TechCrunch
Instagram puts new limits on undisclosed AI profiles 31 August 2026 at 22:16

Instagram puts new limits on undisclosed AI profiles

TechCrunch

By: Lauren Forristal

31 August 2026 at 22:16

As frustration over AI influencers has been growing, Instagram is limiting the reach of undisclosed AI profiles.

The Guardian
The Guardian view on regulating big tech: Meta has got off too lightly | Editorial 31 August 2026 at 20:04

The Guardian view on regulating big tech: Meta has got off too lightly | Editorial

The Guardian

By: Editorial

31 August 2026 at 20:04

New child safety measures are welcome, but the wider risks posed by these platforms remain unaddressed

“Hook, hold, harvest and hide” was how Megan O’Neill, a lawyer for the US state of California, characterised Meta’s business model in the trial that ended last week with an $18bn settlement, to be shared between the states and territories that brought the case. It was a clever way to describe the company’s approach to users’ attention and data. But the sharpness of her words was not matched by the deal. While the strengthening of child safety features is welcome, the tech giant once again batted off efforts to alter its products.

Meta’s decision to settle enabled it to avoid any admission of liability. It put a stop to the awkward questions being asked of witnesses including Adam Mosseri, Instagram’s CEO, and the damaging claims made by whistleblowers such as Arturo Béjar. This former Meta safety engineer told the court that his own daughter had been sent unsolicited photos of male genitals on Instagram.

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The Guardian
The law won't save us from Meta's 'pervert glasses'. The only solution is mockery | Jonathan Liew 31 August 2026 at 17:56

The law won't save us from Meta's 'pervert glasses'. The only solution is mockery | Jonathan Liew

The Guardian

By: Jonathan Liew

31 August 2026 at 17:56

These things are undermining not just our public spaces but the very nature of being human. Let’s shame them off the streets

So far I am yet to be tempted into purchasing a pair of Ray-Ban Meta glasses. To a certain extent this is a function of possessing a large, misshapen and comically convex head upon which no pair of sunglasses has ever looked remotely appropriate. Nor am I one of those consumers who professes to be “really into gadgets”, a preference I’ve always found weirdly unspecific. It’s subtly telling when people claim to be into “gadgets”, because they’re never talking about, say, a tin opener. What they really mean is something gimmicky and expensive that almost certainly requires the services of a datacentre and enough water to irrigate Kent.

And even if I were to surmount these two obstacles, you then get into the ethics of the thing. I’m nobody’s idea of a PR expert, but if your shiny new product keeps requiring patches and updates to prevent people from using it to do degenerate things to women, perhaps it might be worth walking it back to the research and development stage.

Jonathan Liew is a Guardian columnist

World news | The Guardian
Smartglasses should automatically blur people’s faces while filming, Australia’s online safety regulator says 30 August 2026 at 18:00

Smartglasses should automatically blur people’s faces while filming, Australia’s online safety regulator says

World news | The Guardian

By: Josh Taylor Technology reporter

30 August 2026 at 18:00

Smartglasses with cameras can benefit the vision impaired but companies might pit ‘accessibility benefits against safety and privacy’, eSafety says

Australia’s online safety regulator has urged smartglasses companies to automatically blur people’s faces filmed on the devices, and make it clearer when someone is filming, as the federal government faces pressure to ban the technology.

In advice to industry published on Monday, the office of the eSafety commissioner warned that while smartglasses with cameras, such as Meta’s Ray-Ban, can offer accessibility benefits to low vision or blind people, companies might pit “accessibility benefits against safety and privacy considerations”, and noted there was already a backlash to the technology.

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