If you are an Instagram user, its owner, the social media company, Meta, has begun using your content to feed its new image-generator app, Muse. If you would rather they didn’t, here’s what you can do about it. 

Meta, owner of Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram, has recently launched its own image-generator app called Muse. Meta had previously used technology from Midjourney for its image-generation capabilities. Later this year, the company will launch an analogous video-generator app.

We are not a-muse-d

According to the New York Times, however, Meta has enabled Muse to use existing posts on Instagram to generate new content. Users of the app can tag existing Instagram posts, which could include yours, and have Muse generate new image content based upon them.

As an active Instagram user, I am happy to have people comment on and repost my posts. However, having someone take my post and transform it in some way, without my permission, seems out of order.

I rarely post personal images on Instagram. I use it primarily to share my photography. But, I realize that many people post images of themselves, friends and family. Potentially tampering with these seems even more concerning.

Opting out

If you would like to disable this Muse access to your posts, you can do it via your Instagram account.

Select your profile (the head icon on the lower right of the app) which shows your lists of posts.

Tap the menu icon at the upper-right of the page (three horizontal lines).

Scroll down to “Sharing and reuse”.

Switch off the buttons in the section labeled “Allow people to create with and reuse your content”.

If you follow these steps, you have successfully opted out of the program!