A global user revolt is happening against Meta with a misinformation campaign following its controversial privacy policy update that led millions to believe claims of Meta reading DMs.
Users now believe the tech giant can manually read their private Facebook and Instagram messages, to train its AI models.
Snopes’ fact checkers called Meta reading direct messages as a “false claim,” following the severe public backlash that further grew the erosion of trust in the social media godfather’s real data harvesting practices for AI training.
Many users fear Meta reading direct messages, after several posts going viral, saying the company would soon access all photos, notes, and chats. This confusion fueled questions on privacy in regard to Meta DMs on Instagram and Facebook.
One post, which was widely shared, falsely implied that Meta would scan all messages: this perpetuated public concern about Facebook reading messages. On Instagram too, users were concerned that the update would do away with protections around personal chats, making Instagram DMs less private.
The core of the erosion of trust from users is hidden beneath all the technical semantics layers. Meta, insisting no human is reading DMs. Critics, on the other hand, rightly insist the Facebook parent’s AI systems perpetually analyze users’ message content.
The distinction, here, is meaningless to users who feel their privacy is being systematically dismantled for another Big Tech giant’s revenue flow and aspirations.
Meta Says the Update’s for AI Chats Only
Meta told Snopes that private chats remain untouched.
“We do not use the content of your private messages with friends and family to train our AIs unless you or someone in the chat chooses to share those messages with our AIs. This also isn’t new, nor is it part of this Dec. 16 privacy policy update,” a Meta spokesperson said.
In another effort to clear its name, Meta explained that the change was in the direction of personalizing recommendations, leading to some questions regarding the Meta privacy policy and its handling of user data.
That update was only about chats with Meta AI training data, leading to new discussions about how it is collected.
Meta also said that private conversations remain under the same long-standing protections that matter to people when it comes Facebook message privacy.
Encryption of messages has remained the same, and this has been linked to public interest in Messenger end-to-end encryption.
Meta further explained that encrypted messages can only be reviewed when reported, closely related to ongoing debates about Instagram message security.
What the Policy Actually Changed
Zuckerberg’s social media parent claims it will use AI chat conversations for ads and content recommendations, which on its own also raises a number of questions, especially concerning its Meta sharing information practices but only within the limits already listed in its rules.
These are the same rules that are part of Meta’s broader social media terms of service, describing what the giant can and cannot access on its platforms.
But following days of rumors, the question many users had was: Is Meta reading my private messages? According to the company, Meta reading DMs is false information.
Other posts continued the false claims about Meta DM privacy, even after it updated its statement to clarify the purpose. Meta also, for a second time, clarified that private chats are not part of the change, after some stories had wrongly referred to the update as Meta reading DMs.
In layman’s terms, the upcoming December update impacts AI interactions only, according to the giant. But in reality, the fear of Facebook and Instagram DMs privacy justifications by the company do not match what the policy says.
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