Didn't Facebook do this years and years ago?

Yes, 2013: https://mashable.com/archive/facebook-ads-photo#ggcKnNfAUaqy

> According to Facebook's Statement of Rights and Responsibilities:

> You give us permission to use your name, profile picture, content, and information in connection with commercial, sponsored, or related content (such as a brand you like) served or enhanced by us. This means, for example, that you permit a business or other entity to pay us to display your name and/or profile picture with your content or information, without any compensation to you. If you have selected a specific audience for your content or information, we will respect your choice when we use it.

So it's not new. If you don't want this, delete your facebook account: https://www.facebook.com/privacy/dialog/delete-your-informat...

Speak for yourself.

“Few”, maybe.

I mean, I read them, but just goes to show the majority of people skipped this important reading.

If anyone actually read them it's typically a unlimited unrestricted pipe of data they can use for anything.

This made me laugh and cry at the same time...

Is Meta abusing its users a problem? Yes. Does the TOS allow for it? Yes. Can people decide to just create a shell account and not actually participate? Sure.

One of the real insidious problems with Instagram and to some extent Facebook is that they provide a free, low friction way for business to communicate with current or potential customers. As a result many small businesses use Instagram as replacement for a public facing website and perhaps a blog or email newsletter. Many small business in my region depend on Instagram for this purpose, its nearly universal. It helps keep you stuck in Instagram so that you can see a business' hours, menu, or special events. I guess a shell account is the answer but you're still going to have to navigate the skinner box feed.

Every time I try to create a shell account, it gets banned with no reason given. Even if it's just to follow a few influencer accounts.

I feel like having an account on a Meta site is today’s equivalent of being a smoker.

Many years ago (back when Facebook still had sidebar ads), my sister was presented with a dating ad for "Hot Christian Singles" accompanied by a photo of our brother.

It was hilarious, but also mind-boggling. In what scenario would pulling in a friend's profile photo create a useful ad?

> In what scenario would pulling in a friend's profile photo create a useful ad?

Exactly in the scenario you just described. You still remember it and you are actively talking about it years after the fact.

Something similar happened to me a few years ago. my photo was used in an ad, making it look like I was selling stuff and promoting a page I’d never even clicked on... absolutely mind-blowing....

This shouldn't really be surprising. It's very similar to what they did ~1.5 year ago when they started to use users' photos to promote Meta AI

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42615538

Comment on that thread:

> This seems entirely counter-productive and creepy.

Apt description of Instagram in general.

"I'm uncomfortable"

Should have read the terms and conditions

Ten years ago maybe this causes outrage, but I'm not sure anyone cares in 2026 including potential customers.

Is there actual proof that they are doing this. Theres not much to go on in the tweet.

Besides the proof in the screenshot? What more do you want?

Do you think this user is faking it?

And they have a history of doing this. And their privacy/ToS allows it.

yes, it happened to me recently.

The photo wasn't mine, but showed a profile photo of one of my facebook friends, and it had the glasses and said "On my way!"

The XKCD for this exact scenario is 14 years old.

https://xkcd.com/1150/

Kind of a stretch, these days can't imagine anyone that views instagram as a place to store their cherished photos also.

Some reason that strip doesn't load for me.

i edited it to the same url before opening as i usually do for twitter urls so that i can see the full conversation without being logged into twitter.

for some reason the url rewrote iteself to this: https://themenspiegel.click/c/de/52_merzchrupalla/?method=po...

which is a german language scam site. i have no explanation how this happened, whether it is xcancel.com doing this or something loaded from twitter that caused xcancel to do this. never seen anythin like it before, would like to know more.

btw any further reloads of the xcancel url to that tweet totally work as expected.

Throwing an additional anecdote into the bucket, this did not happen for me. Any chance you have a dodgy extension installed?

Sure you didn't just make a typo and hit a squatted domain?

I mean, what would you expect from company with morality of tobacco and slot machines producer? This is the least evil they are doing.

This thing resurface from time to time. It's the small text you never read. In this case, small part in ridiculously and intentionally big eula.