Why Instagram labels your real photo "AI info" (and how to see the metadata behind it) A developer documented how Instagram's "AI info" label is triggered by metadata rather than pixel content, specifically the C2PA Content Credentials manifest and the IPTC `Iptc4xmpExt:DigitalSourceType` field set to `trainedAlgorithmicMedia` or `compositeWithTrainedAlgorithmicMedia`. The writeup shows how to inspect these tags with ExifTool and c2patool, and warns that the common `exiftool -all=` strip also deletes the ICC colour profile and orientation flag, recommending `-tagsfromfile @ -icc_profile -orientation` to preserve them. The developer also released MetaClean, an offline Mac and Windows app bundling pinned ExifTool, c2patool and FFmpeg that strips metadata from photos and videos without re-encoding. You take a real photo, remove a stray object with a generative fill tool, post it, and Instagram adds "AI info" under your name. The picture is 99% camera, but the label says otherwise. The label usually isn't about the pixels. It's about metadata the editing tool wrote into the file. Once you know where it lives, you can see it in seconds, and remove it without touching the image. Meta has said it labels images using industry-standard signals in the file. Two of them do most of the work: 1. C2PA Content Credentials. A signed manifest embedded in the file in a JPEG it sits in APP11 segments as JUMBF boxes . It records which app made or edited the image and what it did: c2pa.opened , c2pa.edited , and, for AI tools, a digitalSourceType saying generative AI was involved. Photoshop, Firefly, ChatGPT's image generation and a growing list of phones and cameras write it. 2. The IPTC digital source type. A single XMP field, Iptc4xmpExt:DigitalSourceType , whose value is a URL from the IPTC vocabulary. The two that matter: trainedAlgorithmicMedia : made with generative AI compositeWithTrainedAlgorithmicMedia : edited with generative AI your generative-fill case Either one is enough to earn the label. With ExifTool https://exiftool.org installed: The IPTC AI tag exiftool -XMP-iptcExt:DigitalSourceType photo.jpg Digital Source Type : http://cv.iptc.org/newscodes/digitalsourcetype/compositeWithTrainedAlgorithmicMedia Is there a C2PA manifest? JUMBF boxes labelled c2pa exiftool -a -JUMDLabel photo.jpg JUMD Label : c2pa JUMD Label : urn:c2pa:060ce687-... JUMD Label : c2pa.assertions For the full, human-readable manifest signer, actions, validation state , use the official c2patool https://github.com/contentauth/c2pa-rs : c2patool photo.jpg While you're in there, check what else the file carries. Most phones add GPS once the camera has location access: exiftool -GPSPosition -Model -SerialNumber photo.jpg No command line handy? I built a free in-browser EXIF and C2PA viewer https://metacleanai.com/exif-viewer/ that reads all of this, including the prompts Stable Diffusion and ComfyUI hide in PNGs. The file is read locally and never uploaded; switch off your Wi-Fi after the page loads and it still works. The classic one-liner does remove the C2PA manifest, the IPTC tag and your GPS: exiftool -all= photo.jpg But run it on a photo from a phone and look closely: Warning: ICC Profile deleted. Image colors may be affected - photo.jpg -all= also deletes the colour profile and the orientation flag. iPhone photos are usually Display P3, so they come out duller, and portrait shots can come out sideways. The fix is to copy those two back from the original in the same command: exiftool -all= -tagsfromfile @ -icc profile -orientation photo.jpg I tested both on a C2PA-signed, Display P3, rotated JPEG: the second command removed the manifest c2patool reports No claim found , the IPTC tag and the GPS, kept the profile and rotation, and left the decoded pixels identical. Then check your result, because a clean-looking command isn't proof: exiftool -a -JUMDLabel -XMP-iptcExt:DigitalSourceType -GPSPosition photo.jpg should print nothing c2patool photo.jpg should say No claim found For one JPEG, the ExifTool commands above are all you need. For folders full of photos and videos where metadata lives in QuickTime atoms and its own C2PA box , I made MetaClean https://metacleanai.com/ , a Mac and Windows app that does the whole thing offline. It bundles pinned versions of ExifTool, c2patool and FFmpeg, never re-encodes video is remuxed with stream copy , keeps colour profiles and orientation, and re-inspects every output before saving it as clean