This is just disgusting. Keep an eye out for the young people around you, you never know where the creeps are hiding.
Same ol’ privacy dance: Instagram collects your data when you’re using other apps and websites … and buries it in the settings menu. To disable that, open Instagram > tap your profile picture > three-line menu > Accounts Center at the top. Choose Your information and permissions > Your activity off Meta technologies. From here, choose Clear previous activity and Manage future activity to turn it off.
Meta says 'From the river to the sea' isn't hate speech
The company’s oversight board just ruled that the phrase used by Palestinian protestors isn’t hate speech. But what does it mean? This will make you rethink how social media defines hate.
✅ Instagram for teens: Congress is laying on the pressure and Meta is finally making changes. “Teen accounts” for anyone under 18 will block non-friends from viewing their content or messaging them. Parents can also see who their kids have recently messaged, set daily time limits and block app usage during certain hours. Full list of changes here. Share this one with anyone with a teen.
These famous tech personalities are all college dropouts except for one. Is it … A.) Michael Dell, B.) Steve Jobs, C.) Elon Musk or D.) Mark Zuckerberg?
63,000 Instagram accounts
Removed for sextortion scams. Does that number seem a little low to you? It does to me, considering the billions of people on FB and IG. Meta says it’s cracking down on Nigerian scam rings like the Yahoo Boys. It’s a drop in the bucket.
🇷🇺 Confirm before you share: Meta says the Kremlin is the No. 1 source of AI-created misinformation ahead of the upcoming U.S. presidential election. The most common trick on Facebook? Imaginary “journalists” who write bogus news stories. Meta says they’re trying to stop the Russian propaganda. Oh, Crimea river!
Can’t trust ’em: Meta and Google secretly teamed up to target kids with ads for Instagram on YouTube. They exploited a loophole allowing personalized ads to be served to an “unknown” group, aka users whose age and parental status aren’t identified. Seriously? You can tell it’s a kid based on their search history.
Kitboga exposes a shocking new scam
Scammers have a new trick up their sleeves, and Kitboga is here to break it down for us! Plus, Duolingo’s mean streak, the U.S. House has banned ByteDance apps, and Meta is planning to open-source its latest AI model.
🖼️ Color me impressed: Mark Zuckerberg announced the other day Meta’s AI model will be open-sourced, unlike Google’s version or OpenAI. I’ve been playing with Meta AI’s image tools. Use the prompt, “Imagine a photo (cartoon, watercolor or whatever)” and what you want it to create. Now, there are six fingers on some hands and other anomalies, but for version 1.0, it’s darn good. Try it here.
Meta-morphosis: Meta’s AI Studio for Instagram lets you create an AI version of yourself. The AI “you” can chat with followers on Instagram, Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp. It’s free to use at ai.meta.com/ai-studio or in the IG app. I’ll hold off on creating an AI Kim.
AI for all: Meta just released Llama 3.1, the biggest open-source AI model yet. It can process a novel’s worth of text (128,000 pieces of info) in eight languages, write better computer code and solve more complex math problems. Try it on Meta AI with your Facebook or Instagram account. Outside the U.S.? Go to HuggingChat. (Bonus: Meta’s AI also generates amazing pics.)
You’ll hear no objection from me: People are turning to small claims courts to tackle social media account issues, especially with Meta offering little to no help. Ray Palena got his Facebook account back this way after all other methods had failed. Smart idea, really. Facebook’s customer support is totally useless, and filing fees are typically under $100.
Chipmaker Nvidia just passed Microsoft and Apple to become the world’s most valuable company, hitting a cool $3.34 trillion in worth. Crazy, right? For today’s trivia, what Big Tech company is sitting at No. 4? Is it … A.) Meta, B.) Amazon or C.) Alphabet?
🎨 Tell every artist you know: Digital creators are ditching Instagram for good reason. Meta now views public posts as part of its AI training data, and you can’t opt out. One alternative? Cara. It’s just like Insta, but it bans AI posts and training. Try it on iOS or Android.
🔒 Use Facebook or Instagram? Meta changed its two-factor authentication rules to automatically “trust” any devices you’ve regularly used its apps on over the last two years. Disable this. Log in to either platform, then go to your Settings and click Account Center > Password and Security. Tap or click Two-factor Authentication to turn it off.
Don’t waste your money: Meta’s now pitching its built-in AI features that help you create full ad campaigns on Facebook and Instagram. That includes image and text generation. I wouldn’t trust it, but watch your ads and spending very carefully if you do.
You can’t delete Meta AI
Meta wants to make your FB or IG search bar work more like ChatGPT. You can’t turn it off. Plus, high school coach uses AI to frame principal, the most dreaded word at work, and a new TV projection breakthrough. Got a car? Here’s how to make it into your next side hustle.
You turn me on: Explicit AI “girlfriend” chatbot ads are all over Facebook, Instagram and Messenger. At least 29,000 (!) are trying to lure you in with generated images and suggestive text. Meta says it’s “reviewing and removing” the ads. I say they need a better way.
Meta may not remove your data
Thinking about deleting your data from Facebook, Instagram, or Threads? There’s no guarantee it will be completely removed.