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.
Meta is introducing a paid subscription that gives users expanded access to AI features across Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp. The move signals Meta's push to monetize its AI tools directly rather than offering them entirely free to its massive user base.
Meta introduced Meta One, a new subscription service spanning Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp that bundles AI tools for image and video creation alongside existing premium features. The offering includes a $7.99/month Core tier and a $19.99/month Premium tier, both incorporating the previously launched Facebook Plus, Instagram Plus and WhatsApp Plus perks, with Premium offering greater AI usage allowances. Meta declined to specify exact usage caps, saying they vary by country and system conditions.
A proposed class action filed by families in Illinois and California accuses Meta of harvesting biometric data from Facebook and Instagram photos to build a facial recognition system tied to its smart glasses, reportedly called 'NameTag.' The suit follows earlier reporting that Meta quietly embedded facial recognition code into the devices despite public denials that such a feature was planned. Meta has called the lawsuit meritless, saying no product has shipped and no final decision on the feature has been made.
Meta has rolled out its Meta One subscription tiers worldwide, bundling paid versions of Instagram, WhatsApp, and Facebook with extra AI capabilities powered by its new assistant Muse. Individual plans start at $7.99 monthly for Core and $19.99 for Premium, while creator and business tiers range from $14.99 up to $499 per month with perks like verified badges and impersonation protection. Meta says free access to its apps and AI assistant will remain, and plans to eventually add AI glasses and Edits to the bundles.
Women interviewed by WIRED describe being secretly filmed on dates by men wearing Meta's AI-powered Ray-Ban smart glasses, which can capture photo and video from the wearer's point of view. One woman, Courtney McAnuff, discovered footage of her date posted to Instagram without her consent, prompting her to describe the experience as a violation. Meta sold over 7 million pairs of the glasses in 2025, and the devices have earned the nickname "creep glasses" amid growing complaints about covert filming in social settings.
The Economist has designated 'AI Slop' its word of the year, describing how AI-generated content is flooding search results and social media with generic, low-quality material. The term captures a growing trend of AI-written articles cluttering health searches and AI voice-overs appearing in manipulated video clips on platforms like Instagram.
Meta says it has fixed a Meta AI feature that generated invasive automatic prompts on Instagram posts, such as questions identifying a poster's child or home location, after parenting blogger Kalie Robins showed the tool piecing together private details from years of old photos and family accounts. Meta confirmed the feature missed its intended purpose and will no longer surface such personal suggestions, though it gave few specifics on what exactly was changed.
Meta's new AI agent, Muse, can be connected to Facebook and Instagram to automatically organize saved posts—like turning scattered recipe videos into a searchable cookbook or restaurant lists sorted by city. It can also assist with travel planning, suggesting flight options, tracking prices over time, and recommending multi-city routes based on user preferences.
A group of parents and children in Illinois and California filed a proposed class-action lawsuit in Chicago federal court, claiming Meta harvested their Facebook and Instagram photos without consent to build NameTag, an unreleased face-recognition feature for its smart glasses, and to train generative AI models like Emu and Muse Image. The suit alleges these actions violated state biometric and privacy laws in Illinois and California.
An Instagram executive argued that most users don't actually want their feed shown in strict time order, despite frequent requests for the option. The comment comes as Australian regulators move toward rules that would require platforms to give users control over how their feeds are sorted.
Adam Mosseri told an Australian press briefing that Instagram users who switch to a chronological feed instead of the algorithmic one see engagement drop by roughly 50%, with satisfaction scores dropping sharply too. He made the comments as Australia weighs a Digital Duty of Care bill that would require platforms to prompt users to disable ranking algorithms.
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