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The Top Three 🏆

The industry’s most important stories today.

🥇 SHADY GOOGLE CALENDAR INVITES

Beware of Google Calendar invites: Phishers are spoofing Google Calendar emails in a scam that has already targeted about 300 organizations with more than 4,000 emails in just 4 weeks. more

The fraudsters fake sender email headers to make invites look legit, tricking victims into clicking on the malicious link that leads to a fake crypto mining or Bitcoin support page designed to steal personal and payment info.

• Google recommends enabling the 'known senders' setting to flag invites from unknown contacts.

• 🤔 With 500M+ users on Google Calendar, it's a clever bait... but don’t bite. Maybe it’s time to ghost all invites for now?? jk...

🥈 TIKTOK VS. UNCLE SAM

The final swipe: The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments on TikTok's fate after all. It’ll happen January 10, days before a potential U.S. ban could kick in. The case hinges on whether banning the app under the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act violates the First Amendment. more

• The American justice department says the law is essential for national security, citing classified concerns over Chinese influence and data access.

• The Supreme Court's decision will consolidate two cases against the law, one from TikTok and the other from creators, giving each side 2 hours to make their case.

• SCOTUS won't decide on pausing the ban until after hearing the arguments.

🥉 YOUTUBE’S NEW ANTI-AI TOGGLE

YouTube is giving brands and creators some say in whether their content trains AI, with a new “third-party training” toggle in YouTube Studio. By default, content is opted out, but users can choose to opt in. more

Creators can either give all AI developers access to their for training or select specific companies from an 18-name list, including Apple, Meta, and Amazon. However, blanket approval grants access to all developers, not just those on the list.

• YouTube said it can't determine whether the new toggle will lead to any retroactive enforcement for training that has already occurred.

• 🤖 So, while it’s a step forward, don’t expect peace between creators and AI developers anytime soon.

Today’s Other News ☑︎

Everything else that matters.

Advertising 📣

• Google confirmed it is testing double-serving ads, allowing the display of the same ad, from the same advertiser, to appear on the same search results page more

  • 🤔 This really contradicts its long-standing policy of displaying only one ad per account for a given keyword.

Search 🔍

• Goodbye, parasitic SEO: Forbes is axing freelancers for certain stories, blaming a Google Search policy update. The site will no longer hire freelancers for its product review section, citing Google's "site reputation abuse" rule, which targets sites publishing irrelevant content, off-brand content to exploit ranking power. more

Social Media 📱

• Threads is getting in-app post-scheduling. Soon brands and users will be able to schedule a post directly from the composer by tapping the three dots in the top right. more

• Threads now lets users reshare media while automatically crediting the original creator. By long-pressing or tapping a repost icon, users can share content with the original poster's username displayed. more

• Cya l8er deepfakes: YouTube says that its new tech will soon be able to find AI copies of celebs and creators. The company is partnering with the Creative Artists Agency (CAA) to help creators identify and remove content featuring their AI replicas, starting with celebrities and athletes, and then expanding to top creators in 2025. more

• Chat, is this peak? Giphy’s 2024 search trends show Gen Z is officially taking over the internet, replacing millennial slang with new terms like “ijbol,” “skibidi” and “aura.” more

  • 🙃 From elevated vocabulary like lugubriousness to group chat slang, it's clear: 2025 will be a verbose, Gen Z-dominated year. Prepare for sesquipedalian texts!

• The AI-generated network: LinkedIn is going all in on the "agentic era," where AI agents will take over pretty much all tasks. In this new era, you'll guide your AI agent to handle tasks, learn your preferences and personalize interactions. more

• X announced a renewal of its partnership with the NBA, which will see the NBA continue to share exclusive content on the platform. more

Email Marketing 📧

• Apple’s iOS 18 update is shaking up email marketing with two major changes: AI-generated summaries replacing preheaders and new inbox tabs. MarTech has a great piece up today which covers how to prepare for the changes. more

  • 🎯 To stay ahead: segment your audience, optimize templates for AI, rethink copywriting, and prioritize engagement.

Influencer Marketing 📸

• The Information points out 3 major trends in the creator economy this year. more

  1. Podcasting's explosive growth

  2. Influencer marketing's rise as TV ad spend drops

  3. A mixed bag of startup funding

Consumer Trends 📈 

• Consumers are embracing thrift as an aspirational lifestyle, with 9 out of 10 adopting underconsumption behaviours like buying second-hand or fixing items instead of replacing them. While price concerns remain, many cite self-improvement, decluttering, and environmental reasons for this shift. more

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