Instagram is drawing a line under a growing trend that has made many social media users uncomfortable: creators wearing smart glasses to secretly film strangers for viral "pickup" and prank videos.
The Meta-owned platform says it will now remove videos recorded using smart glasses if they show people being harassed or taken advantage of. The move comes after a surge in first-person, or POV (point-of-view), videos where creators approach unsuspecting women in public places such as beaches, gyms and busy streets, often without their knowledge or consent.
In an Instagram Story, Instagram head Adam Mosseri said the company will crack down on such content.
"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," Mosseri said.
"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."
At least two high-profile Instagram accounts, each with more than a million followers, were reportedly taken down for posting videos filmed with smart glasses that showed women being approached in public. The creators were known for filming interactions from the wearer's perspective, giving viewers the impression they were seeing events through the glasses themselves.
The rise of lightweight AI-powered smart glasses has made such videos easier than ever to create. Unlike smartphones, which are clearly visible when someone is recording, smart glasses allow creators to capture footage while appearing to have a normal conversation. That has fuelled concerns about privacy, consent and whether people even realise they are being filmed.
Instagram, however, has not explained how it will decide when an interaction crosses the line into harassment. The company has also not said whether creators will receive warnings before content is removed or whether repeated violations could lead to account suspensions.
Bigger Questions Around AI Glasses
The crackdown also comes as Meta faces increasing scrutiny over the future of its AI glasses.
The company is reportedly testing software that could allow its AI glasses to collect video and audio continuously instead of recording only when users manually activate the camera. The idea is to help Meta's AI assistant build more context about a user's day so it can answer questions such as where they walked, which restaurant they passed or what they saw earlier.
Also read: Meta's AI Glasses Could Reportedly Be Getting Creepier
Privacy advocates have warned that such capabilities could dramatically expand the amount of information collected by wearable devices. Meta is also reportedly exploring versions of the technology without a recording indicator light, although the company has not officially announced any such consumer feature.
Instagram's latest move signals that while AI glasses are becoming more capable, the platform wants to discourage creators from using them to turn unsuspecting people into viral content.
