'Goodbye Meta AI' Scam Dupes Thousands, Including Hollywood Stars

In early September, a viral message spread throughout social networking sites like Threads, Facebook, and Instagram, claiming to prevent Meta from freely accessing users' personal information. The tweet, which was apparently shared by over 600,000 people, including several well-known celebrities, began with the phrase, "Goodbye Meta AI."

According to the BBC, film stars Julianne Moore, James McAvoy, and Ashley Tisdale, as well as former NFL player Tom Brady, are among those who re-shared the fake "Goodbye Meta AI" message on Instagram stories.

The message reads, "Goodbye Meta AI. Please note an attorney has advised us to put this on; failure to do so may result in legal consequences. As Meta is now a public entity, all members must post a similar statement."

"If you do not post at least once, it will be assumed you are okay with them using your information and photos. I do not give Meta or anyone else permission to use any of my personal data, profile information, or photos."

Photo Credit: Instagram/Julianne Moore

According to the BBC, many of these messages have now been labelled "false information" by Lead Stories, one of Meta's third-party fact-checking sites.

The post appears to have been created in opposition to Meta's announcement in June that it will use public posts to train its AI model, but the company has confirmed to the BBC that posting the message has no impact on any user's privacy settings.

"Does posting a statement ensure that users of Meta services will not have their data used in Meta's artificial intelligence training? No, that's not true: Posting the viral statement, or any other statement, doesn't mean that Meta will not use that data for AI training, but users in Europe can object via a form in their account settings," Lead Stories, aka Facebook's fact-checking partner since 2019, said on its official website.