Vox Optima

09/04/2026

What matters for PR

For PR practitioners, the journalism number is significant on its own. Roughly one in four citations across three of the biggest AI platforms comes from journalism, and we’ve seen that percentage hold across three editions of the research.

But we’re equally interested in what happens beyond the direct citation. Reporting becomes a source for Wikipedia pages, gets discussed and linked to in online communities and can show up in other places that AI platforms pull from. We’re only beginning to understand how much of that secondary influence we can measure.

Media relations alone isn’t the answer to GEO, and PR can’t claim credit for everything that falls into that 84%. There are too many other sources involved and too much we still need to learn about how the platforms use them.

What we should pay attention to is how much AI pulls from sources outside a brand’s direct control, and the role communications can play in shaping the credible, independent information that exists about the organizations we represent. ~ Matt Dzugan, Linda Zebian via PR Daily

Defining an ever-evolving term can be tricky.

09/04/2026

Pinterest is also increasing its philanthropic donations to more youth mental health projects and planning to help U.S.-based students connect with mental health resources through their schools.

In many ways, Pinterest’s report feels like a bit of finger-pointing at Meta, which is in the headlines at the moment for its perceived failure to protect young users.

Pinterest seems to be taking the opportunity to deflect any blame for problematic social media usage onto other apps by framing its platform as a positive experience for young people. ~ Andrew Hutchinson via Social Media Today

https://ow.ly/8t2N50ZISrX

09/03/2026

Give personality room to shine through

Some formats naturally give leaders more room to show who they are. Westfall said Brunswick still considers what a message needs employees to do. For instance, an email may work best for a quick action, while video or a podcast can give a leader more space to talk through culture or a topic where personality matters more. After that, Westfall and her team look at how one piece of material can show up in more than one place.

“If we start with video, we’ll think about how we supplement that for people who take in content differently,” she said. “We might have a written component, splice it into a shorter video for social and pull out a quote for a newsletter. We’re looking at how we can translate that across different avenues and get the most out of the content we’re developing.”

Each format you use gives employees another chance to see a little more of the leader behind the message. ~ Sean Devlin via Ragan Communications

Which formats help leaders build stronger connections with employees?

09/03/2026

In fact, the most successful media relations experts I know follow a completely different approach: they make themselves so valuable that journalists come to them first. This isn't magic - it's strategic relationship building.

One communications director at a tech giant told me her team never chases journalists more than once. Instead, they focus on making their initial outreach so compelling and relevant that follow-up becomes unnecessary. When they do need to follow up, they add new value each time - additional data, a different angle, a relevant news hook. ~ Sophie Chen via The Opportunity Hub - Global Skills & Talent Marketplace

09/02/2026

The Australian government is considering forcing social media platforms to enable an algorithm opt-out, in order to address polarization fueled by content matching in social apps. The move comes after the country spent months working on its teenage social media ban, which has thus far had little impact on the negative behaviors connected with social media use.

As reported by The Guardian, Australian social services minister Tanya Plibersek said that the government is exploring the potential algorithm opt-out following a recent teenage strangling death and a rise in reports of sexual violence among teenagers. ~ Andrew Hutchinson via Social Media Today

https://ow.ly/ZJur50ZHJfV

09/02/2026

The criminals’ likely motive is to use paid Claude capacity for free. The account and any exposed data could also be useful for fraud, social engineering, or follow-on attacks.

Stolen Claude capacity could be used to write and refine phishing and scam content, build campaign infrastructure, develop, modify, or obfuscate malware, improve delivery methods, and analyze stolen information. Cybercriminals can use AI to support several parts of an operation, although Claude has safeguards and abuse monitoring, and Anthropic says it has disrupted accounts used for malicious activity. ~ Pieter Arntz via Malwarebytes

Anthropic has warned that infostealers are stealing Claude session cookies to access users’ accounts and consume usage at their expense.

09/01/2026

The data suggests that for brands that want to maximize reach and resonance in the EU, Instagram is more popular, and continues to gain popularity, though both platforms have significant reach in the region.

However, Facebook has lost some of its relevance in the EU, which could be indicative of a broader usage shift.

Threads, meanwhile, now has 41 million users in the EU, a small part of its more than 500 million total monthly actives.

In terms of moderation staff, Meta has reported a reduction in EU moderation staff, from about 7,700 EU moderators in March to about 5,900 moderation staff as of this report.

That could be part of the company’s broader push to incorporate more artificial intelligence-powered assistance tools. Meta previously outlined plans to replace human moderation staff with AI-powered systems. ~ Andrew Hutchinson via Social Media Today

https://ow.ly/eeUm50ZHlHx

09/01/2026

Meta is tightening restrictions on teenage use.

The biggest change is that it will be harder for teens to get around safety protections. Meta’s deal includes a default two-hour-per-day time limit across Facebook and Instagram, which requires parental approval to override. The limit is cumulative across the two services, even if Meta identifies multiple accounts belonging to the same person.

Meta is also rolling out a default Nite Mode, which blocks access to key features from midnight to 6 a.m. During these hours, teens won’t be able to post or browse parts like Feed, Stories, Explore, or Reels. School hours will have their own restrictions. Notifications will be silenced between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. by default, but you’ll still receive direct messages and notifications about account security or safety. And there will be regular prompts every 15 minutes of continuous use, and when daily usage reaches 60 and 90 minutes.

The company will also allow teens to select a non-personalized feed, disable autoplay, and hide like and reaction counts as a default. Meta said it will beef up its tools for verifying ages to catch people under 13, and identify teens who lie about their age and pretend to be adults. ~ Moinak Pal via Digital Trends

https://ow.ly/W3p350ZHl2P

08/31/2026

- The Department's priority is ensuring that children are protected online and that companies entrusted with their personal information meet their legal obligations. This resolution secures a substantial recovery while reinforcing the protections that families expect and deserve.

- The DOJ maintains that TikTok's adjustments since 2024 have "materially advanced the public interests underlying" the DOJ's original suit and "strengthened protections for millions of American families."

- The changes as part of the settlement negotiations included stronger safeguards for youths, better age-related controls, and measures to allow parents to provide more oversight, per DOJ. ~ Ashley Gold via Axios

https://ow.ly/J49K50ZGEAl

08/31/2026

This is a much stronger crisis response than Callaway’s first statement, which expressed disappointment without mentioning that Callaway itself had approved it. That came later in the day. But the company is now clearly acknowledging where its process failed and attaching real consequences to that failure.

Ending the Good Good partnership is part of that. So is the $1 million commitment and the change to its approval process. Communicators don’t necessarily need to boot a business relationship when something goes wrong, but they do need to show stakeholders what accountability actually looks like. ~ Courtney Blackann via PR Daily

Plus: Meta settles $18 billion social media suit; Substackers are not subscribing like they used to. Callaway has cut ties with Good Good Golf and released an updated statement as the fallout continues over its ad that showed a man shoving a woman to the ground for considering touching his golf club...