Meta Platforms Inc. is facing intense scrutiny following the launch of a new text-to-image artificial intelligence (AI) tool that lets users manipulate other people’s public Instagram photos without their explicit knowledge or consent.
Developed by Meta Superintelligence Labs, Muse Image, code-named Mango, is available for free across WhatsApp, Instagram Stories, and the standalone Meta AI app.
While designed to compete in a crowded AI market, its integration with Instagram has sparked immediate privacy concerns. Under the current system, if a user tags any public Instagram account, the AI can seamlessly blend that person’s face into newly generated, synthetic images. The tech giant’s policy said individuals with public accounts “may be able to create content with your Instagram content using AI features at Meta,” noting that affected users will not be notified. Activists and privacy watchdogs have slammed the default opt-in nature of the tool.
“Pulling real users into generated photos without explicit consent is a privacy landmine waiting to detonate,” warned one user on X.
Donald Campbell, advocacy director at the tech justice non-profit Foxglove, called the feature an “obvious recipe for disaster,” pointing to a catalog of harms stemming from non-consensual AI-altered images over the past year.
Regulators are already on high alert. UK watchdog Ofcom is currently investigating X over its Grok chatbot, which faced severe backlash and legal challenges after being flooded with non-consensual and sexualized deepfakes of real people, including minors.
Privacy International also criticized Meta, calling the feature is “the latest sign AI companies see people’s images and data as raw material to be exploited.”
For Meta, Muse Image represents a broader push into consumer-facing AI infrastructure, joining other recent releases like the Creator assistant and the Pocket video game coding app. Meta says Muse Image uses advanced reasoning to handle complex prompts, offering practical applications like prompt-based image editing, custom QR code generation, and AI-driven advertising tools. Integration with Facebook Marketplace and a text-to-video iteration (Muse Video) are also underway.
Critics, however, argue Muse Image fits a historic pattern of data exploitation for the company. Meta famously paid a record-breaking $5 billion fine to the FTC in 2019 over the Cambridge Analytica data-harvesting scandal and was forced to shut down its automated facial-recognition system in 2021 due to mounting regulatory pressure over biometric privacy.
While private accounts are automatically protected, public users are opted in by default. Meta emphasizes that a dedicated setting allows users to disable the feature. To opt out, public Instagram users must navigate to their profile menu, select “Sharing and Reuse,” and toggle off the setting labeled: “Allow people to reuse your content on Instagram and with AI features at Meta.”