Famous actors including James McAvoy and Ashley Tisdale as well as former NFL star, Tom Brady, were among the thousands of Instagram users who shared a hoax message about Meta using content for training its AI tools.
They shared the post that allegedly showed users how they can change their privacy settings to stop Meta from mining their data for AI machine learning. It seemed to imply that just by sharing the post, their objection would also be logged. It reads: "If you do not post at least once it will be assumed you are okay with them using your information and photos. I do not give Meta or anyone else permission to use any of my personal data, profile information or photos."
As people started sharing the post, Google Trends showed a steep spike in searches for the phrase "Goodbye Meta AI", shares BBC News. The news service adds than more than 600,000 people had shared the post as it went live with the story.
In fact, says BBC News, the source of this post – which is worded slightly differently – has been circulating since 1st September but had not gone viral.
In response, Meta has told users that they can only object to having their content mined if they submit “an objection form”. “Sharing this story does not count as a valid form of objection,” a Meta spokesperson told the press.
The post is now accompanied by a warning that it contains “false information”.
