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The man behind the Spice Girls and S Club 7 has launched his latest pop group with the help of TikTok. Simon Fuller, who also created Pop Idol and American Idol, held auditions on the app over the last year to create a seven-piece band called The Future X.

TikTok has increasingly become an essential tool for the music industry, launching the careers of global stars like Lil Nas X and Doja Cat, creating viral hits out of sea shanties and resurrecting classic songs such as Boney M's Rasputin and Fleetwood Mac's Dreams.

Two weeks ago, former American Idol contestant Lauren Spencer-Smith broke into the UK top five with "Fingers Crossed", a song she released without a record label, thanks to its popularity on the video sharing app.

The Future X: Can Simon Fuller's TikTok band recreate the Spice Girls' magic? The seven-piece band, who hail from North America, were formed after auditions on TikTok.

It was a big year for social media. Facebook became Meta, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey resigned (again), and TikTok continued to set trends other platforms are running to keep up with. But which posts got the most user engagement in 2021? Here's a round-up.

Instagram - the three most liked posts of the year shared a common theme: celebrity love.

Facebook - baffling and bizarre! “Who can honestly say they never had a DUI?” Lifestyle and recipe-sharing community Thinkarete asked, to which 18 million users responded.

Twitter - politics and K-Pop.

Get the full low down @ https://bit.ly/3HRO78G.

The top social media posts of 2021 | The Week UK Users gave weddings, K-pop and Twitter wit the thumbs up

Several social media apps and internet services including Snapchat, Spotify, Amazon and Google Cloud were reported to be down on Tuesday.

Spotify said it was aware of the issue after more than 50 000 users reported problems with the music streaming service and the Snapchat support account tweeted: "Many Snapchatters are having trouble using the app. Hang tight, we're working on a fix. In the meantime, we recommend staying logged in."

Google Cloud's tech support account also put out a statement on Twitter saying it was aware of an issue with the platform and directed users to its dashboard to monitor the situation.

Users report outage on social media apps and internet services including Snapchat and Spotify The outage tracking website Downdetector showed a spike in reports of problems on several social media apps and internet services.

TikTok is adding a stories feature for creators to express themselves, joining the ranks of Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn and Snapchat. "TikTok Stories" will be available for 24 hours and displayed in a collapsible left-hand side panel in the app’s main feed.

Users can create a new story by tapping a “create” button that’s been added to the sidebar, and they can add the usual captions, music, and text. True to TikTok’s video-first nature, it seems stories have to be videos, not still images.

TikTok is testing a Snapchat-style stories feature TikTok Stories could be on their way soon.