---
title: "5 Social Media News Stories You Need to Read This Week"
description: "This roundup compiles social-media news updates published across August 2026, July 2026, June 2026, and December 2024, covering creator monetization, advertising, platform features, and policy developments. Instagram tested invitation-only seasonal bonuses for Reels and posts in South Korea and the U.S., while Meta enabled ad payments through stablecoin wallets supporting USDC; TikTok’s Dreamina Seedance 2.5 expanded video generation to 30 seconds and accepted up to 50 multimodal references. Other updates include LinkedIn comment ranking and surfacing changes, X’s Live Studio, Threads’ private likes and live-chat tools, and TikTok Pro Events. The roundup also reports a teased MySpace relaunch, new discovery and profile features across platforms, Instagram live location sharing, X parody-account labels, and a potential U.S. TikTok ban."
---

# 5 Social Media News Stories You Need to Read This Week

[Brandwatch](https://yomu.fyi/company/brandwatch) · Gemma Joyce · Aug 20, 2026

**Type:** Announcement

## Summary

This roundup compiles social-media news updates published across August 2026, July 2026, June 2026, and December 2024, covering creator monetization, advertising, platform features, and policy developments. Instagram tested invitation-only seasonal bonuses for Reels and posts in South Korea and the U.S., while Meta enabled ad payments through stablecoin wallets supporting USDC; TikTok’s Dreamina Seedance 2.5 expanded video generation to 30 seconds and accepted up to 50 multimodal references. Other updates include LinkedIn comment ranking and surfacing changes, X’s Live Studio, Threads’ private likes and live-chat tools, and TikTok Pro Events. The roundup also reports a teased MySpace relaunch, new discovery and profile features across platforms, Instagram live location sharing, X parody-account labels, and a potential U.S. TikTok ban.

## Takeaways

- Instagram’s seasonal bonuses are invitation-only and limited to creators in South Korea and the U.S.; Meta’s Breakthrough Bonus lets newly joined Facebook or Instagram creators apply for monetization.
- Dreamina Seedance 2.5 increases TikTok ad-creation capacity from 15 to 30 seconds of video and from 9 to 50 multimodal reference uploads, with the rollout limited to select paid advertisers and markets.
- MySpace owners Tim and Chris Vanderhook have confirmed a relaunch, but no timeline or further details were shared; the platform would re-enter a market led by Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, YouTube, and Reddit.

**Tags:** [Instagram](https://yomu.fyi/topic/instagram), [LinkedIn](https://yomu.fyi/topic/linkedin), [TikTok](https://yomu.fyi/topic/tiktok)

- Source: [Brandwatch](https://www.brandwatch.com/blog/5-social-media-news-stories-you-need-to-read-this-week)
- Source URL: https://www.brandwatch.com/blog/5-social-media-news-stories-you-need-to-read-this-week
- Ingested by Yomu: 2026-09-10T16:07:54.405Z

[Read original post](https://www.brandwatch.com/blog/5-social-media-news-stories-you-need-to-read-this-week)