No, posting ‘Goodbye Meta AI’ message won’t protect your data

A chain message making the rounds on Instagram, Threads and Facebook in recent weeks is aimed at prohibiting Meta, the social media apps’ parent company, from using people’s content to train its artificial intelligence (AI).

Meta says it uses public Instagram and Facebook posts to train its generative AI models. Generative artificial intelligence is AI that’s used to create something new, such as images, text or videos. 

The chain message that people are sharing reads:

“Goodbye Meta AI. Please note an attorney has advised us to put this on, failure to do so may result in legal consequences. As Meta is now a public entity all members must post a similar statement. If you do not post at least once it will be assumed you are okay with them using your information and photos. I do not give Meta or anyone else permission to use any of my personal data, profile information or photos.”

A VERIFY reader asked us if posting the “Goodbye Meta AI” message would protect their data.

THE QUESTION

Can posting the “Goodbye Meta AI” message protect your data?

THE SOURCES

• Meta spokesperson 
• Nolo, an online legal guide
• Facebook Terms of Service and Privacy Policy
• Instagram Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

THE ANSWER

No, posting the “Goodbye Meta AI” message will not protect your data. 

WHAT WE FOUND

You cannot change how Facebook and Instagram use your data by posting a message to your page. A spokesperson for Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, told VERIFY that “this meme is inaccurate.”

These posts are examples of copypasta, which is internet slang for a block of text that gets copied and pasted repeatedly. VERIFY previously reported that posting a similar copypasta on Instagram wouldn’t stop Meta from using people’s content to train its AI. 

The way social media networks use your data is determined by the terms of service you agree to when you use or make an account on its website, and to some degree, the options you select on your account’s privacy settings – not a message shared on your page. 

“Currently, posted privacy policies — rather than specific federal or state laws — typically determine your privacy rights concerning the personal data that Internet-based companies collect on you,” said attorney Amy Loftsgordon in a blog post on Nolo, an online legal guide. “Facebook, for instance, has a privacy policy stating what it can and can't do with your information. To use the site, you have to agree to the terms of the privacy policy.”

There are no terms or policies from Instagram or Facebook that say Meta will change how it uses your content if you post a message to your profile. That means no chain message has the power to stop Instagram and Facebook from using your posts and photos to train its AI or for any other purpose.

The terms of service for Facebook and Instagram spell out that users give the company permission to use content they create and share on the platform, as well as use their name and profile picture. 

“When you share, post or upload content,” such as photos or videos, to Instagram and Facebook, you grant the company a license to “host, use, distribute, modify, run, copy, publicly perform or display, translate, and creative derivative works of your content (consistent with your privacy and application settings),” the terms of service for Facebook and Instagram say. 

The Meta spokesperson previously told VERIFY that the company has “shared details about the kinds of information we use to build and improve AI experiences – which includes public posts from Instagram and Facebook – consistent with our Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.”

The company does not “train these models using people’s private posts” or the content of users’ private messages, Meta said in September 2023.

Meta doesn’t have an “opt-out feature” for users who don’t want the company to use their public content for its AI training, the company spokesperson confirmed.

VERIFY digital journalist Emery Winter contributed to this report.