MENLO PARK, Calif., July 12 (San Francisco News Online) — Meta has turned off a new Instagram-linked AI image tool that let people generate pictures by @-mentioning public accounts. The company said the feature was “no longer available” after it said the rollout “missed the mark.”
The move matters because the tool did not just make images from a text prompt. It could use public Instagram accounts as reference material, which meant a person’s public profile could be pulled into an AI request unless that person had opted out.
What did the feature do?
Meta said people could generate images in Meta AI by @-mentioning public Instagram accounts they wanted to reference. The feature was tied to public-profile posts and content, according to the company’s product description.
For people with public accounts, the setup was opt-out. That means the feature was on by default unless an adult user turned it off. Users under 18 were excluded.
Why did it draw criticism?
The backlash focused on default settings and control. Public accounts were included unless adults disabled the feature, which critics saw as too aggressive for a tool using people’s online identity and content.
Reuters reported criticism from SAG-AFTRA, the performers’ union. CAA also said it welcomed Meta’s decision to end the feature, saying, “We applaud Meta for its prompt decision to eliminate the Muse Image feature.”
What did Meta say?
Meta said it introduced the feature earlier in the week and removed it on Friday.
“Our intent was to provide a useful creative tool and to give people control over whether their public content could be referenced in this way,” the company said. “We’ve heard the feedback that this feature missed the mark, so it’s no longer available.”
That statement shows Meta saw the tool as a creative feature, but decided the way it worked was not acceptable after users and other groups pushed back.
What changes now?
As of Meta’s Friday statement, the feature is gone. People can no longer use it to generate images by tagging public Instagram accounts.
The bigger lesson is simple: in AI products, default settings matter. Even when a company says it is only using public content, users may object if that use happens automatically. In this case, Meta pulled the feature within days of launch.
