Instagram – Breaking News & Latest Updates 2026
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Jess Weatherbed
Jess Weatherbed
Parents will be notified when child has suicidal chats with Meta AI.

When teen Instagram users on accounts with parental controls have conversations about self harm or suicide with Meta AI, the platform will now proactively alert supervising guardians that the child’s safety could be at risk. This builds on a similar feature that Meta introduced for Instagram search in February.

If you or anyone you know is considering self-harm or needs to talk, contact the following people who want to help: In the US, text or call 988. Outside the US, contact https://www.iasp.info/.

Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Meta’s AI can now dub your voice in more languages on Instagram and Facebook.

The AI translations are expanding to Japanese, Korean, French, German, and Italian on Instagram and Bahasa, Indonesian, Arabic, French, Vietnamese, and Thai on Facebook, according to Instagram boss Adam Mosseri.

Terrence O'Brien
Terrence O'Brien
You can (and should) opt out of letting people use your Instagram posts with Meta’s AI.

Go to your profile in the Instagram app and open the hamburger menu in the top right corner. Scroll down to “sharing and reuse,” then toggle off the sliders for “allow people to create with and reuse your content” for Posts and Reels. Then, below that, also turn off “allow people to create and reuse your original audio on Meta AI.”

Options to let people reuse / create with your content using Meta AI.
Screenshot: Terrence O’Brien / The Verge
Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Instagram’s Adam Mosseri is showing off some concepts for changing your algorithm.

“We want your algorithm to feel like something you talk to rather than something that happens to you,” Mosseri says. This month, Instagram announced it would start letting you tweak your algorithm.

I’ve compiled some screenshots of the concepts below, but check out Mosseri’s post to see the mockups in motion.

A screenshot of Instagram showing a pull to refresh.
A screenshot of Instagram showing a way to tweak your algorithm between reels.
A screenshot of Instagram showing how you could type to change your algorithm.
1/3
One idea is to pull from the top of your feed to get to a menu with different options.
Image: Instagram
Richard Lawler
Richard Lawler
ICE agents confronted a Syracuse woman to try to get her to delete an Instagram post.

Agents walked into a polling place on primary Election Day to demand that one of the workers, Paigelynne Gonyea, delete her post, claiming she “may be in violation of federal law.” The post contains the name of Jonathan Ross, the agent who shot and killed Renee Good in Minneapolis, who has been named by a number of media outlets, including The Verge.

On Friday, US Representative John Mannion wrote to DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin requesting the agency “promptly review this incident and put a stop to any ICE activities that target protected speech under the First Amendment.”

"ICE wanted my autograph. I declined."

[@turndapaigeofficial - Instagram]

Jay Peters
Jay Peters
The Oversight Board is demanding Meta take down an “AI-generated sexualized video” of a woman on Instagram.

Meta said it didn’t have indicators of the post being nonconsensual, but in addition to arguing that was incorrect, the board says Meta should determine that “AI-generated impersonation is non-consensual by default.”

Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Instagram’s TV app is coming to Samsung TVs in the US.

The app launched late last year on Amazon Fire TV and expanded to Google TV in February. It’s getting some new features, too: you’ll be able to watch Stories, and Instagram is testing a “dedicated home” to watch horizontal videos as well.

A widescreen video in the Instagram app for TVs.
Image: Instagram
Jay Peters
Jay Peters
You can now add individual captions in Instagram carousels.

Check out how it works in a post from Instagram. However, you’ll only be able to write individual captions to photos and videos in new carousels, not old ones, according to Meta’s Nicole Rechtszaid.

Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Meta’s Instagram Plus subscription begins rolling out today.

The $3.99-per-month subscription adds features like letting you keep a story up for 48 hours and the ability to customize your bio’s font. You can see the whole list of features on Instagram’s website.

Emma Roth
Emma Roth
Instagram is trying to prevent teens from repeatedly seeing certain kinds of content.

The platform is testing a way to limit teens from seeing too many posts related to topics like nutrition, weightlifting, or anxiety management. It sounds similar to the “nudge” notifications Instagram launched in 2022, though this one will apply across home, explore, and reels feeds.

Meta also announced that its 13-plus setting is expanding globally to Instagram, Facebook, and Messenger.

Emma Roth
Emma Roth
Obama’s old Instagram account was reportedly hacked over the weekend.

The @obamawhitehouse account briefly showed images of Iranian propaganda, which have since been taken down, as spotted earlier by TMZ. The account belonging to the US Space Force Chief Master Sergeant was also hijacked.

It seems the attack expanded beyond just public figures, as several users reported getting locked out of their accounts as well.

Richard Lawler
Richard Lawler
With mass layoffs plannned, Meta reassigns thousands of employees to AI initiatives.

The New York Times and Reuters report that a memo was sent to Meta employees on Monday reassigning 7,000 of them, and said that “As org leaders worked on the changes, many of them incorporated AI native design principles ⁠into their new org structures.”

The memo told employees to work remotely on Wednesday, when it will lay off about 10 percent of its workforce, roughly 8,000 people, with emails sent at 4AM local time.

Dominic Preston
Dominic Preston
Android is getting better for creators.

Adobe’s updated Premiere video editing app, which launched on iOS last September, will finally arrive on Android “this summer.” It’ll include some Android-exclusive templates and effects designed for YouTube Shorts.

There are also Android-exclusive tools coming to Instagram’s Edits app, including AI upscaling and automatic audio track separation.

Jay Peters
Jay Peters
The Instagram iPad app no longer shows you Reels first.

When Instagram’s iPad app launched last year, it would open up to a feed of Reels instead of the usual mix of posts you might be familiar with from the iOS app. Now, though, the iPad app has a more familiar home feed that works like the one in the iOS app, as reported by 9to5Mac.

Stevie Bonifield
Stevie Bonifield
Instagram is getting an “AI creator” label.

Did those influencers in your Instagram feed go to Coachella, and do they even exist in real life? Creators can voluntarily add a new label to their account if they frequently post AI-generated or modified content starting on Monday.

This is in addition to Meta’s automatically applied “AI info” label for content on its platforms that it detects as being AI-modified.

Screenshots of Instagram’s new “AI creator” label
Image: Meta
A jury says Meta and Google hurt a kid. What now?
Play

Why nuclear options like age limits and repealing Section 230 won’t make social media safer.

Nilay Patel