Meta turned on a setting that lets strangers pull your public Instagram posts and reels into AI-generated images. They have opted-in users by default.1
The tool is called Muse Image. Basically, someone can just use Meta AI to tag your username in a prompt and Meta AI builds a picture using your public content.
If you have a public account, you’re already opted in. That’s a problem for anyone who cares about AI ethics. You deserve to know when one of the world’s biggest social platforms makes a decision this big. Find instructions on turning these settings off below!
Turn off the Instagram AI reuse setting
Note: This is only for public accounts at the moment. If you don’t see it and you are a public account, you may need to update your Instagram app.
- Open Instagram and tap your profile icon.
- Tap the three lines in the top right to open Settings and Activity.
- Scroll to Sharing and Reuse.
- Under the section about reusing your content with AI features at Meta, turn off Posts and turn off Reels.
P.S. There’s a toggle in the same area also consenting your audio for AI use. If you’d like, turn that off too. If the toggles keep resetting like some users noticed in my comments from that reel up above, restart your app.
The setting only lives in the mobile app, unfortunately. You can’t do this from a browser, which is a choice Meta made and maybe one we should all think about. I’ll be doing a long-form video on dark patterns in the future.
What turning it off does not do
Switching the toggles off stops future generations. It does not delete anything anyone already made with your photos. Those images exist and they stay, at least according to what I’ve read so far as of July 8th, 2026. Meta blocked the tool from targeting private accounts and accounts belonging to anyone under 18.
Big Tech loves opting in users by default with implied consent
Meta updated its privacy policy in 2024 (and expanded it in April 2025) to use public posts and comments from adult Facebook and Instagram users to train its AI models by default. The opt-out was offered mainly to users in the EU and UK, where GDPR requires it. In the US, Meta did not provide a true opt-out, only the option to set posts to private going forward.2
Muse Image follows the same pattern. They have default to imply consent and then quietly buried five taps deep in a settings menu most people never open. Meta announced this as a way to make invitations and party graphics.
Who needs to hear this today?
Anyone over 18 with a public profile who wants to control the way Meta uses their content for AI purposes. Send this to them. Most people with public accounts have no idea the setting exists and Meta has no plan to tell them. Cue my sad but unsurprised trombone sound effect. Whomp whomp whompppppp.
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