at the implosion of Snapchat this morning. He posted a tweet saying simply: "X works."

It might seem like he's being pithy but, since taking the reigns at X.com, Musk has indicated a need to move away from major public cloud providers like AWS. This isn't simply for robustness in the event of an outage like today. It's also do with cutting costs. X.com, like Snapchat and many other services, pay an eye-watering amount of money each year to utilize AWS.

Reports are falling fast — is this a good sign?

Over the last hour, the reports of problems at Snapchat seem to be falling fast over at DownDetector. At the time of writing (5.30 a.m. ET / 10.30 a.m. BST) the reports have fallen below 10,000 from a peak of over 22,000.

Despite this, many millions of people will still be seeing issues and I'm still unable to log in to Snapchat myself here in London. Rather than a specific error code, my app is now just displaying the standard "Something went wrong. Please try again later" message.

Amazon is currently investigating the AWS issues so while things may be improving, we're definitely not out of the woods yet.

We tried Snapchat's upcoming smart glasses

This may be an appropriate time to tell you that, apart from letting you send pictures and messages to your friends, Snapchat is actually working pretty hard on the next evolution of its business. We can't really blame the company for today's outage — that's Amazon's fault — but it is a good opportunity to tell you about what we saw.

Last month, our Managing Editor, Computing, Jason England, got to try out the first significant consumer-friendly update in Snap OS 2.0 that will run on the upcoming consumer Snap Specs set to launch next year.

Snap is going to try and marry AR with AI in these new glasses, which come with dual Snapdragon processors, four cameras (two of them being infrared computer vision), stereo speakers and a six-microphone array. Want to know more about them? Check out Jason's full story right here.

• Read the full story: Snap OS is finally ready for Snap Specs in 2026 — I just tested the game-changing update

Amazon claims the outage has been fixed

Amazon has updated its AWS health status page to say the cause of the issue has been fixed and the remainder of the outage will be over as soon as it has processed the backlog of requests.

"We are seeing significant signs of recovery," the company wrote at 2.27 a.m. PT / 5.37 a.m. ET / 10.30 a.m. BST.

"Most requests should now be succeeding. We continue to work through a backlog of queued requests. We will continue to provide additional information."

Snapchat Support isn't really helping...

Anyone hoping for a serious answer from Snapchat itself about today's issues will probably need to lower their expectations. During the course of today's outage, frustrated users have reached out on X.com to ask the company for advice on why they aren't able to log into their account.

From the looks of things, the automated account is simply responding with the same cut and paste message to everyone: "Hi there! Thanks for letting us know. We’re always working to improve the Snapchat experience on both platforms. Please keep an eye on your device's app store for new updates! In the meantime, we'll share the info you provided with our team."

Reports fall under 5,000 on DownDetector

In a further sign that things are returning to normal, reports on DownDetector have now fallen to under 5,000. This puts today's current outage at nearly three-and-a-half hours so far and, while there may be lingering problems for some, most users should start seeing regular service resume.

Snapchat hasn't posted anything directly itself, but Amazon Web Services has given the following update: "We continue to work towards full resolution and will provide updates as we have more information to share."

All the sites and services affected by today's AWS outage

While the internet is slowly coming back online now, events like this reveal just how pivotal Amazon Web Services is to the functioning of the web. Snapchat may have been one of the biggest services, but it was far from the only massive brand to see a blackout this morning.

“When AWS sneezes, half the internet catches the flu. Outages like this cause frustrated users, but also triggers a domino effect across payment flows," Monica Eaton, Founder and CEO of Chargebacks911 and Fi911 commented. "Failed authorizations, duplicate charges, broken confirmation pages, all of that fuels a wave of disputes that merchants will be cleaning up for weeks. And once a customer files a dispute, you are already on the back foot.”

Here's a list of all the services affected:

• Amazon (including Alexa and Prime Video)
• Apple Music
• Blink
• Chime
• Coinbase
• Delta
• Duolingo
• Epic Games Store
• Fanduel
• Fortnite
• HBO Max
• Hinge
• Life 360
• Lyft
• McDonalds app
• Microsoft Teams
• My Fitness Pal
• Office 365
• PlayStation Network
• Pokemon Go
• Reddit
• Ring
• Roblox
• Roku
• Signal
• Slack
• Snapchat
• Square
• Starbucks
• Steam
• Strava
• Ubisoft Connect
• Venmo
• VR Chat
• Wordle
• Xbox
• Xero
• Zoom

• Read the full story: Amazon outage: All the apps and services affected by the AWS outage

Snapchat is back up and running (for me, at least)

I've been checking my own Snapchat account throughout today's outage and, from the looks of things, everything is back to normal. I was able to load up the app, browse Snapchat Stories and the Snap Map as well as send messages.

It wasn't a flawless experience and load times did seem to be a bit more laggy than usual but the app was certainly usable.

"Fix your app"

I mentioned earlier that Snapchat's Twitter Support was copying and pasting the same message to affected users. It seems like things have improved somewhat with some more personalised responses asking users still experiencing problems to DM the support team.

But, bizarrely, the account still has a pinned message from June 12 at the top of its feed stating the issue has been fixed...

Users aren't pulling punches, either. X user Kimberlyy_2004 says bluntly: "fix your app everyone has the same C14A issue."

If Kimberlyy_2004 is reading this, there isn't a lot that Snapchat can do until the AWS issue is fully resolved and the backlog has been served. Apart from improve their Twitter communication, that is.

A second spike??

Uh-oh, this doesn't look good. Just as I was ready to call it quits on today's outage, DownDetector is seeing a second spike for Snapchat-related problems.

Now, this could be because East Coast users are beginning to come online and are finding that teething problems with AWS are keeping them from using the app. Or it could be that there are more problems than we first thought and more issues are occurring.

From a dip of under 5,000 reports, DownDetector is now showing nearly 7,000 as we approach 8 a.m. ET / 1 p.m. BST. I'll keep monitoring the situation to bring you the latest updates.

People are worried about their Snapchat Streaks

If the Snapchat outage lasts long enough, are people in danger of losing their Streaks? A few users have voiced concerns about this on X.com, and while I don't think it'll come to this, it's an interesting question to pose.

A Snapchat Streak is the same retention tactic you'll find in other apps. When two people Snap back and forth with each other at least once a day, every day, they're on a Streak. Once any user has kept it up long enough to start a Streak, they’ll see a fire emoji on the Chat screen.

If the problems with Snapchat persist beyond 24 hours then it's entirely likely a lot of Streaks will vanish. The app would then likely have to decide if it was able to put the Streaks back in place once normal service has resumed.

It's worth pointing this out because another app famous for its usage streaks, Duolingo, is also seeing major problems today as a result of the AWS outage.

You thought it was over?

I have to admit, I'm right there with you in thinking the worst was behind. But suddenly, after taking a sharp downturn, the reports are on the rise again. Currently hovering at just over 10,000 Down Detector reports, it's looking like this outage isn't ready to let up anytime soon.

Hopefully, this second rise in reports is just a quick blip and the slow return of AWS gets Snapchat back into a properly working state so everyone can keep those precious streaks alive.

How big is this AWS outage?

To give you a little perspective, this outage was huge, expanding far beyond Snapchat. According to a BBC report, Down Detector said it saw more than 6.5 million user reports across more than 1,000 companies.

Obviously, this draws some concern with how much of the internet relies on AWS. One outage taking down 1,000 companies isn't a good thing for anyway.

It's all fun and games...

Everyone has jokes. Almost every time there's a significant outage, someone goes viral with almost that exact post seen above. And you know what? I still chuckled.

How are you keeping yourself busy during the Snapchat outage?

With Snapchat being out of commission for this long, you've probably switched to one of the best Snapchat alternatives to keep the conversations with friends and loved ones going. So we want to know: which app are you using? Hit the poll above and sound off.

Still staying steady

Currently, Snapchat is still hanging out with around 10,000 reports on Down Detector. It spiked a little and then quickly leveled off. While some other services are starting to recover, Snapchat seems a little slower to be fixed.

Snapchat says: 'we're looking into it'

Snapchat has finally commented on today's outage. Sort of.

The Snapchat Support profile on X has issued a brief statement to its 900k followers: "We’re aware that some Snapchatters are having issues - hang tight, we’re looking into it."

Which is a pretty low-key acknowledgement if I'm being honest. Today's problems started around seven hours ago when the first reports started to come through that users were unable to log into the platform. Now that the issue has seemingly been fixed at the source, we're not sure why Snapchat's users are continuing to see problems.

If you thought AWS was fixed, well...

We know at this point that AWS is behind the ups and downs for Snapchat today, and while Amazon said it had solved the problem, that may have been premature.

The latest update from Amazon, posted about 10 minutes ago reads: "We have confirmed multiple AWS services experienced network connectivity issues in the US-EAST-1 Region. We are seeing early signs of recovery for the connectivity issues and are continuing to investigate the root cause."

If you've been following this live blog, you'll know the US-EAST-1 Region was the site of the initial disruption seven hours ago. It was deemed to be fixed, but apparently, that's not the case. So hang tight folks, because we may have a few more hours to go yet.

Snapchat reports are heading down again, but AWS issues are spiking

Reports on DownDetector are falling back down to below 10,000 again after a second spike.

Which is interesting, because if we look over at AWS reports on DownDetector, the reports there have surpassed the initial spike. The previous peak was around 6,000, and now it's up to 6,400. So while Snapchat users may be seeing some recovery, other apps are likely to start experiencing continued outages. For example, payment platform Venmo is currently seeing a huge spike in reports.

The internet is having a bad day.

Uh oh! Venmo appears to have gone down

Just as things looked like they were headed in a downward direction, Venmo is suddenly having issues with nearly 8,000 reports on Down Detector.

We're going to track that separately and I'll put a link here once we have that article ready.

Meanwhile, Snapchat was decreasing but has been holding steady around 8,000 reporrts as well since 7 A.M. Pacific.

The overreliance on single systems

Today's multi-app and site outage is a reminder of how interconnected everything is and how dependent the entire system is on a small number of companies (monopolies or close to it are bad kids).

Rob van Lubek, EMEA Vide President of Dynatrace spoke to Tom's Guide about this issue in a comment to Tom's Guide.

"Global incidents like this are a clear reminder of how dependent our world has become on software and digital systems operating as expected. Today's IT environments are far more complex and interconnected than many realize, so when an outage occurs, the ripple effects can quickly spread across industries and into people's daily lives.

“For large enterprises especially, the difference between disruption and recovery often comes down to visibility and speed - how fast an organization can pinpoint what's gone wrong, understand why, and act to restore service continuity. That level of digital resilience requires deep insight into how systems connect and where vulnerabilities might emerge, so teams can focus on what truly matters in a crisis."

He goes on, "As our reliance on technology grows and AI continues to reshape how we operate, maintaining that visibility across complex digital ecosystems will be essential."

Tracking Venmo

As a reminder, we are separately tracking Venmo, which is also down.

If you're interested in what's happening with the payment app, follow along with our Venmo outage blog.

Here's where Snapchat stands right now

We've been tracking the Snapchat outage for about 10 hours. Largely it looks like the problems can be traced back to an incident in the US-East-1 region for Amazon Web Services, which we are also monitoring here.

As of this writing, 10:30 A.M. Pacific, over on Down Detector, Snapchat is holding steady at around 8,000 reports has done so since around 6:30 a.m. Pacific.

Other than one tweet on the Snapchat Support account, the company has been largely silent. The account has been responding to people complaining about losing their streaks and not being able to login, but those response appear to be automated or at the very least copy pasted.

I have seen some people on X claiming that Snapchat isn't answering their DMs despite the company asking people to DM them to help with issues. That said, the people at Snapchat dealing with this might be overwhelmed. There are thousands of responses to that one post from 5 hours ago.

For now, nothing appears to be changing for better or worse.

In the meantime, we have reached out to Snapchat for comment and will update if and when we receive a response.

Snapchat isn't alone

The ongoing AWS problems aren't just affecting Snapchat, multiple services and companies are suffering through outages.

We have a big list here, and it may not cover everything that uses AWS and is affected.

As a reminder, we're also monitoring Venmo which is also having issues.

AWS provides an update

Since the Snapchat outage is connected to AWS' issues I am keeping an eye on what the cloud service is saying.

The most recent update from 11:22 a.m. Pacific doesn't sound good. It appears the most recent solves haven't fully worked but is improving.

Here's the latest AWS update from the AWS Service page:

"Our mitigations to resolve launch failures for new EC2 instances continue to progress and we are seeing increased launches of new EC2 instances and decreasing networking connectivity issues in the US-EAST-1 Region. We are also experiencing significant improvements to Lambda invocation errors, especially when creating new execution environments (including for Lambda@Edge invocations). We will provide an update by 12:00 PM PDT."

Reports starting to decline

With AWS reporting that its systems are slowly starting to get better we're also seeing reports for Snapchat declining on Down Detector.

For the last few hours things were holding steady between 7,500 reports. As of this writing, Noon Pacific, its dropped down to around 5,000 reports.

It's still significant enough to keep an eye on, but we might finally be on the downslope of this outage.

Expect broken features and lagginess

The Snapchat outage appears to be easing, though, not for everyone. While some users are reporting buissiness as usual on the app, others are still locked out, dealing with laginess and/or broken features like missing Bitmojis.

As of 12:25 Pacific Time, roughly 4,500 users were reporting issues with Snapchat to Down Detector. That's a marginal improvement from noon time when the outage impacted slightly above 5,000 Snapchatters.

It's getting better

Since we last checked in, the number of the Snapchat users reporting issues to Down Detector has dipped below 3,000. That's a major improvement from earlier in the day at the outages peak, when more than 22,000 users reported issues.

We'll continue to monitor the great October 2025 Snapchat outage. If anything changes drastically one way or another, we'll let you know. For now, it's mostly happy Snapping.

Good news, everyone!

Good news, everyone. The Snapchat outage appears to be largely resolved as of 1:30 pm Pacific Time, with less than 2,000 users reporting issues to Down Detector, a massive drop from earlier when 22,000 Snapchatters were experiences problems.

As the gears of the Internet (AWS) start spinning back up to speed, it's possible that you'll still experience some Snapchat lagginess or borked features. Worry not, though, as all signs point to things continuing to smooth out.

If anything changes, we'll let you know right here.

Your streak is (likely) safe

With the great Snapchat outage of October 2025 drawing to a conclusion, those of you will Snapchat streaks can breath a sigh of relief. As of 2:00 pm Pacific Time, Down Detector is showing just 1,200 users reporting issues. That's a tiny fraction of the 22,000 that reported problems with Snapchat earlier today.

As reminder, the Snapchat outage is almost certainly a result of the larger Amazon Web Services outage impacting everything from Venmo to Fortnite.

Snapchat is back, baby

With less than a thousand people reporting issues with Snapchat to Down Detector resulting from the big AWS outage, it's safe to call the debacle rectified. Thank for stopping by, and happy Snapping.

Editor's note: After yesterday's story was published, TechCrunch received additional information about the Neon app that indicated there had been a security flaw that allowed any user to access the phone numbers, call recordings, and transcripts of any other Neon user. Alex Kiam, the founder of Neon app, took down the app's servers and notified users about a pause in service after being notified of the issue.

The original story follows below.

A new app called Neon Mobile has skyrocketed to the number two spot in the App Store's social networking category which pays users for the recorded audio from their phone calls.

As reported by TechCrunch, the app refers to itself as a “moneymaking tool” and offers to pay users for access to their audio conversations, which it then turns around and sells to AI companies.

The fee is 30 cents a minute for phone calls to other Neon users, or up to $30 a day for calls to non-Neon users, and the app pays for referrals as well. It captures inbound and outbound calls on the best iPhones and best Android phones, but only records your side of the call if it’s connected to another Neon user. This collected data is then sold to AI companies, according to Neon, “for the purpose of developing, training, testing, and improving machine learning models, artificial intelligence tools and systems, and related technologies.”

Neon says that it removes personal data like names, emails and phone numbers before this data gets handed over but doesn’t specify how the AI companies it sells that data to will be using it. That’s troubling in an era of deepfakes and phishing or vishing, and especially so when Neon’s vague and inclusive license statement give it so much access to further potential usage. Those terms include beta features that have no warranty, and the data set is a gold mine for a potential breach.

In TechCrunch’s reporting, they state that while testing the app it did not provide proper notification that the user was even being recorded during the call – and the recipient wasn't alerted about possible recording either. Given the popularity of the app, many users seem unconcerned about selling out their privacy. And given the amount of data breaches that occur over the course of a year, many people may figure that data privacy is a lost cause already. However, there’s a stark difference between having your car get broken into and leaving your keys in it.

How AI training puts you and your data at risk

More from Tom's Guide

• The TikTok ban saga appears to finally be over as reports suggest a deal has been done
• The top 3 cybersecurity risks posed by age verification
• Macs under attack from malware impersonating popular password managers — how to stay safe

A law passed in 2024 was slated to ban TikTok if the company wasn't sold to American owners. Now, at the end of September 2025, a deal has been signed by President Donald Trump that complies with the law that sought to ban TikTok by selling it to a group of American investors.

The deal allows the current owner, ByteDance, to maintain a 20% stake in the company. TikTok's U.S. operations would be run by a new joint-venture company, marking a significant shift in the way TikTok conducts business. It would also be a sizable win for TikTok content creators and users, as their platform of choice would stick around.

TikTok Deal — Live updates

Deadline extending might finally be over

President Trump has extended the TikTok ban deadline several times in an attempt to allow ByteDance and U.S. investors to make a deal. While it took longer than expected, White House officials have told NBC News that the deal should be signed by the President on Thursday, September 25, 2025.

However, there might be one more extension coming, as Trump is expected to put a 120-day pause on the ban to allow this new deal to be officially implemented. Selling multi-billion-dollar companies doesn't happen overnight, after all. He already implemented a ban through December 19 in an executive order.

Turkish President departs

President Donald Trump met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. While the meeting was ultimately about lifting the U.S. hold on the sale of F-35 fighter jets to Turkey and other things, it's also the reason the deal hasn't been signed yet, as Trump has been busy with that.

Now that Erdoğan has left, Trump is free to move on to other parts of his day, which will likely include signing the TikTok deal, if the reports from White House Officials are correct.

Oracle's co-founder Larry Ellison involved?

In an interview with Fox News, President Donald Trump said that Oracle's co-founder Larry Ellison would play a role in the deal, though he didn't get into specifics.

"Larry Ellison is one of them. He’s involved. This great guy, Michael Dell is involved. I hate to tell you this, but a man named Lachlan is involved. Do you know who Lachlan is? That’s a very unusual name, Lachlan Murdoch," the president said.

Are we done if this deal is signed?

If Trump signs the deal and provides an extension, we're far from done. As noted by CNN, "Although both US and Chinese officials have signaled they are aligned on the deal’s framework, it will still likely require regulatory approvals from both countries."

The deal is a significant step towards TikTok being acquired by a team of U.S. investors, but TikTok won't be completely out of danger yet. If regulatory approvals are not obtained, we could be back to square one again.

Main investors

According to reports, the main companies investing in TikTok will be Oracle, Silver Lake and Abu Dhabi’s MGX. Those three companies are expected to control about 45% of TikTok USA. ByteDance will hold 19.9% of the U.S. version of the company and will own about 20%, and the remaining 35% belong to ByteDance investors and new stakeholders.

User data after the deal

According to a senior White House official, a significant change, and one that makes the deal appear more favorable to the U.S., is that American users' data will be stored in the United States, rather than in China. It will be overseen by the software and cloud computing company Oracle.

The content on the app will be monitored to ensure that U.S. videos are free from outside manipulation, which is a key security concern with the app in its current iteration.

No signature yet

While the deal is expected to be finalized today, no signing has occurred yet, based on the reporting we've found. It's possible the President is preparing to finalize the deal after spending the afternoon with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. We'll continue to monitor the situation, but for now, it's just a matter of waiting.

And remember, the deal being signed is just another step in the process. There's plenty more to come before TikTok ownership is officially transferred.

Separate US TikTok app?

A question from CNN is whether the new deal will require TikTok users in the United States to download an additional app, or if they'll simply be able to continue using the same version of the app with some kind of update.

If it's the former, that could hurt TikTok's numbers, as many people may not even realize they need a new app. There are other questions, such as whether the algorithm being controlled by allies of the President is a good thing, but downloading a new app could be an even bigger problem.

How will TikTok change?

If the deal is signed today, the biggest change in the United States will be related to TikTok's algorithm, which uses machine learning and user behavior to determine how you experience your feed.

Potentially, this puts the feed under the control of Trump's administration and the purview of Oracle, led by one of Trump's biggest supporters. There are fears that the government having direct control over the app will hand more influence to current administration which could drive users away.

Analysts told The Independent that a US-centric algorithm will "degrade" the experience and brands on the app might go elsewhere.

Trump has finally entered the Oval Office

Trump has apparently entered the Oval Office and is set to sign a variety of executive orders including the TikTok deal.

TikTok sale signed

Finally ending a months-long saga, Trump signed an order approving a sale of TikTok valued at $14 billion, according to Vice President JD Vance. According to reports, TikTok's U.S. business will be sold to a consortium, though the details of the partnership have not been confirmed.

China still needs to approve

Although Trump signed an executive order, China also needs to approve of the sale. The new consortium would oversee the U.S. side of TikTok, while ByteDance would keep a little less than 20%.

According to CNBC, Oracle, Silver Lake and MGX, an Abu Dhabi-based investment fund will own about 45% of the new entity.

Oracle's involvement

Apart from being an investor, Oracle will also take over TikTok's security and provide cloud-computing services to the company, according to CNBC.

Other investors include General Atlantic, Susquehanna and Sequoia, but the U.S. government will not own a stake in the new enterprise,

ByteDance isn't shutout

While the sale of TikTok has been predicated on removing Chinese influence from the social media app, the parent company, ByteDance, will still own a portion of TikTok USA.

CNBC reports that ByteDance will hold around 20% of the company while another 35% will be in the hands of ByteDance investors and other new holders.

That's coupled with Oracle, Silver Lake and Abu Dhabi's MGX which will hold 45% of the company. It's not clear what other American investors will be involved in that final 35%.

White House claims it saved TikTok

The official White House X account posted about the TikTok executive order, where it's being positioned as Trump saving TikTok from a ban (one that Trump initiated during his first administration).

"President Donald J. Trump and Vance SAVE TikTok from a ban while protecting America's national security by removing TikTok in the U.S. from China's control."

Trump claims algorithm won't change with sale

During the signing, Trump was asked if the new algorithm would feature more MAGA-content. He said no.

“If I could make it 100% MAGA, I would, but it’s not going to work out that way, unfortunately,” Trump said. “No, everyone’s going to be treated fairly. Every group, every philosophy, every policy will be treated very fairly.”

No deal until China officially agrees

Trump and various American investors may have greased the wheels to get this deal going, but nothing is set in stone until China and ByteDance agree to the supposed deal.

We may not know until tomorrow after China gets going. It's currently, 6 AM in Beijing. I'm sure TikTok is Ping's main priority first thing.

Fifteen years after Instagram launched for iPhones, the Meta-owned social media platform has finally released a native app for iPads. Incidentally, both the original iPad and the first Instagram app were released in 2010.

Instagram officially announced the arrival of the app in a blog post, revealing how the new app would work. If you want to try it for yourself, the app is available to all users on the App Store now.

For those on Android, you may be familiar with the layout of the iPad version of Instagram. Instagram released a big-screen optimized version of Instagram for Android in 2023 alongside the arrival of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5. It could also be used for other Android tablets.

How Instagram for iPad works

At a base level, the new app includes all the features you expect: your feed, stories, and the explore page.

The big difference is the emphasis on Reels.

"With Instagram for iPad, we’ve redesigned the experience to reflect how people use bigger screens today – for lean back entertainment," the announcement post reads. "Now, when you open the app, you’ll drop into Reels, so you can get the entertaining content you love on a bigger screen. You’ll also see Stories at the top, so you can easily connect with the people that matter to you, and messaging is one tap away."

Additionally, there's a new "Following" tab that lets you switch between different feeds.

• All: Recommended posts and reels from accounts you follow
• Friends: Recommended post and reels from accounts you follow, that follow you back
• Latest: Chronological posts and reels from accounts you follow, with the most recent posts appearing first.

Instagram says you can customize the order these feeds appear in so you'll see what's important to you first.

Lastly, the iPad app has a multi-column design so you can read DMs or look at notifications without going away from the feed. It also allows you to open comments without obscuring the Reels.

Instagram says this is so you can navigate with fewer taps, but mostly it seems like a way to keep you glued to the content.

Foldable future?

There have been reports that next year's iOS 27 is being designed with foldable displays in mind. Meta also recently brought WhatsApp to the iPad for the first time.

It seems that this could all be preparation for the arrival of the much-rumored foldable iPhone. That device is reportedly going to launch next fall, and Apple allegedly has huge expectations for its newest smartphone.

Like the aforementioned Galaxy Z Fold 5, a new version of Instagram is needed for a bigger and wider display. Instagram could be testing the waters with its new iPad version.

More from Tom's Guide

• Instagram Blend lets you mix Reels with friends — here's how it works
• Instagram DMs just got better — 5 features worth trying
• Flashes is a brand new Instagram alternative — and it’s basically Bluesky for images

Photos on your phone could be analyzed by Meta AI on Facebook without your knowledge and despite people opting out, the scanning could be toggled on.

Back in June, Meta announced a new feature (via TechCrunch) meant to automatically suggest AI-edited photos such as "personalized creative ideas, like travel highlights and collages" — including ones that you haven't uploaded to Facebook. The tested "cloud processing" tool is supposed to ask you to opt in via a prompt when you attempt to create a new Story on Facebook.

Since it's a test though, not everyone may have received the prompt, but it seems (via ZDNet) that the feature is rolling out to more Facebook accounts. Some people have claimed the prompt never popped up but the feature was switched on.

If you did see the prompt, toggling it on, has you agree to Meta's AI Terms of Service which permits it to analyze "media and facial features."

That analysis uses your images, including dates, people, and objects, to suggest posts like collages, stories and albums. Meta has claimed that the scan won't be used for targeted advertising.

Either way, it's a serious privacy concern whether you've opted-in or not.

How to turn AI scanning off in Facebook

My personal Facebook account, which I have pretty locked down and rarely use, does not appear to have the cloud processing feature enabled. You may not either, but you should know how to turn it off when it does come to your account.

• Open the Facebook app
  • You can find the appropriate settings in the Facebook app.
• Go to Menu - Settings and Privacy
  • Find the hamburger menu with three stacked lines. Once you've clicked that, find the Gear icon for settings.
• Go to Camera roll sharing suggestions
  • This category should be in the Preferences section of the settings menu.
  • If you have the new scanning feature you should see two toggles:
  • Get camara roll suggestions when you're browsing Facebook and Get creative ideas made for you by allowing camera roll cloud processing.
  • If it's on, then the toggle will be blue. Tap it to turn the feature off and it should turn gray.

It's unclear how long Meta's testing is going to take or when the feature will roll out to every Facebook user.

From our understanding, the feature pulls from the last 30 days of images and is only available on the iPhone and Android app versions of Facebook. Meta claims your data is removed from the cloud after 30 days. The company has also said that any AI suggestions are only visible to you.

Still, if you're concerned with data privacy and security, don't let Meta have access in the first place.

More from Tom's Guide

• Meta's new cutting-edge smart glasses tipped to launch in September — here's what we know
• Meta AI chatbots gave false medical advice and flirted with minors — now the company is restructuring its AI division again
• Meta's smartwatch with camera is reportedly being revived — and it could launch this September to work alongside new smart glasses

The social media photo-sharing app, Instagram, appeared to go down for some users. starting around 10:15 a.m. P.T. We discovered that we couldn't upload Stories or photos, and notifications seemed to be busted.

Over on the tracking site Down Detector, reports spiked over 800 around 11 a.m.

Neither Instagram nor Meta acknowledged the outage, and it was never clear how widespread the problem actually was or what was causing issues.

We did see comments from other users that notifications weren't showing up properly and that they couldn't edit images.

Now that the service appears to be back up, do give Tom's Guide a follow for all of the latest tech news and what we see on show floors.

Several features unavailable

My colleague Kate Kozuch first noticed that the ability to post was on Instagram was hampered.

Comments on other social sites and Down Detector indicated that DMs and chats weren't working as well.

No comment from Instagram

With reports sitting around 500, we haven't seen any response from Instagram.

There does not appear to be an official Instagram status page and the official accounts on other social media pages haven't posted in years. We'll keep looking to see if we can find any official tracker.

What's the status an hour in?

Usually an outage spikes with tons of reports coming in almost all at once.

It's been a steady climb since we first noticed an issue around 10:15 am.

Currently, things sit around 700 reports.

Meta Business Page all green

I found a Meta status page that is business-focused, and from that page, it appears things are green across the board.

So, if you're trying to post an ad that appears to be working.

Other trackers show no issues

We've checked other tracking sites like isitdown and downforjustme. Those sites show Instagram as operational.

Meanwhile, Down Detector steadily continues ticking up, currently sitting at 800 reports.

We can't post reels or images

On the official Tom's Guide Instagram, we have been unable to post reels, unfortunate,ly as we try to share with you the latest happenings at Gamescom 2025.

When the app starts working properly, be sure to follow us to stay up-to-date on the latest tech news.

Are you experiencing problems?

I notice that reports on Down Detector are starting to decline.

Are you having problems with Instagram? Let us know. You can email me at scott.younker@futurenet.com.

Reports trending down

Over on Down Detector, reports have dropped from a high of 822 to around 200.

It appears to be ending, but we'll keep an eye on things for a little bit longer.

It's over

We finally got our Instagram account working and reports have largely disappeared.

We're calling this one.

We're still not sure what caused the problem. Neither Meta nor Instagram has released any information or acknowledged today's issues.

It's also unclear how widespread hte problem was as reports never broke 1,000 and as mentioned other trackers didn't appear to show any problems.

Age verification laws are being implemented in numerous countries around the world. As a result, a number of websites and apps started asking them to verify their age.

X is one of those sites, and along with the likes of Reddit, Spotify, and Bluesky, it required users to submit proof of age in order to see certain content and use its Grok AI chatbot – but age verification on X is complex to say the least.

Demand for the best VPNs has skyrocketed globally in recent months as people explore alternatives to age verification, and avoid having to submit sensitive personal information.

Major VPNs huge spikes in sign ups in the UK ands various US states have tried to ban VPNs. Australia is the latest country to implement age verification checks and X's Grok AI chatbot is targeted in legislation due to its ability to generate adult content.

X's implementation of age verification hasn't been straightforward, and users have reported different experiences of the process.

Back in summer 2025, many users reported they couldn't verify their age at all, and others found only X Premium subscribers could verify their age. Below, we lay out everything you need to know and how age verification on X works.

What age checks does X have in place?

X requires users in certain countries – including the UK, US, and Australia – to verify their age due to online safety laws in those countries and regions.

As it stands, X users that have not verified their age will either not see content deemed 18+ on their timeline, or will see a message that reads: "Due to local laws, we are temporarily restricting access to this content until X estimates your age."

X's Age Assurance policy lists the ways in which age verification can take place. One method is using "highly reliable signals" such as:

• Self-attested age: If a user previously indicated that they are under 18
• ID verification: previously completed X’s ID verification process
• Legacy verified public figures: some users are verified through this process
• Account creation date: Needing to be 2012 or earlier
• Grey badged accounts: This indicates a government or multilateral organization official
• Gold badged accounts: verified official organization accounts

X verifies users automatically using these signals, and no further action is required. Additional steps that don't require user action are email address and network-based connections.

Not every X user can be automatically verified in this way. X offers two methods for user-involved verification:

• Facial age estimation: X's AI systems estimate age based on a live selfie
• ID verification: Users can submit government-issued ID which X's AI systems use to estimate age

When age verification was first introduced for X users in the UK, reports suggested that user-involved age verification can only be accessed by subscribing to X Premium.

X's ID Verification policy states "ID Verification is available globally for X Premium" and doesn't make reference to age verification for non-subscribing users.

Despite this, some UK users on Reddit said in July 2025 that two types of ID are required, even after purchasing X Premium. Another user reported that the ID verification systems were "offline."

A Reddit user in Spain said even after verifying their ID and subscribing to X Premium, they are still receiving the "due to local laws" message.

This implied that anyone who fails the "highly reliable signals" part of X age verification was unable to verify their age at all. It's unclear if these p[problems are still persisting.

Concerns over privacy and security

Even if an X user can verify their age, it's still a potential privacy risk. The data being handed over is highly sensitive and consequences could be catastrophic if there was a data breach.

People see it as an attack on privacy and there are strong opinions on either side of the debate.

X previously said it uses Au10ticx, Persona, and Stripe for ID verification, with Stripe being used for creators in the US. But Au10ticx is no longer listed in its ID Verification Policy & Privacy guidance.

Questions are being asked about how any data submitted is stored – and how securely.

X says "we collect an image of the ID and the selfie, which include face data and data extracted from the ID."

It says it "prioritizes your privacy" and adds that "third-party providers will also be bound by strict data protection standards."

In its age verification policy it says "Persona deletes images of the IDs, selfies and data extracted from the ID after 30 days. This helps X provide you an opportunity to appeal a verification decision and for X to review your appeal."

However it says "Stripe will retain the data as long as the user remains a creator."

Nothing is mentioned regarding the data previously collected by Au10ticx, and what has happened to it.

Is it possible to get around X's age checks?

As mentioned, demand for VPNs in the UK, US, and Australia has soared with the introduction of age verification. Users believe connecting to a server in another country could help them avoid age verification checks.

In the UK, OFCOM discouraged the use of VPNs to bypass checks. A UK government consultation is currently taking place, and age-restricting VPNs is an option being investigated.

US lawmakers have attacked VPNs, but the privacy tools haven't seen as much pressure in Australia. However X itself was targeted in Australia's under-16 social media ban. It was one of 10 platforms ordered to age check its users.

In the case of X, user reports suggested that VPNs alone can't unblock content on the app. There is an option within X's settings to change your location and if this is set to a country with age verification laws, content will be blocked regardless of whether you use a VPN or not.

Originally, it appeared as though changing this location was enough to avoid the checks and unblock content – but this no longer seems to be the case.

Experiences vary, but users who have had success in avoiding age checks and unblocking content report having to change their in-app location and use a VPN at the same time.

We test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example:1. Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service).2. Protecting your online security and strengthening your online privacy when abroad.We do not support or condone the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.

If you had to guess how many online accounts you have, right now, would you have any idea?

Think about it: Every grocery pickup, mobile game, fitness app, home improvement store, book orders for the kids school, medical portals for doctors notes, social media accounts, photo editors, smart home devices, banking apps, shopping apps… According to research done last year by NordPass, on average people have almost 170 passwords for various accounts.

And honestly, if you’ve lived most of – or all of – your life online, that’s probably a low number for the amount of accounts you’ve created, used and then forgotten or abandoned. But all those old accounts out there, that you never deleted, are just sitting around with your data in them waiting for a breach which makes them a security risk.

In world of increasingly large data breaches, many of which are comprised of older breaches or old data that is grouped into larger and larger amounts of personal information about users, letting accounts of personally identifiable information just sit on the web in old accounts that may not have updated protections like two-factor authentication or strong passwords is a practice that puts your cybersecurity at risk. Here’s how to clean up your act, and make sure you’re set up safely going forward.

Why are old accounts a security risk?

Think about the type of information you provide when you sign up for an account: name, email address, physical address, birthdate, payment information. This is all exactly the kind of data that you find in massive data breaches – and exactly the kind of data that threat actors are looking for.

Once someone has gained access to your personal information they can use it for a variety of malicious purposes. For example, if a hacker has access to an email or social media account, they can spam your contacts with scams or launch phishing attacks using your name and account. They could even attempt to trick your contacts into installing malware.

A dormant or inactive account could hold personal information or sensitive details like photos of drivers licenses or insurance information, which could then be used to commit identity theft or fraud. If there is active financial information in an account, a threat actor could drain your funds or sell your account details.

How to get started in cleaning up old accounts

If you know you have old accounts that you don’t use anymore, go ahead and delete them. It may sound like a hassle but it’s also the kind of thing you can do while watching 'Love Island' in the background.

If you don't know where to start looking for old accounts, a good place is to search your email inbox for common account keywords: "welcome," "thank you for signing up," "verify account," or "validate account." You can also go through your password manager to see what it has saved passwords for.

You should also check the saved password list in your browser and to see if anything there has a link to an unused account. It's easy to quickly check this list in most browsers: For Chrome go to Settings > Passwords. For Safari it's Preferences > Passwords. In Firefox go to Preferences then Privacy & Security > Saved Logins. And in Edge it's Settings > Profiles > Passwords > Saved Passwords.

Also, because some services let you easily sign in with Google, Facebook, Twitter or an Apple ID you should check the list of apps that are connected to all those accounts. Disconnecting those accounts doesn't "kill" the old account, but it will tell you what you need to delete.

Visit Have I Been Pwned? which will show you which leaks your email address has been a part of – and may remind you about a few accounts you'd forgotten about. Bonus: it will also tell you which accounts may need their passwords updated more frequently or may need to be watched more carefully because of a breach.

If you have icons on your phone, tablet or desktop for services or apps you know you don’t use any longer, log in and close the accounts then remove the apps from your device. Lastly, look into your antivirus software – some programs like Bitdefender have features that will find all accounts that you’ve made with Google and Outlook with a click.

What if you can't close an account

If you’re having trouble deleting an account, don't stress – some sites and services make that a hassle by design. Start by Googling the site or service and "delete account to see if there are any tips or shortcuts posted, or check justdelete.me which is a handy database of instructions for removing and killing accounts. If that doesn't work, try contacting the websites support or administrators.

If you simply cannot find a way to remove the account, you're still not out of luck because you can still:

• Remove any saved financial and payment information like credit card numbers.
• Remove any private data like calendar events, notes, tasks – you can always export or download anything you want to save.
• Clear personal identification details like your name, birthdate, shipping address and any other additional details that someone could use to steal your identity or commit fraud.
• Input a new fake name and a fake email - you can always pull something up from Mailinator if needs be.
• Clear out accounts of old messages, especially anything that may hold sensitive personal information like invoices with credit card details, images of drivers licenses or ID information and the like.

Lastly, as you're going through these steps, consider how easily you sign up for accounts in the future and if you could use a guest account next time. Consider getting a dedicated email account for sign ups, so you can easily check them in another few months to see what needs to be removed then.

For any accounts you don’t remove, make sure that you update your password, and have it stored it a password manager. Also consider using a passkey, or at least multi-factor authentication.

More from Tom's Guide

• Microsoft Authenticator will shut off the password autofill feature in July — here’s how to save them
• These 5 macOS settings are a security risk and you should turn them off now
• Do you really need to pay for antivirus software?