The "Goodbye Meta AI" Movement: Debunking the Viral Trend on Instagram and Facebook

What is the Goodbye Meta AI movement? We explain the new trend on Instagram and Facebook - Softonic

Does this message that politicians and celebrities are using from Meta's AI really protect? The world of AI is in full revolution and the big companies just want to keep gathering content to refine and optimize their artificial intelligences. The issue is that users are already tired of seeing how AI is trained with our content. And some have said enough. Or, in this case, Goodbye Meta AI. This message, which has been shared by many users, including celebrities, offers no protection of copyright or privacy, experts explain. It has been shared by actors and sports stars (like James McAvoy, Ashley Tisdale, and Tom Brady) and hundreds of thousands of other people. But, does it really matter? Meta, the parent company of the three platforms, has announced that it will proceed with its controversial plans to use millions of Facebook and Instagram posts in the UK to train its artificial intelligence (AI) technology, a practice that violates EU privacy laws. Meta has said that sharing the story with a "Goodbye Meta AI" does not count as a valid form of objection, just like the previous legal tests periodically shared by users in recent years have not provided them with any of the copyright or privacy protection they expected. According to the fact-checking site Lead Stories, affiliated with Meta, the latest iteration comes from a hoax published on September 1. Its text had some differences but followed a similar pattern: "Goodbye, Meta AI. I order you to stay away from my personal information and photos, and any private information of mine. A lawyer has advised us to publish this or it could have legal consequences. Since Meta is now a public entity, all members must post a similar statement. If you do not post this at least once, it is assumed that you allow the use of your personal information and photos. I do not give you permission to use any of my data or photos," it said. In more general terms, Snopes reports that this type of post dates back to the early 2000s, when some websites began citing the "code 431.322.12 of the Internet Privacy Act." Apparently, their owners believed they could immunize themselves against the legal consequences of their online actions by invoking a fictitious law.

No, This Viral 'Goodbye Meta AI' Post Won't Protect Your Photos

Hundreds of thousands of people have fallen for a hoax that claims to deny Meta the right to use their photos for training the company's AI. Since early September, social media users have been sharing the same post about wanting to protect their data and photos from being used by Meta AI. The message, which is most often shared on Instagram Stories, falsely claims that whoever shares the post can legally bar Meta from using their data and photos. However, in reality, the viral post does not protect people or their images from the parent company of Instagram, Threads, and Facebook. The post, which features black-and-white text, begins with the words "Goodbye Meta AI." The message continues, claiming that based on advice from an unnamed lawyer, Meta is not authorized to use the individual's data or images because they shared this post. "If you do not post at least once it will be assumed you are okay with them using your information and photos," the post reads. "I do not give Meta or anyone else permission to use any of my personal data, profile information, or photos." However, this statement has no legal validity. Sharing it won't protect a person, their data, or their photos. Many of these posts have now been labeled as "false information" and users are directed to a report on Lead Stories, one of Meta's third-party fact-checking sites. "Does posting a statement ensure that users of Meta services will not have their data used in Meta's artificial intelligence training? No, that's not true," Lead Stories says. The third-party fact-checking site says that the viral post is "an example of 'copypasta,' text containing information that's often not true but which is repeatedly copied and pasted online." Instead, Facebook and Instagram users can opt out of Meta AI training by setting their account to private. For Meta users in the U.S., there isn't a way to stop Meta AI from learning from public social media posts, as there are no privacy laws specific to this. Back in February, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg made clear that he is using images posted on Facebook and Instagram to train the company's generative AI tools with. "When people think about data, they typically think about the corpus that you might use to train a model up front," Zuckerberg said in an earnings call. "On Facebook and Instagram, there are hundreds of billions of publicly shared images and tens of billions of public videos, which we estimate is greater than the Common Crawl dataset and people share large numbers of public text posts in comments across our services as well."

Viral Posts Won't Stop Meta AI From Using Your Data: Here's What Will

Quick LinksWhy Posting "I Don't Give Facebook Permission" Doesn't Work Why Has This Viral Message Started Again? How Meta Users Can Opt Out of AI Data Training Every now and then a viral message declaring that Facebook and Meta don't have permission to access the users photos and content infects feeds worldwide. It doesn't work, and never will -- but that doesn't stop new versions of the debunked meme appearing; this time, it's taking aim at Meta AI and how it uses your data for training. Why Posting "I Don't Give Facebook Permission" Doesn't Work In short, posting this message to your Facebook feed doesn't do anything because that's not how Facebook or Meta's terms and conditions work. If you're using the platform, you're automatically giving Meta permission to use your data, images, interactions, and more to help shape their product and sell advertising. The original version of this message targeted Meta's (then still named just "Facebook") general data collection, suggesting that if you posted the message to your wall, Meta would auto-magically stop using your data automatically. Of course, that's not how it works, and Meta's data collection remains as in-depth as ever. Here's an example I recently spotted: While the overall message is completely off-base, the assumptions on how Facebook works are also completely wrong: copying and pasting a message doesn't "upgrade the system." Why Has This Viral Message Started Again? This time around, the message targets Meta AI, Meta's artificial intelligence chatbot that the company is pushing throughout its products. Many people who use Meta products, like Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram, are unhappy about this integration, both the tool and the data collection required to train the AI tool. The rise of Meta AI has given rise to a new viral message that users are meant to post to their walls. There are some variations of the message, but it's roughly similar to this: Close It follows a similar pattern but, again, is completely useless. How Meta Users Can Opt Out of AI Data Training The big difference with Meta AI's data training is that there is actually a way to opt out of having your data used. At least, there is depending on where you live. Unfortunately, at the current time, US-based Facebook users cannot opt out of Meta's AI training data collection. Data collection and privacy laws in the US are famously weak, and because of this, Meta isn't required to provide a way to protect your data. However, if you're in the EU or UK, the Facebook Data Subject Rights Form will actually tell Meta that you don't want them to use your data. My cynical side believes it's a placebo, but the EU's GDPR is strong enough that Meta has to provide the option. But for the rest of the world, the only way to avoid Meta's data collection is to remove yourself from its platforms, which, let's face it, is easier said than done.