Celebrities and over 600,000 people have been caught up in a viral hoax claiming to deny Facebook and Instagram owner Meta the right to use their images for training artificial intelligence (AI). Stars like James McAvoy, Ashley Tisdale, and Tom Brady fell for the fake “Goodbye Meta AI” message, believing that sharing it would protect their privacy.
However, the truth is that users can opt out of AI training in their account settings, and sharing the message does nothing to change their privacy settings. Lead Stories, one of Meta’s fact-checking sites, has labeled these messages as “false information.”
The trend originated from a post on Facebook on September 1st but gained momentum when celebrities started sharing it, leading to a spike in searches for “Goodbye Meta AI.” This is not the first time social media has been flooded with such copy-and-paste messages, but it is rare to see so many high-profile accounts fall for the hoax.
Other social media companies, like LinkedIn, have faced criticism for similar plans to train AI models on public posts, with LinkedIn recently reversing its decision in the UK. It serves as a reminder to always fact-check information before sharing it online.
