The 'Goodbye Meta AI' viral Instagram hoax explained - and how to stop Meta AI from using your data
If your Instagram Stories have been flooded with anti-AI messages over the past few days, you’re not alone. Celebrities and sports stars are among more than 500,000 people who have reposted a viral hoax image which claims to deny Meta – the parent company of social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp – the right to use their data to train artificial intelligence models.
Why it's a hoax
The message in the image, titled “Goodbye Meta AI”, claims that users can prevent Meta from using their data to train its AI if they share the post on their profile. However, this is not the case – sharing a post on an Instagram story “does not count as a valid form of objection” to Meta’s data policies, a spokesperson for the company confirmed.
How to stop Meta AI from using your data
In order to prevent Meta from using your data for AI training, you can simply opt out through your account settings. Users can go to their settings, select Privacy Centre, then select the AI at Meta option and click the “information that you’ve shared on Meta products and services” option under the subheading “Submit an objection request” on Facebook.
Instagram users can access the Privacy Centre to submit an objection in the same way by going to Settings and then scrolling down and selecting Privacy Centre.
It is important to note that anything that is not public on your account – such as private posts and messages – will already automatically be excluded from the data used to train Meta AI, as will data from private accounts and accounts of under-18s.
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