Meta pulls new AI image feature after days of backlash

Meta rolled out a new Instagram feature, then got dragged so hard it practically vanished on impact. The tool let people use Meta’s new AI image maker to create fake or altered pictures based on content from public Instagram accounts—and users were automatically included unless they opted out. Translation: if your account was public, your face and posts could suddenly become raw material for someone else’s AI experiment. That did not go over well.

The community reaction was less “cool new toy” and more full-body cringe. One big fear was that Meta isn’t really done here, just waiting for the outrage to cool off before sneaking it back in. As one commenter put it, there’s no way Mark Zuckerberg is spending billions on AI just to quit after a few bad headlines. Others went straight for the company’s leadership, calling Meta “tone-deaf” and suggesting this is what happens when nobody in the room feels safe saying, “Hey, this is a terrible idea.”

Then came the jokes—and they were vicious. The thread’s darkest laugh came from a user summing up the whole vibe as: “They trust me, the dumb fucks.” Another commenter crowned Zuckerberg the “world’s creepiest human,” dragging in reports about facial recognition ambitions in Meta’s smart glasses too. Even SAG-AFTRA celebrated the takedown as a win, while Privacy International said the mess showed how AI companies treat people’s images like free fuel. Meta says it “missed the mark.” The internet’s response? No kidding.