The viral “Goodbye Meta AI” post on people’s Instagram Stories doesn’t actually protect their data

Hundreds of thousands of users across all meta platforms make the same statement that they want to protect their social media profiles from use by the company and AI. But the reality is that this message actually means nothing and protects no one.

“Goodbye Meta AI,” the post begins. “As Meta is now a public body, all members must make a similar declaration. If you do not post at least once, you will be deemed to consent to the use of your information and photos. I do not give Meta or anyone else permission to use my personal information, profile information or photos.”

The “copypasta” – a term that describes a block of text that is copied and pasted all over the internet – appears to have started in early September. This is also not the first time that inaccurate data protection copypasta has circulated on Meta. Back in May, a similarly worded post was shared that read: “I hereby declare that I do not consent to the use of my personal information or photos.”

Meta did not immediately respond to Yahoo News' request for comment. The posts will now be marked as “false information” in Instagram Stories.

Can Meta use public posts from Instagram and Facebook to train AI?

Yes, Meta can use your public posts and photos to train its AI.

According to a press release from September 2023, users who agree to Meta's terms and conditions allow the company to use “publicly shared posts from Instagram and Facebook – including photos and text” to train its AI models. These posts do not include private posts, including private messages with friends.

Users also cannot retroactively negate or reject any privacy or copyright terms that they agreed to when signing up for their account. Since Meta is a listed company, Meta also has no influence on the privacy rights of users as set out in the Terms and Conditions.

Online privacy laws are not as strict in the United States, which is why Meta was allowed to begin deleting public posts for AI training without notifying or warning users. In Europe, however, where far stricter rules apply, users were notified in advance and given the option to turn off the privacy policy, allowing Meta to use years of public posts and images to train its AI.

However, messages that users exchange with Meta's AI chatbot are retained and used for training generative AI.

Is that legal?

Facebook's legal terms state: “When you share a photo on Facebook, you give us permission to store, copy and share it with others.” Users agree to these terms when they have an account on Facebook or Create Instagram.

For US users, there is no way to prevent Meta from deleting public posts. The only option for users is to make their accounts private, as Meta only pulls from publicly available posts.