Volv Concierge #66

Hey fam, Priyanka here.

Just two days after Donald Trump was sworn in as the 47th president, it already feels like the world’s been hit by a whirlwind: the ‘Gulf of Mexico’ is now ‘Gulf of America,’ Trump is already being sued by 18 states and 2 cities for blocking birthright citizenship, he’s leaving the WHO, and KKK flyers urging immigrants to “leave now” are now popping up…

But, out of everything going on right now, there’s one thing that’s I’ve been really intrigued by—let’s get into it.

🤳 Elon and Zuck Are Breaking the Internet (Literally) 

For a while, it was just Elon. He bought Twitter (now X), ripped out the verification system, and declared it a free-speech playground. Chaos followed—fake news, bots, hate speech. But now? Things have gone nuclear.

Welcome to the Holy Trinity of Social Media Chaos: Elon, Zuck, Trump.

Zuck Playing Catch-Up

It wasn’t enough for Mark Zuckerberg to clone every app that gets attention—now he’s cloning Elon’s moves too.

Last week

Zuck decided to follow in Musk’s footsteps and remove all checks and balances across Meta platforms. You have definitely seen a video of the Hollywood sign burning during the LA fires, right? Completely fake and AI-generated. From my feed I could tell that 5M+ people have seen it with thousands believing it was real because… comments.

((Oh, and while fake news thrives, the irony…. our Volv Instagram—which didn’t share lies —is still banned. It’s been 4 months now for “violating community guidelines.” We’ve given up waiting and appealing and we just started over. New handle, same mission— follow now! 🙏 ))

In the last 24 hours

• Searching “Democrats” on Instagram now gives no results. None.

• JD Vance and POTUS? Magically in everyone’s follows. Remember Apple dropping U2 into our iTunes. Yeah, same energy.

The result? People are frustrated. Some are talking about leaving Meta entirely.

Here’s the problem

A LOT of people, sadly, get their news from social media. This chaos makes me think of Hannah Arendt’s “banality of evil.” It’s not the big, in-your-face lies that get us—it’s the slow drip of little ones, over and over, until they start to feel like the truth. And now, with Elon, Zuck, and Trump steering billions of feeds, it’s terrifying.

Shameless plug 🔌 but we’re literally on a mission building Volv for this reason to let you scroll like it’s Insta but trust what you’re reading. Real news, viral trends, juicy stories—without questioning if the Hollywood sign is on fire. We’re not here to save the world. Just bringing a little sanity to the chaos.

🗞️ Interesting headlines you don’t want to miss

1. Meta is working on an AirPods rival

2. The top S&P 500 stock of 2024 returned 340.5%—it wasn’t Nvidia

3. The biggest book release in 15 years is happening—it’s the most-anticipated title since ‘Harry Potter’

4. The internet believes Covid vaccine made women’s boobs bigger

5. $500,000 pay, predictable hours—this is now America’s ‘it’ job

6. Were the wildfires started on purpose for the SmartLA 2028 agenda?

7. Elon Musk gives Nazi salutes at Trump rally. The Internet reacts.

8. Scientists create drink that gets you tipsy without alcohol

9. The Bible has been turned into a ‘The Office’-style sitcom

10. TikTok girlies are dissolving their fillers—and looking younger for it

That’s all for now. Here’s hoping we don’t go insane before I write to you next week!

This newsletter was edited by Ishita Sen