Instagram – Breaking News & Latest Updates 2026
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Terrence O'Brien
Terrence O'Brien
Adam Mosseri says Instagram is ‘working out what to do’ about AI fakes.

It’s not just celebrity deepfakes that are plaguing social media. AI hot girl accounts are stealing comedians’ jokes, and painters are seeing AI versions of their process videos rack up millions of views. Mosseri says it’s “not practical” to ban AI, but it’s not sure how to handle content that isn’t copyrighted, like jokes.

Adam Mosseri offers milquetoast response about AI stealing from creators and what to do about it.
1/2Screenshot: Terrence O’Brien / The Verge
Jay Peters
Jay Peters
You can now make Instagram carousels in Meta’s Edits app.

The app gives you a bunch of tools to tinker and tweak your carousel if you want to spruce it up. Check out how the editor works in the below video from Meta.

The carousel-editing tool is launching first on iOS with Android “coming soon.”

Jess Weatherbed
Jess Weatherbed
Instagram wants to be the communication hub for your child’s school.

Meta is expanding Instagram’s School Partnership Program, adding a centralized hub for keeping students and parents informed about what’s happening across their school communities. This also introduces new features for verified students, including a Clubs and Teams directory, School Stories, Notes, and the ability to add a school banner to their profile.

Four mobile screenshots showing new features for Instagram’s School Partnership Program.
The idea here is that you can view announcements and reminders about events that are happening at your (or your child’s) school instead of hunting through their website.
Image: Meta
Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Instagram now lets you add posts you’re tagged in to your profile grid.

Tagged posts will appear in reverse-chronological order on your grid, but you can also reorder them if you want.

Screenshots showing how you can add an Instagram post to your grid and what it looks like on the grid.
Screenshots showing how you can add an Instagram post to your grid and what it looks like on the grid.
Image: Instagram
Instagram’s AI detection is a mess (again)

Meta is back to adding AI labels on original photos, while not tagging AI images it should.

Jess Weatherbed
Lauren Feiner
Lauren Feiner
Meta is planning an ad blitz urging TikTok and YouTube to follow its lead.

It’s planning to run full-page ads in The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and New York Times on Thursday, according to NYT reporter Mike Isaac, on the heels of Meta’s $17 billion settlement with state AGs. Meta is using the settlement to urge its top competitors to take on similar restrictions.

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Lauren Feiner
Lauren Feiner
Meta says states can’t prove it lied about safety risks.

The company laid out its defense in the trial against a coalition of state AGs, previewing that it will call on their own public health officials to combat claims of social media addiction, and claiming that the states have pulled public statements out of context to claim it misled parents.

Lauren Feiner
Lauren Feiner
Meta has constructed ‘tissue paper barriers’ to teens’ overuse of its platforms, AGs allege.

In an opening statement, California deputy AG Megan O’Neill accused Meta of doing “too little, too late” to curb teens’ problematic usage of Facebook and Instagram, while misleading the public. She also laid out the states allegations that Meta knew — but didn’t remove – many kids under 13 on its platforms.

Emma Roth
Emma Roth
Why did it have to be Instagzam?
1/3Image: Instagram
This is Instagram’s new logoThis is Instagram’s new logo
Jess Weatherbed
Jess Weatherbed
Jess Weatherbed
Meta’s AI algorithm is keeping us on Instagram.

In Meta’s latest earnings call, Mark Zuckerberg said that time spent on Instagram globally this quarter has increased by “double digits year-over-year,” largely driven by improvements to its AI-powered recommendations algorithm that keeps people hooked. The proclamation comes amid concerns (and legal battles) around Instagram’s “addictive” design.

The vertical video takeover is here

How TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube copied their way to victory.

David Pierce
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.
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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.