Meta is updating its “Made with AI” labels after widespread complaints from photographers that the company was mistakenly flagging non-AI-generated content. In an update, the company said that it will change the wording to “AI info” because the current labels “weren’t always aligned with people’s expectations and didn’t always provide enough context.”

The company introduced the “Made with AI” labels earlier this year after criticism from the Oversight Board about its “manipulated media” policy. Meta said that, like many of its peers, it would rely on “industry standard” signals to determine when generative AI had been used to create an image. However, it wasn’t long before photographers began noticing that Facebook and Instagram were applying the badge on images that hadn’t actually been created with AI. According to tests conducted by PetaPixel, photos edited with Adobe’s generative fill tool in Photoshop would trigger the label even if the edit was only to a “tiny speck.”

While Meta didn’t name Photoshop, the company said in its update that “some content that included minor modifications using AI, such as retouching tools, included industry standard indicators” that triggered the “Made with AI” badge. “While we work with companies across the industry to improve the process so our labeling approach better matches our intent, we’re updating the ‘Made with AI’ label to ‘AI info’ across our apps, which people can click for more information.”

Somewhat confusingly, the new “AI info” labels won’t actually have any details about what AI-enabled tools may have been used for the image in question. A Meta spokesperson confirmed that the contextual menu that appears when users tap on the badge will remain the same. That menu has a generic description of generative AI and notes that Meta may add the notice “when people share content that has AI signals our systems can read.”

Earlier this year, Meta made the controversial decision to automatically limit political content from users’ recommendations in Threads and Instagram by default. The company said that it didn’t want to “proactively amplify” political posts and that users could opt-in via their Instagram settings if they did want to see such content.

But, it turns out, that Meta continued to limit political content even for users who had opted in to seeing it. An unspecified “error” apparently caused the “political content” toggle — already buried several layers deep into Instagram's settings menu — to revert back to the “limit” setting each time the app closed. Political content, according to Meta, “is likely to mention governments, elections, or social topics that affect a group of people and/or society at large.”

Meta

The issue was flagged by Threads users, including Democratic strategist Keith Edwards, and confirmed by Engadget. It’s unclear how long the “error” was affecting users’ recommendations. “This was an error and should not have happened,” Meta spokesperson Andy Stone wrote on Threads. “We're working on getting it fixed.” Meta didn’t respond to questions about how long the setting had not been working properly.

The issue is likely to raise questions about Meta’s stance on political content. Though Threads is often compared to X, the company has taken an aggressive stance on content moderation, limiting the visibility of political content and outright blocking “potentially sensitive” topics, including anything related to COVID-19, from search results.

Stone later confirmed that the supposed bug had been fixed. "Earlier today, we identified an error in which people's selections in the Instagram political content settings tool mistakenly appeared to have reset even though no change had actually been made," he wrote on Threads. "The issue has now been fixed and we encourage people to check and make sure their settings reflect their preferences." 

Update June 26, 2024, 8:04 Pm ET: Added additional comments from Meta spokesperson Andy Stone.

X will soon be moving the ability to live stream behind its premium paywall, the company announced. The change will make X the only major social platform to charge for the feature, which is currently free on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitch and TikTok.

“Starting soon, only Premium subscribers will be able to livestream (create live video streams) on X,” the company said. “This includes going live from an encoder with X integration,” an apparent reference to X’s game streaming capabilities.

X didn’t offer an explanation for the change. The company has used additional features, like post editing, longform writing, and ad-free feeds to lure users to its paid subscriptions, but hasn’t typically moved existing, widely available, features behind its paywall. X Premium subscriptions start at $3/month for the "basic" tier, and rise to $8/month for Premium and $16/month for Premium+. 

There are, however, other signs that the Elon Musk-owned platform wants to charge for other simple features. The company introduced a $1 annual charge for new accounts to have posting privileges in New Zealand and the Philippines. Though the company still describes the scheme as a test, Musk has suggested he wants to expand the fees to all new users.