Meta Launches Muse Image Tool Using Public Instagram Photos, Sparking Privacy Backlash

Meta launched Muse Image, which lets users create AI images by tagging public Instagram accounts in a prompt, and the feature is available through the Meta AI app and on meta.ai, Instagram Stories in the US, and WhatsApp in limited countries.

The tool is built by Meta Superintelligence Labs and Meta says it “follows instructions faithfully, edits with precision, composes from multiple references, and draws on Instagram for social context”.

404 Media

Critics focused on privacy and consent because the feature is turned on automatically for public accounts, with users included unless they manually turn it off.

Prachir Singh, senior analyst at Counterpoint Research, said the change means “strangers can use that person's face to create new images they never agreed to”.

Meta also says it embeds a content seal, an invisible watermarking system that carries a hidden provenance signal in images created in the Meta AI app and on meta.ai even after cropping, compression, resizing, or screenshots.

Backlash centered on Meta’s opt-out-by-default approach and the lack of notification when others generate images using a person’s public Instagram content.

The BBC quoted Donald Campbell, advocacy director at tech justice non-profit Foxglove, calling the setup “an 'obvious recipe for disaster'”.

Ars Technica

Meta says users have “control over how your content can be tagged for AI creation with an easy setting to turn this feature off at any time,” but multiple outlets described the setting as separate from standard account privacy controls.

Malwarebytes said Meta’s own policy means “you won’t be notified if someone does this,” and it warned that opting out only prevents future image generation.

The BBC also reported that Privacy International criticized the feature, telling the BBC it was “the latest sign AI companies see people's images and data as raw material to be exploited”.

India’s government signaled it would review the tool after Meta launched Muse Image, with Electronics and Information Technology Secretary S Krishnan saying, “We will have to look at it with reference to the legal framework”.

“Outcry as Meta lets users make AI images from public Instagram profile pics Meta is facing a backlash over its new AI tool Muse Image, which can generate pictures using other people's profile pictures without telling them”

BBC

Krishnan warned that the capability “changes what it means to have a public profile on Instagram,” and he said Meta has said it “won't notify people when this happens to them”.

In the US, the Creative Artists Agency (CAA) slammed Muse Image for using an opt-out policy, calling for Meta to change it so users are automatically opted out and can grant access only if they wish.

Variety quoted CAA’s statement that “No one’s name, image, likeness, voice or creative work should be used by any third party, including AI models, without clear, documented consent,” and it said Meta did not immediately respond to Variety’s request for comment.

The stakes extend beyond individual users as the BBC reported Ofcom is investigating X over Grok’s role in creating and sharing non-consensual AI-altered images of real people, while Meta said Muse Image edits images with precision and is previewing a detection tool for its Content Seal watermark.