After user outrage, Meta is deleting its small army of AI bot profiles in order to fix a bug that removed the ability to block the accounts. As I reported earlier today, the bots have been around since 2023, but many users just discovered them in the last few days following news coverage and social media posts.
The New York Times reports on a spate of cases where predators posing as photographers and promoters used social media to connect with parents and solicit child sexual abuse imagery, taking advantage of not just Instagram but also parents who want to turn their young children into influencers.
[The New York Times]
Zuck worked with T-Pain on a new version of “Get Low,” but the song initially wasn’t playing for me and some Verge colleagues on his Instagram carousel.
Now, the song works for me on iOS, but not on desktop. Meta spokesperson Sienna La Rocca confirms that this isn’t a copyright issue, however.
Update: The song is working on iOS but not on desktop.
In the coming days, Instagram and Facebook users within the bloc will be given the choice to receive “less personalized ads” that are full-screen and temporarily unskippable, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The offering, which Meta says is likely to negatively impact its business, follows pressure from European Union regulators who opposed users having to pay to avoid targeted ads.
Reverse engineer Alessandro Paluzzi dug up a menu within the app showing the option to “create An AI profile picture.” While you can already upload an AI-generated profile picture to Instagram, this would streamline the process.
Over the weekend, several Threads users noticed seemingly random, out-of-context posts on their feeds — only to realize they were replies without the original post attached.
Fortunately, it looks like a fix may be on the way, as Instagram engineer Seth Kinast says the company is “investigating” the apparent bug.
“Social media is doing harm to our kids and I’m calling time on it,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said. “The onus will be on social media platforms to demonstrate they are taking reasonable steps to prevent access. The onus won’t be on parents or young people. There’ll be no penalties for users.”
Legislation will be introduced this month and would come into force 12 months after ratification.
Instagram is adding more filters for the inbox so creators can sort through endless DM requests. The update includes a way to filter by account type (verified accounts, businesses, etc.) and to sort by recency or the number of followers the sender has.
The future of marketing — and, in a way, everything else — is getting a shakeup.
I’ve enjoyed the sliding image carousels on Threads — although it still lacks a toggle to disable autoplaying video — and now Meta’s Twitter-like app can hold up to 20 photos in one post.
That matches the upgrade Instagram announced in August and should be enough for your next visually provocative masterpiece.
