Meta is disabling a newly announced feature that allowed users to create AI-generated images inspired by public Instagram accounts simply by tagging them, following swift criticism over privacy and consent concerns. As initially designed, the tool could draw on content from any public Instagram profile for AI image generation without requiring approval from the account holder.
“Earlier this week, we announced that one way for people to generate images in Meta AI is by @-mentioning public Instagram accounts that they want to reference,” Meta said in an update to a blog post about its new Muse Image AI model. “Our intent was to provide a useful creative tool and to give people control over whether their public content could be referenced in this way. We’ve heard the feedback that this feature missed the mark, so it’s no longer available.”
Before removing the feature altogether, Meta had offered users the ability to opt out through the platform’s settings. But critics argued that the default setup still placed too much burden on individuals whose public content could be used.
“Not only does this obviously erode our rights to our own likeness… but it is an obvious tool for #sextortion and other scammers!” Haley McNamara, executive director and chief strategy officer of the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, said earlier Friday. “Pursuing high-risk design & then putting the onus on individuals to jump through hoops to opt out is unacceptable.”
