Instagram is rolling out new features for schools enrolled in Meta's School Partnership Program, letting verified students and administrators create clubs and teams that can post Stories and Notes visible only to verified peers. Schools can also set up Channels for broader updates to students, parents and teachers, alongside a verified school directory and profile banners. Meta uses third-party service UNiDAYS to verify student identities, and the features are live starting today.
A lawsuit filed against Cornell University and seven members of the Chi Pi fraternity alleges an hours-long sexual assault occurred in 2024. As details spread on social media, generating public outcry, some users report that platforms like Instagram appear to be limiting the visibility of posts about the case.
The Museum of Modern Art has launched its inaugural show devoted to information design, featuring works by contributors including a climatologist and The New York Times. The exhibition examines how data visualizations and infographics communicate facts while also carrying aesthetic and symbolic weight for viewers who encounter or share them.
Meta is opening early access to two new AI tools, a mobile app called Horizon Create and a browser-based Horizon Studio, that let creators generate 2D or 3D mobile games from text prompts. The generated games can include multiplayer, progression systems, art direction and difficulty balancing, and can be edited after an initial version is produced. Meta says these games will also be playable directly inside Facebook and Instagram feeds without downloading a separate app.
Major social platforms including YouTube, TikTok, Facebook and Instagram have reportedly declined to run an advertising campaign that referenced the name 'Musk.' The report does not specify the advertiser or the campaign's content, only that multiple platforms turned it down.
Lawyers suing Meta over alleged harm to teens' mental health say a newly unsealed document shows the Instagram Teen Accounts team, internally called Project Nido, ordered baseball caps reading 'a/c priv' in 2024. The plaintiffs cite this as evidence that Meta has broadly and improperly invoked attorney-client privilege to shield internal research on teen harm from disclosure. A federal judge, Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, has already ruled some of Meta's privilege claims 'entirely inappropriate' in a prior order.
Meta introduced two new tools, a mobile app called Horizon Create and a browser-based Horizon Studio, that let users build games for its Horizon platform using AI prompts. Both are launching in early access with a waitlist, and Meta says games made with these tools can be surfaced and played directly within Facebook and Instagram feeds without downloads.
OpenAI has expanded its influencer marketing, more than doubling sponsored Instagram posts for ChatGPT from 61 in June to 141 in August, according to HypeAuditor data cited by Business Insider. The company is reportedly pitching parenting, fitness and tech creators, urging them to frame ChatGPT as useful for everyday life and business rather than address AI safety worries directly.
Meta is heavily promoting Muse, a new AI agent for Instagram and Facebook users that links to email, bank accounts, and other personal data to automate tasks and build a long-term memory of user habits. Multiple users, including a journalist at Inc Magazine, reported that Muse surfaced private text message content despite never granting it permission to access Messages, and Meta's own staff gave conflicting, unconvincing explanations for how this happened.
Teatre Raval in Barcelona found its Instagram and Facebook ads for a stage adaptation of Virginia Woolf's 'A Room of One's Own' rejected by Meta's automated moderation. Meta told the theatre that its system automatically flags any mention of civil rights, feminism or social reform as a restricted 'social topic,' and suggested removing such keywords to get the ads approved. The company did not clarify whether Woolf's name, the word 'feminism,' or both triggered the block.
Teatre Raval in Barcelona had its Instagram and Facebook ads for a stage adaptation of Virginia Woolf's essay rejected by Meta, which classified the promotion under 'social topics' due to references to feminism and civil rights. Meta suggested the theatre strip out certain keywords to avoid the automatic filter, but the venue refused and publicly protested the restriction. The production, a one-woman show performed by Clara Sanchis, is based on Woolf's 1928 lectures on women and education.
Converse removed an Instagram advertisement featuring K-pop singer Karina after critics said lighting on her skirt resembled a KKK hood and her pose made the sneakers look like a lynching victim's dangling feet. The Nike-owned company apologized publicly, calling the image 'deeply upsetting' and pledging to pull it from all platforms. Converse has not disclosed how the ad passed internal review or answered further questions about its approval process.
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