Mashable • June 12 2025

An absurd TikTok trend lets AI finish your photo

A new trend on TikTok uses a CapCut template and AI to animate your photo — and it's so absurd.

The trend morphs a regular photo into something out of your most illogical dream, turning a moment from your real life into something that quickly falls off the deep end. In one photo, a man is sitting with his dog in his lap. AI turns that dog into a human wearing a dog suit (for some reason?) and a cop arrests him as the man screams on with three (?) arms.

"To early to be laughin wakin the whole h...

Mashable • June 12 2025

Instagram rolls out long-awaited grid customization and more creative features

Instagram is giving users more control over how they express themselves, starting with one of the app’s most highly requested features: grid customization.

Beginning today, users will be able to rearrange the posts on their profile grid, editing how their content is presented to followers. Whether you’re going for a clean aesthetic, curating a personal portfolio, or just hiding that one post that’s been throwing off your vibe, you’re now in control of how your content shows up on your profile....

Mashable • June 12 2025

Someone spent $150,000 on a Labubu. Yes, really.

Picasso? Don't know him. Rolex? Don't care. The hottest item on the collectibles market right now is a mischievous, sharp-toothed, gremlin-like little girl named Labubu. And yes, someone just paid $150,000 for one.

That’s not a typo. As reported by CNN, at a recent auction in Beijing, a mint green, first-generation Labubu figure measuring a whopping 131 centimeters tall (that’s over four feet!) sold for 1.08 million yuan, or about $150,325.

Let’s pause for effect: $150K. For a toy figure with...

Mashable • June 12 2025

The internet is down. Social media is not taking it well.

Countless sites and services — stalwarts like Twitch, Gmail, Discord, Nintendo, and more — went down on Thursday afternoon, eastern time. The internet, even as large swaths of it went down, was quick to react on social media. And, in short, people were freaking out.

People posted screenshots of Down Detector, which showed, well, just about everything was out. It's worth noting that Down Detector registers user-reported issues, so you still may have access to sites experiencing spikes. (Disclosu...

Mashable • June 11 2025

TikTok creator Tess Gigone does it all with an iPhone and an Octobuddy

I love when my FYP serves me up exactly what I want. That's how it felt when Tess Gigone's videos graced my feed. From her home kitchen in Canada, Gigone takes a laid-back approach to home cooking, whether it's a simple lunch for her and her husband or an elaborate pavlova to bring to a family dinner.

And Gigone is my favorite type of influencer. Rather than pedaling products on TikTok Shop or pushing a certain lifestyle, she shares things that are genuinely delicious and joyful. Her easy-going...

Mashable • June 11 2025

For 'Mormon Wives' star Whitney Leavitt, great MomTok videos are 'all about the lighting'

There are few places where Whitney Leavitt hasn't made a TikTok: on a plane, in a parking lot, in a soda shop drive-thru, in the middle of a marathon, and even in a NICU. (OK, that was one time.)

Now with more than 3.4 million followers across all of her social media accounts, the 32-year-old mom of three leads a busy life as one of the stars of Hulu's The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, which follows a group of Utah-based Mormon influencers known collectively as MomTok. As such, Leavitt has mast...

Mashable • June 11 2025

Jools Lebron's must-have tools for making 'very demure' viral content

Jools Lebron is "very demure, very mindful" — and it’s the energy she brings to every piece of content she shares with her more than 2.5 million followers across TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube.

She doesn’t need a lot to create her distinctive (and very funny) lifestyle and makeup content. But the few tools she does rely on? Very specific, and very her. Loyal to her iPhone’s front camera, she often balances it against whatever’s nearby — even, at times, her American Girl doll. Editing short-form...

Mashable • June 11 2025

Elon Musk on X: 'I regret some of my posts' about Trump

Elon Musk is walking it back.

The world's richest man, who just last week cheerfully announced to his 220 million X followers that Donald Trump was "in the Epstein files," has now apparently decided that a feud with the president of the U.S. might not be such a good idea.

"I regret some of my posts about President @realDonaldTrump last week," Musk posted on Wednesday. "They went too far."

Musk and Trump's feud began shortly after the former left the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)....

Mashable • June 11 2025

Future of retail? Robot-run bodegas take over L.A.

At the recent opening of Los Angeles’s newest rail station, just a few miles from LAX, politicians and members of the media gawked at the new train platforms, escalators, elevators, and a gleaming piece of art that hung over the open-air, elevated mezzanine. Downstairs from all the shiny new infrastructure, a different component of the station — a fully automated convenience store that utilizes robots to dispense sodas, snacks, and sundries to customers — elicited numerous ooohs and aaahs.

Call...

Mashable • June 10 2025

DMs are coming to Threads, whether you want them or not

Threads, Mark Zuckerberg's answer to X, has been around for nearly two years. And soon, users will finally be able to send direct messages (DMs) on the app.

Until now, anyone wanting to DM someone on Threads had to jump over to Instagram. That workaround makes some sense — you can’t have a Threads account without also having an Instagram account — but switching between apps is a clunky experience, especially on a platform built for quick, conversational posts.

Meta, which owns Threads along wi...

Mashable • June 9 2025

The viral TikTok dog who stole the internet's heart is now ready for adoption

As the owner of (objectively speaking) the world's greatest dog, I'm never further than a few swipes on TikTok from a good cry. That's because my algorithm is dog-centric and it feeds me both sad — please avoid those — and heartwarming stories about pups.

The latest and greatest such saga is that of Tiki, the viral foster dog who was rescued from pretty dire straits. And you better have your tear ducts ready for his heartwarming tale.

Isabel Klee or @SimonSits on TikTok, who we've previously f...

Mashable • June 9 2025

TikTok star Khaby Lame was detained by ICE. Here's what happened.

TikTok star Khaby Lame, the most followed creator on the platform with over 162 million followers, was detained by ICE on Friday.

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, which has recently been tasked by the Trump administration to expand its crackdown on immigration and enforce the U.S. president's "mass deportations" election promise, confirmed in a statement to Mashable that Lame was detained for overstaying his visa.

"U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detained Seringe K...

Mashable • June 8 2025

The 12 best fiction books of 2025 (so far), according to BookTok

Join Mashable as we look back at the viral moments, breakout movies, memes, dating trends, tech buzz, scientific breakthroughs, and more that have defined 2025 — so far!

BookTok still runs the publishing industry.

Many of the books you might hear about most on TikTok aren't exactly recent. Readers get pulled into the community by watching re-reads of Harry Potter or first reads of A Court of Thorns and Roses, the gripping young adult fantasy series by Sarah J. Maas. But when a new novel comes...

Mashable • June 8 2025

College professors don't know how to catch students cheating with AI

Leo Goldsmith, an assistant professor of screen studies at the New School, can tell when you use AI to cheat on an assignment. There's just no good way for him to prove it.

"I know a lot of examples where educators, and I've had this experience too, where they receive an assignment from a student, they're like, 'This is gotta be AI,' and then they don't have" any simple way of proving that, Goldsmith told me. "This is true with all kinds of cheating: The process itself is quite a lot of work, a...

Mashable • June 6 2025

SpaceX may retire Dragon amidst Musk and Trump feud

Elon Musk is contemplating decommissioning SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft, responding to President Donald Trump's apparent intent to terminate government subsidies and contracts with the billionaire's companies. It looks like the feud between the former allies has quickly turned vicious.

SpaceX's CEO initially announced that the company would retire its Dragon spacecraft in an X post on Thursday, with Musk sharing a screenshot of a post published on Trump's Truth Social account earlier in the day....

Mashable • June 6 2025

The best memes of 2025 (so far)

Join Mashable as we look back at the viral moments, breakout movies, memes, dating trends, tech buzz, scientific breakthroughs, and more that have defined 2025 — so far!

Memes are few and far between in 2025, but there are still some good ones.

Why are memes so rare? Simply put: TikTok. The heart of digital culture has migrated to TikTok, which is a short-form video platform. So there remain memes of a sort — they're mostly called TikTok trends — but the text-and-image-based memes of years pas...

Mashable • June 6 2025

IGN Live 2025: What to expect from the massive gaming event

IGN is stepping up this weekend with a major entertainment showcase packed with high-profile reveals and appearances. The two-day event, IGN Live, will stream online, but if you're in Los Angeles, you can catch it live at the Magic Box @ The Reef. Expect panels, giveaways, demos, meet-and-greets, and plenty of hands-on time with upcoming games. (Yes, there's still time to get tickets.)

With E3 effectively gone, IGN and Summer Game Fest have been working to fill the gap. So, if you're planning t...

Mashable • June 6 2025

Musk-Trump feud brings Twitter back to life

When Elon Musk took his feud with Donald Trump to his social network, how long had I avoided the service in question? Long enough that my browser actually failed to autocomplete the URL Twitter.com (which I'd kept typing, like many users, in futile defiance of X). This felt like a subtle warning from a friend: Dude, you've been sober for six months. Are you sure a bar is the best place to be right now?

But with apologies to Bluesky and Threads, this particular bar was the only place to be as th...

Mashable • June 5 2025

Aura farming? Fanum tax? 2025's most viral internet slang, explained

Join Mashable as we look back at the viral moments, breakout movies, memes, dating trends, tech buzz, scientific breakthroughs, and more that have defined 2025 — so far!

Each year, the internet births a new lexicon, one that's as fast-moving and unpredictable as the online trends that fuel it. 2025 is no different, with a fresh crop of viral slang that’s quickly become shorthand for everything from viral moments to internet culture’s quirks.

More than words, these phrases are creative expressi...

Mashable • June 4 2025

Federal judge: A social media ban for kids under 14 is unconstitutional

A federal judge blocked Florida officials from enforcing a law that would bar social media for kids under the age of 14.

In the ruling, U.S. District Judge Mark Walker wrote that "Florida’s challenged law is likely unconstitutional" but added the court "does not doubt that parents and legislators in the state have sincere concerns about the effects that social media use may have on youth."

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the bill in March of 2024 that would bar kids under 14 years old from so...

Mashable • June 4 2025

TikTok banned #SkinnyTok. That won't stop the disordered eating content.

On June 1, TikTok banned the #SkinnyTok trend and hashtag on the app worldwide after receiving pressure from European lawmakers, according to Euractiv.

SkinnyTok glamorizes eating disorders and could influence people — primarily young women — to emaciate themselves in order to access an unrealistic beauty standard.

Unfortunately, just because the hashtag is banned from TikTok doesn't mean the content is particularly difficult to find. As Mashable has previously reported, content moderation rar...

Adweek • June 4 2025

Saturday, May 31 Evening Cable News Ratings: Bill Maher Is CNN's Saturday Night Bright Spot

The first two hours of MSNBC’s The Weekend finished ahead of CNN in total viewers, but behind the network’s encore airing of Real Time with Bill Maher at 8 p.m. ET. The Real Time re-airs continue to be appointment viewing for CNN’s audience, with numbers declining sharply in the hours after. Fox News’ 7 p.m. ET edition of The Big Weekend Show was the evening’s most-watched show overall. 25-54 Demographic (Live+SD x 1,000)Total Day: FNC: 124 | CNN: 36 | MSNBC: 25Prime: FNC: 114 | CNN: 23 | MSNBC:...

Adweek • June 4 2025

Paducah Station Ready to Move Into New Home on Friday

We deliver! Get curated industry news straight to your inbox. Subscribe to Adweek newsletters. Paducah, Kentucky NBC affiliate WPSD said its sign was installed Friday at the station’s new home at 408 Kentucky Avenue in downtown Paducah.WPSD has planned its final newscast in the building its been in for nearly 68 years for Friday, June 6. After the 10 p.m. newscast that night, all engineering, news, and operations will officially move to the new building.Because of the move, WPSD will not have a...

Adweek • June 4 2025

AI Agents Are Helping PMG Run Ads on Fox News Without Freaking Out Clients

We deliver! Get curated industry news straight to your inbox. Subscribe to Adweek newsletters. AI agents are helping brands rethink news content as an ad channel. News has long been a no-fly zone for advertisers who are skittish of landing next to stories about war, mass shootings or polemical political figures. But now, agentic AI—the latest digital buzzword—are helping marketers revisit that stance.Digital marketing agency PMG tapped into Mobian’s AI personas—AI agents that simulate a brand’s...