Instagram Is Now Banning Pickup Artists, Pranksters Who Use Meta Glasses (businessinsider.com)
(Friday July 24, 2026 @11:30PM (BeauHD)
from the cracking-down dept.)
- Reference: 0184666794
- News link: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/07/24/2212248/instagram-is-now-banning-pickup-artists-pranksters-who-use-meta-glasses
- Source link: https://www.businessinsider.com/instagram-meta-glasses-banning-pickup-prank-creeps-2026-7
Instagram is [1]banning videos filmed with Meta smart glasses that harass strangers in public, including prank videos targeting service workers and pickup-artist clips of women who may not realize they are being recorded. "If you're posting content that is taking advantage of people and harassing them, like a lot of these pickup line kind of videos that we've heard of and seen, then we're going to take the content down," said Instagram head Adam Mosseri in response to a question on his Instagram stories last week. "We don't want people to be surreptitiously taking videos of other people and harassing them and then posting them on our platform. So we're trying to fight that every way we can." Business Insider reports:
> It's unclear how many videos have been removed under this new policy. Business Insider found that two large accounts of pickup artists who filmed themselves approaching women in public while wearing the glasses had been deactivated. (Both previously had more than a million followers.)
>
> A Meta spokesperson confirmed to Business Insider that these accounts were booted for violating the policy about posting harassing content that had been filmed with the glasses. Meta did not directly respond to questions about how this new policy is being enforced or what exactly constitutes a violation.
[1] https://www.businessinsider.com/instagram-meta-glasses-banning-pickup-prank-creeps-2026-7
> It's unclear how many videos have been removed under this new policy. Business Insider found that two large accounts of pickup artists who filmed themselves approaching women in public while wearing the glasses had been deactivated. (Both previously had more than a million followers.)
>
> A Meta spokesperson confirmed to Business Insider that these accounts were booted for violating the policy about posting harassing content that had been filmed with the glasses. Meta did not directly respond to questions about how this new policy is being enforced or what exactly constitutes a violation.
[1] https://www.businessinsider.com/instagram-meta-glasses-banning-pickup-prank-creeps-2026-7
Re: (Score:2)
by TurboStar ( 712836 )
Who? Zuck and his sycophants? Won't help. Another piece of scum will float to the top.
Meta admits that their products and users are... (Score:3)
by BeaverCleaver ( 673164 )
Meta's platform for sharing pictures and videos from Meta's hardware has started blocking their own users from posting content. So Meta is admitting that their product sucks and their users are jerks? This seems like a pretty big admission.
Unless (Score:1)
by sinkskinkshrieks ( 6952954 )
Spy glasses users pay crypto to daddy Zuck and Trump, then perv behavior is a-okay until the British seek extradition orders.
Re: (Score:1)
by ambrandt12 ( 6486220 )
Proof about the Trump connection?
At least 3 links, none of them Fark or other extremist sites.
Not all of them, of course (Score:1)
by _7anner ( 10502927 )
Just the ones using the spy product from their own surveillance company. Other creeps carry on with your other cameras.
This is the most obvious use for thes glasses (Score:2)
This is the most obvious use for the glasses in the retail market. Nobody except for Gen SocialMediaNarcissist wants this.
Re: (Score:2)
PIckup artists are the most obvious use case?
I would think it's people recording themselves doing activities who don't have a hand free to take out their phone. Maybe athletics and athletes: bikers, climbers, skiers, or really anything.
Or people taking lazy travel videos: just walking through an interesting area.
Re:This is the most obvious use for thes glasses (Score:4, Insightful)
Folks who wanna do that have been using gopros for years, theres maybe arguments to be made about a more exact POV vs slightly above or to the side for certain things, but theres still not a whole lot of reasons to use secret spy glasses instead of a superior but more obvious gopro besides secret spy reasons.
Re: (Score:3)
That's a thing that has been solved by varous types of action cameras for over a decade. Try again.
Re: (Score:2)
Yes, harrassment is the only use case for these glasses.
Re: (Score:1)
And... people are surprised about this?
"No... don't worry about the GoPro implanted on my face... promise I won't share anything!:"
The whole idea should've been banned globally before it ever made it to the masses.
I don't know what you do with your day, but I don't need a thing identifying everyone I look at or suggesting recipes while I brown some ground beef. I can look that up on my own or say "Hi, I'm 'whoever'... what's your name?" to someone.