Viral post falsely claims to stop Meta using your data to train AI – here’s how to actually stop it
Hundreds of thousands of Instagram users, including actors Julianne Moore and Ashley Tisdale, have shared a post that supposedly revokes Meta’s right to train its artificial intelligence tool using their information.
“Goodbye Meta AI,” it says before saying the user does “not give Meta or anyone else permission to use any of personal data, profile information or photos”.
It doesn’t work.
The viral Instagram story, which was also shared by England cricketer Jonny Bairstow, is actually repurposed from an old, equally ineffective meme and Meta sources confirmed to Sky News it does not count as a valid form of objection to their new AI policies.
Fact-checkers have flagged the post as “false information”. Pic: Instagram
It is now being flagged as “false information” by fact-checkers on Instagram.
However, there is a simple way to object that Meta has to honour.
Meta AI is coming
Over the next few months, Meta will start using public posts and information on UK Instagram and Facebook accounts to train its artificial intelligence, Meta AI.
The new rules were supposed to roll out in June but Meta was forced to delay them to deal with changes demanded by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).
Now, because of those changes, the way you can object is “even simpler, more prominent and easier to find”, according to Meta.
Pic: Reuters
How to object
In the coming days, Facebook and Instagram users will start receiving notifications explaining what is changing and how to access the objection form.
If a user has already objected through the old form, they will not receive a notification.
That’s because Meta says it will “honour their choice” and they will be excluded from the training data by default.
The objection form itself has been simplified from its previous version.
It now takes three clicks and only requires an email address to revoke access to your data.
Anything that is not public on your account, like private posts and messages, will already be excluded from the data used to train Meta AI.
Similarly, private accounts and accounts of under-18s will also be excluded.
You can also object before you receive the notification by going to the Meta’s “privacy centre” in your settings and clicking on the “object” hyperlink at the top.
Meta isn’t immediately joining new EU AI pact
While Meta has tweaked its AI policy for UK accounts, some say it is holding out in the European Union (EU) because it is not joining a new pact for companies using AI.
Earlier in the year, the EU passed a groundbreaking set of laws called the EU AI Act.
Read more: What is the EU’s new Artificial Intelligence Act?
It regulates how AI can be used, and grades different AI uses based on their risk to society.
All companies operating in the EU, including Meta, have to abide by the rules which are slowly coming into force.
Meta says it “welcomes” the new “harmonised” rules.
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However, an interim set of guidelines has been launched called the EU AI Pact, which hopes to get businesses following the new laws without waiting for them to come into full force.
Signatories pledge to commit to governance strategies that comply with the AI Act, identify high-risk AI systems in their business and promote AI literacy among staff.
Over a hundred companies signed up to the pledge, which was announced on Wednesday – but not Meta.
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
In a statement to Sky News, the company said it is “focusing on our compliance work under the AI Act at this time” but did not rule out joining the pact in the future.
“We also shouldn’t lose sight of AI’s huge potential to foster European innovation and enable competition or else the EU will miss out on this once-in-a-generation opportunity.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to retaliate against the Houthis and their Iranian “masters” after the group launched a missile attack on the country’s main international airport.
A missile fired by the group from Yemen landed near Ben Gurion Airport, causing panic among passengers in the terminal building.
“Attacks by the Houthis emanate from Iran,” Mr Netanyahu wrote on X. “Israel will respond to the Houthi attack against our main airport AND, at a time and place of our choosing, to their Iranian terror masters.”
Israeli police officers investigate the missile crater. Pic: Reuters
The missile impact left a plume of smoke and briefly halted flights and commuter traffic at the airport. Some international carriers have cancelled flights to and from Tel Aviv for several days.
Four people were lightly wounded, paramedic service Magen David Adom said.
Air raid sirens went off across Israel and footage showed passengers yelling and rushing for cover.
The attack came hours before senior Israeli cabinet ministers were set to vote on whether to intensify the country’s military operations in the Gaza Strip, and as the army began calling up thousands of reserves in anticipation of a wider operation in the enclave.
Houthi military spokesperson Brigadier General Yahya Saree said the group fired a hypersonic ballistic missile at the airport.
Iran’s defence minister later told a state TV broadcaster that if the country was attacked by the US or Israel, it would target their bases, interests and forces where necessary.
Israel’s military said several attempts to intercept the missile were unsuccessful.
Air, road and rail traffic were halted after the attack, police said, though it resumed around an hour later.
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Yemen’s Houthis have been firing missiles at Israel since its war with Hamas in Gaza began on 7 October 2023, and while most have been intercepted, some have penetrated the country’s missile defence systems and caused damage.
Israel has previously struck the group in Yemen in retaliation and the US and UK have also launched strikes after the Houthis began attacking international shipping, saying it was in solidarity with Palestinians over Israel’s war with Hamas.
The Israeli Air Force is regarded as one of the country’s most elite units.
So, when hundreds of current and former pilots call for an end to the war in Gaza to get the hostages out, Israelis take notice.
This month, 1,200 pilots caused a storm by signing an open letter arguing the war served mainly “political and personal interests and not security ones”.
The pilots’ protest letter
Part of the letter translated
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the original letter was written by “bad apples”.
But Guy Paron, a former pilot and one of those behind the letter, said the Israeli government had failed to move to phase two of the ceasefire deal with Hamas, brokered under US President Donald Trump.
That deal called for a full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza and the release of all the remaining hostages. Mr Netanyahu continues to argue that the war must continue to put pressure on Hamas.
Mr Paron said the (Israeli) government “gave up or violated a signed agreement with Hamas” and “threw it to the trash”.
“You have to finish the deal, release the hostages, even if it means stopping that war,” he argued.
It’s not the first time Israeli pilots have taken up a cause. Many of them also campaigned against Mr Netanyahu’s 2023 judicial reforms.
“In this country, 1,000 Israeli Air Force pilots carry a lot of weight,” Mr Paron added.
“The Air Force historically has been the major force and game-changer in all of Israel’s wars, including this current one. The strength of the Air Force is the public’s guarantee of security.”
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UN runs out of food aid in Gaza
Anti-government campaign spreads
Now, the open letter campaign has spread to other parts of the military.
More than 15,000 people have signed, including paratroopers, armoured corps, navy, special units, cyber and medics. The list goes on.
Dr Ofer Havakuk has served 200 days during this war as a combat doctor, mostly in Gaza, and believes the government is continuing the war to stay in power.
He has also signed an open letter supporting the pilots and accused the prime minister of putting politics first.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the authors of the original letter as ‘bad apples’. Pic: AP
He said Mr Netanyahu “wants to keep his coalition working and to keep the coalition together. For him, this is the main purpose of the war”.
A ceasefire could lead to the collapse of the prime minister’s fragile far-right coalition, which is opposed to ending the war.
Threat of dismissal
The Israeli military has threatened to dismiss those who have signed protest letters.
We met a former pilot who is still an active reservist. He didn’t want to be identified and is worried he could lose his job.
“This is a price that I’m willing to pay, although it is very big for me because I’m volunteering and, as a volunteer, I want to stay on duty for as long as I can,” he told us.
The controversy over the war and the hostages is gaining momentum inside Israel’s military.
Read more:
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It is also exposing deep divisions in society at a time when there is no clear sign about how the government plans to end the war in Gaza, or when.
The renewed war in Gaza over the last year and a half followed deadly Hamas attacks on Israel on 7 October 2023, which killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and saw around 250 taken hostage.
More than 51,000 people have been killed in Gaza during the Israeli military’s response, many of them civilians, according to the enclave’s Hamas-run Ministry of Health.
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