Labeling AI Content
UPDATED FEB 19, 2025
In May 2023, a Facebook user posted an altered video clip of President Biden, originally from October 2022, where Biden exchanged "I Voted" stickers with his granddaughter. The edited clip looped a moment to suggest inappropriate behavior. Meta's automated system initially dismissed the report, and a human review upheld the decision, leading to an appeal to the Oversight Board. In the case of Altered Video of President Biden, the Board agreed the content did not violate Meta's Manipulated Media policy, as the content was not altered through AI. The Board recommended that Meta label AI-altered media that could mislead, rather than removing it, and ensure the label is attached to the media and applied to all identical instances across Meta's platforms.
What was the impact of Meta’s implementation of this recommendation?
Following a recommendation from the Board in February 2024 and ongoing policy development and engagement with external stakeholders, Meta began adding labels to a wider range of video, audio and image content to help users understand when AI is used to create content beginning in May 2024. These labels are now displayed as “AI Info.” We began adding these labels when we detected industry standard AI image indicators or when people disclosed that they were uploading AI-generated content.
To highlight ongoing progress on implementing this recommendation, we are sharing the total number of organic content from the Meta apps with the “AI info” label from Facebook, Instagram, and Threads.
To begin, we would like to make the following disclosures:
- We are only sharing numbers for labeled content when there is user label activity associated with that labeled content, as we aim to capture at scale, to what extent users are receiving the information about when AI is used to create content. User label activity is measured in two ways: user label views are counted when the “AI info” label is rendered, and user label actions are counted when users take actions such as clicking and learning more about the label.
- Our labeling methodology is still evolving. The data reported here represents a snapshot in time, and may not capture labels on some content that is edited with AI.
- A single piece of content may have multiple components, such as a reel doubling as a post, so the total number of content types exceeds the total content count.
- For Facebook figures, the vast majority of content is consistently organic, with a minor portion of labeled content temporarily enhanced through promotional boosts.
During a 29-day period spanning October 1, 2024 through October 29, 2024, there was notable user engagement with organic content with the “AI info” label across Facebook, Instagram, and Threads relative to the total number of AI labeled content. On Facebook alone, there were over 360 million labeled pieces of content with user label views and nearly 6 million labeled pieces of content with user label actions across Meta's apps. A further breakdown of the Facebook data shows that there were over 330 million posts, over 130 million reels, and over 12 million stories with user label views. Additionally, there were over 3 million posts, over 2 million reels, and over 180 thousand stories with user label actions.
On Instagram, there were over 330 million labeled pieces of content with user label views and over 13 million labeled pieces of content with user label actions on Meta's apps. A further breakdown of the Instagram data shows that there were nearly 140 million posts, over 220 million reels, and over 24 million stories with user label views. Additionally, there were over 5 million posts, over 7 million reels, and over 1 million stories with user label actions.
On Threads, there were over 730 thousand labeled pieces of content with user label views and nearly 70 thousand pieces of labeled content with user label actions on Meta's apps.
During the same period from October 1, 2024 through October 29, 2024, there was a significant number of users who engaged with labeled content, offering a complementary perspective on the number of labeled content with user engagement. On Facebook, there were over 380 billion user label views and over 26 million user label actions taken on organic content with the “AI info” label. On Instagram, there were over 1 trillion user label views and over 60 million user label actions taken on organic content with the “AI info” label. On Threads, there were over 150 million user label views and over 480 thousand user label actions taken on organic content with the “AI info” label.
