Viral Post Claiming to Protect Social Media Data is False
A viral post circulating on social media platforms like Facebook, Threads, and particularly Instagram, reads “Goodbye Meta AI.” More than 500,000 users have shared this post, believing it will prevent Meta from using their personal information. The message claims that Meta, as a public entity, requires all members to post a similar statement, and failing to do so implies consent to the use of their data and photos.
The post, often shared as an Instagram screenshot or copied and pasted on Facebook and Threads, has even been shared by celebrities such as actress Julianne Moore and former NFL quarterback Tom Brady. However, Meta is now labeling these posts as “false” information on its platforms, linking to an article titled “” by Facebook third-party fact-checking partner Lead Stories.
According to Lead Stories, the spread of the “Goodbye Meta AI” copypasta—a widely shared chunk of text—began in early September. Former American Idol contestant and drag queen Ada Vox warned her followers on on Sept. 7 to stop sharing the message, saying: “Hackers use posts like that to target gullible and vulnerable people to find the easiest profiles to get into. … You are only putting a target on your back for hackers by sharing and making those ridiculous posts. The people at the highest risk for this are the older generation, so if you see them posting that, let them know.”
This isn’t the first time such a privacy hoax has been spread. In May, a similar copypasta claiming to prevent Meta from using personal data was debunked by fact-checking website , which stated that Facebook users can’t “retroactively negate the privacy or copyright terms they agreed to when they signed up” or alter new privacy terms “simply by posting a contrary legal notice on their account.”
As for truly preventing Meta from scraping your data to train its generative artificial intelligence models, the matter is more complex. Earlier this year, Meta sent notifications to informing them that it planned to use their content for AI development and allowing them to opt out. However, due to Europe’s strict tech regulations. In other regions like Australia, India, and the U.S., users weren’t notified of any changes, and the duration of Meta’s data scraping for AI training remains unclear.
According to a Meta last September, the company utilizes “publicly shared posts from Instagram and Facebook—including photos and text” to train its models, but not “private posts” or “the content of your private messages with friends.” A Meta spokesperson MIT Technology Review in June that users who wish to minimize the risk of their content being scraped can make their accounts private.
Meta did not immediately respond to TIME’s request for comment.