Brand Management: Facebook Promises Further Water-Stewardship and X’s Grok Faces More Global Backlash in the New Year
Industry: Facebook is aiming to become more water-positive by 2030. According to their “water stewardship” initiative posted last month, the tech giant seeks to “restore more water than is used” by their apps and technologies who need this water to run efficiently. Since AI’s initial rise in popularity, one of the main complaints has been that of AI ruining the environment. For recent technologies, AI included, to function properly, advanced (liquid) cooling systems are needed, which in turn require a lot of water to calibrate at any given time. It seems that Facebook is trying to tackle this issue directly considering the three pillars of their initiative: maximizing efficiency and minimizing water use, supporting water restoration projects, and being transparent with water usage data. In their article, Facebook emphasizes the company’s long-standing efforts - since 2017 - to give back to the local communities surrounding each of their data centers by promoting and investing in their care. If all water-related projects that they outline are fully implemented, they have the potential to restore at least 2.9 billion gallons of water globally, upwards of 3.4 billion.
Since the beginning of the new year X’s AI chatbot, Grok, has been under intense fire for the “digital nudification” of photos of young women and children on the site. According to Reuters, many experts have called out X for ignoring civil and child safety regulations and warnings from associated groups. Using Grok AI’s powerful image-editing capabilities, many users have been able to “deepfake” the photos of many women-of-age and minors alike by simply prompting Grok to “put them in bikinis,” grossly violating consent. Public figures have also been affected, Elon Musk included. His reaction to the “trend” - with a crying-laughing emoji - has been labelled by activists, site users and government officials as trivializing the site-wide issue. Many have left the site for other alternatives, like Instagram or Bluesky, but it is unclear how long this issue is going to persist.
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Online Video Platform: Last December, Tiktok honored their creatives in their 2025 award show, in a collaboration with streaming service Tubi. Afro-Puerto Rican actress and entrepreneur La La Anthony hosted the event at the Los Angeles Hollywood Palladium surrounded by star-studded guests and fans. Black-American food reviewer and MMA fighter Keith Lee became the first-ever US “Creator of the Year.” Lee was praised for his work in uplifting small businesses and food insecurity relief, with TikTok also donating $50k to Feeding America. Other notable awardees include Filipino TikTok legend Bretman Rock winning “Video of the Year” and NYC socialite Paris Hilton winning “Muse of the Year.”
Social Networking Service: Instagram announced last month that they have begun testing for the Instagram app to be usable on smart TVs. It is currently only available on Amazon Fire TVs in the US. This new enterprise is based on community claims and movements of current-generation friend groups watching Instagram Reels together. Much like other streaming services like Netflix or Prime Video, users can have multiple accounts to watch Reels on. Reels are then categorized into channels, with any of them autoplaying on full volume so that users will watch “without having to scroll.” While these are the only features currently implemented, Instagram has announced there will be more added in the future after further testing.
In tandem with other developments, X introduces more creator tools on their mobile app. The new “Creator Studio Hub” aims to provide creatives with quickly-accessible information about revenue sharing, subscriptions, analytics and more. This feature makes the control of a creative career more convenient without having to leave the mobile environment. Creators now also have access to an “Inspiration” tab which showcases the top performing posts on the app every day, to act (quite literally) as inspiration. The aim of these improvements has been to improve the creator economy on the app compared to other apps who are more creator and creative-focused.
