It was not a single update, one law, or one platform that changed, but rather the way these digital spaces are managed: from interface design and interaction tools to the user’s position within the platform, and ultimately to the relationship between platforms, the state, and the market.

The events of this year, in their diversity and simultaneity, indicate that social media has entered a new phase, distinct from the one that defined the past decade.

The year 2025 marked a pivotal moment in the history of social media platforms. Transformations in design and technology within applications coincided with an unprecedented legislative escalation targeting user age limits and corporate responsibility. By year’s end, the pace of developments made it clear that platforms are no longer driven solely by innovation or competition, but are increasingly shaped by political and legal pressure, reshaping their relationship with users and society.

Facebook 

On the user-experience front, Meta announced a sweeping redesign of Facebook, refocusing on what it describes as the “core social experience.” The updates emphasized connections between friends and introduced noticeable changes to photos, search, comments, and tools for creating posts and Stories. The aim was to restore Facebook’s traditional role as a space for personal interaction, after years dominated by news content and video.

The most significant element of the update, however, was Facebook Marketplace. According to company data and 2025 reports by eMarketer, more than half of Gen Z users in the United States use Marketplace, as do one in four active young adults in the U.S. and Canada. Despite this strong engagement, Marketplace had long remained relatively understated within the app’s structure. Meta has now announced plans to move it to the bottom navigation bar alongside features such as Reels and Friends, an acknowledgment of its importance to younger audiences.

Other Facebook changes included the adoption of interaction behaviors inspired by Instagram, such as double-tapping to like photos and displaying images in a standardized grid with full-screen viewing. Search was also redesigned to become more visually immersive, with testing underway for a full-screen image and video results viewer. In the comments section, new tools were introduced to simplify replies, highlight badges, pin comments, and enable anonymous reporting of abusive behavior. Users were also given greater control over whether profile updates appear in the main feed.

Instagram 

In a similar effort to regulate engagement, Instagram announced a new cap limiting hashtags to just five per post. Instagram head Adam Mosseri explained that hashtags help with search but do not increase reach, stressing that “quality matters more than quantity.” The decision forms part of a broader campaign to curb “algorithm-gaming” practices, an approach already evident on Threads, which has adopted stricter limits on hashtag use.

YouTube

YouTube, meanwhile, closed out 2025 with a series of updates focused on supporting content creators. These included expanding voice-reply features to a wider group of creators, launching the YouTube Create app on iOS, and extending the use of Super Chat Goals to new streaming formats. YouTube also rolled out Channel Guidelines to more creators, displaying rules to viewers upon first interaction. In parallel, the platform began testing AI-powered tools for editing and creating visual elements, experimenting with changes to the “dislike” button interface in Shorts, introducing comment summaries, and suggesting Shorts clips derived from long-form videos. These features remain in testing and have not yet been fully released to all users.

Illustrative image (Web)

Legal regulations

Alongside these technical developments, legal regulation moved decisively into the heart of the social media industry. Australia became the first country to enact a law imposing a minimum age for social media use, requiring platforms to block users under 16 or face fines of up to 49.5 million Australian dollars. The move is widely viewed as the beginning of a global regulatory wave, with compliance mechanisms ranging from activity-based age estimation to verification via selfies or official identity documents, despite ongoing concerns over free expression and privacy.

In response to the growing patchwork of national regulations, Meta announced its support for new age-verification initiatives, including a partnership with K-ID through its AgeKey technology. Launched in late 2025, the initiative allows users to verify their age once and reuse their credentials across compatible apps, reflecting industry efforts to reduce regulatory fragmentation in anticipation of wider adoption of such systems.

In the United States, the introduction of the Sunset Section 230 Act signaled a growing political push to reconsider the long-standing legal immunity enjoyed by technology companies. The proposal would open the door to lawsuits over harms occurring on platforms, particularly those affecting children and vulnerable groups.

As the year drew to a close, LinkedIn launched its “Year in Review” feature, offering users a visual summary of their professional activity throughout 2025, as part of a broader trend among platforms to create shareable annual narratives.


In essence, 2025 was not merely a year of new features, but a year of redefining the role and limits of social media platforms. Between redesigns, stricter rules, and legislative intervention, it has become clear that these platforms are entering a more disciplined phase, one in which unrestricted expansion is no longer the norm, and compliance and accountability are now central to their survival.