The latest social media craze has taken over Instagram, with more than 600,000 people, including celebrities like James McAvoy, Ashley Tisdale, and Tom Brady, falling for a hoax that claims to deny Facebook and Instagram owner Meta the right to use their images for training artificial intelligence (AI).
The fake message, titled “Goodbye Meta AI,” spread like wildfire on Instagram stories, with users believing that by sharing the post, they could prevent Meta from using their information. However, in reality, opting out of AI training can be done through account settings, and posting about it does nothing to protect privacy.
Lead Stories, one of Meta’s third-party fact-checking sites, has labeled these messages as “false information.” Despite the viral nature of the hoax, Meta has confirmed that sharing the post has no impact on user privacy settings.
The trend originated from a post on Facebook on September 1st but gained traction when celebrities joined in, causing a spike in searches for “Goodbye Meta AI” on Google Trends after September 24th.
While social media users have fallen for similar hoaxes in the past, it is rare to see so many high-profile accounts participate in this latest trend. Other social media companies, like LinkedIn, have faced criticism for their plans to train AI models on public posts, with LinkedIn recently reversing its decision to do so in the UK.
As the digital landscape continues to evolve, it is essential for users to be vigilant and fact-check information before participating in viral trends that could compromise their privacy.
