2024-09-25 16:45:23
Celebrities including Tom Brady and James McAvoy and are among more than 600,000 victims of a hoax claiming sharing a message would stop Meta from using their images for artificial intelligence training.
A viral scam called ‘Goodbye Meta AI’ claimed re-sharing it would grant users control over their data.
But users who actually wish to opt out of AI training can already do so through their account settings.
Meta – the parent company of Facebook and Instagram owned by Mark Zuckerberg – has confirmed to the BBC sharing the bogus message does not alter any user’s privacy settings.
A spokesperson for the company said: “Sharing this story does not count as a valid form of objection.”
The hoax seems to have emerged in response to Meta’s announcement in June regarding its intention to utilise public posts for AI model training.
Lead Stories, one of Meta’s fact-checking partners, traced the origin of the trend to a slightly different post that appeared on Facebook on 1 September.
The situation escalated when celebrity accounts began sharing the message, leading to a notable spike in Google searches for ‘Goodbye Meta AI’ on 24 September.
This incident underscores the prevalence of “copypasta” – a term referring to text frequently copied and pasted online.
Fact-checking site Snopes has documented numerous instances over the past decade where users attempted to assert their privacy rights through similar public declarations, often with little effect.
The issue of social media companies training AI on public posts has faced backlash, prompting LinkedIn to reverse its plans to do so in the UK.
Visit Bang Premier (main website)
