You've probably heard, at this point, about the big changes coming to Meta's AI scraping terms for business accounts. Nieman Lab had that scoop, and since then, small businesses, journalists, and artists using Meta products like Instagram have been raising the alarm. But if you're in the EU or UK, you might be in luck and can object to that use of your data, as some users have pointed out.

If You're In the UK or EU, Here's How to Object to Meta's AI Training

Earlier this month, Meta updated its commercial terms of use for business accounts to allow it to “use any content from such domains, web pages, or URLs to provide, develop, improve, research, train, and maintain the integrity of” Meta’s products. 

Many artists and small business owners that rely on Instagram and Facebook are livid at Meta granting itself permission to use their content, including from websites simply connected to their Meta accounts, to train AI. But for users in the United Kingdom and European Union, for now, there’s a way to object.

Meta buried this change in its Commercial Terms, and Nieman Lab first reported on the change. The update was originally set to go into effect on October 30, but following backlash, Meta changed the effective date to November 20. Adding to the confusion, Meta then removed the word “train” from a list of allowed use cases, Nieman Lab reported, and limited those uses to “advertising and business products,” where previously it said that data would be used for all Meta products. Those terms still allow Meta plenty of leeway for scraping users’ data to develop its products, however.

Several users based in the UK and EU have explained how to object on Instagram. On mobile: by clicking the three lines on their account, going to the privacy center, and clicking “object,” which goes to a form that asks users to write why they are objecting to their data being used. They received an email from Meta saying their objections were approved.

MORE FROM 404

On the podcast this week, we talk Flock CEO’s leaked police conference audio and Sam’s piece about Marissa Mayer’s latest meltdown. Subscribe wherever you get your pods.

FROM AROUND THE WEB

The New York Times has an antisocial aversion to linking: Another day, another the-New-York-Times-isn’t-linking controversy. The specifics here almost don’t matter because this happens seemingly every day, but basically the New York Times investigation about chemical plant polluters under the Trump administration was covered in much the same way by Hunterbrook, a news outlet fused with a hedge fund. The Times article—which led the Sunday print edition—uses similar photos, some of the same sources, and covers similar ground to Hunterbrook’s earlier investigation from February, with no acknowledgment or link whatsoever. After the cofounder of Hunterbrook rightfully ranted about this on X, the Times added an acknowledgment (but no link!!!) toward the bottom of the story. Puck’s Dylan Byers has a good rundown about what happened, which includes parts of a three-paragraph Times’ spokesperson statement explaining at length why they don’t think they have to link. This is extremely antisocial, deranged behavior and it’s ridiculous that the Times is still getting away with this. Bottom line: I’m sure the Times was already working on this story, what with their massive newsroom. Even so, they got beat, and they should link. Journalism awards need to stop looking the other way when big outlets do this. This has happened to us many times and it actually does matter for smaller outlets and links are free. Let’s try them!

Artificial reef: TIL that a gigantic military ship, the SS United, is going to be purposefully sunk to be turned into an “artificial reef.” Scuba divers seem quite excited. I didn’t really know that this was a thing that was done, but maybe I’m a rube.

Ransomware scam mitigation scammer: A company that promised to help victims of ransomware (for a fee) was indicted by the feds, according to ProPublica and a Department of Justice affidavit. The original investigation that led to this was published by ProPublica back in 2019 but is still worth a read; there are so many of these companies that prey on victims of cyberattacks, sextortion campaigns, etc.

Today in c’mon, man: CIA whistleblower John Kirakou is doing sponcon for Kalshi, writing “I spent 15 years at the CIA trying to figure out what was going to happen next in the world. Now Kalshi is finding new ways to put a price on those predictions. This partnership between Kalshi and S&P Dow Jones Indices is fascinating.” C’mon, man.

Today in printers: I am absolutely mesmerized by this microphotography of an inkjet printing, which won the 2026 Nikon Small World photomicography competition. Ole Bielfeldt’s work is on his Instagram, which is absolutely worth checking out. Wow, wow wow.

Today in yikes: A Roblox scraper has been grabbing more than a hundred gigabytes of data from a 3D modeling community, including more than 60 GB of adult content from a section of the site called “SmutBase.” “We don't think Roblox set out to collect adult content, and we have no evidence that any of it reached a model or a product. The scrapes were likely automated. But that is exactly the problem: as far as our logs show, nobody checked. A crawler working for a company whose platform tens of millions of children use was pointed at an adult site, and it took explicit models without telling them apart from anything else,” Open3DLabs wrote in a blog post about the scraping. “For a company being sued by several US states over child safety, ‘our AI team bulk-downloaded an adult site without looking’ is not a good position to be in.”

GM! We have a few bangers for you today.

First: Can you imagine sitting in jail for days without knowing why, and then finding out that it's because someone hacked CashApp to impersonate you? I would be kind of mad! And elsewhere on 404 this morning, we have some prescient thoughts from an autonomous weapons expert on the state of AI in war, what's going on with cybersecurity experts in the wake of the PHPocalypse, and more insights into how cops view anti-Flock activists.

Let's get into it.

Someone Opened a CashApp In Her Name. She Faces Years in Prison

Amanda Smith answered the door one afternoon in April and came face to face with the local Sheriff’s department in upstate Pennsylvania. The officers said they had a warrant for her arrest for a crime she had allegedly committed more than a thousand miles away in Arkansas.

“I was completely confused,” Smith recalled. For one, she had never been to Arkansas. Second, the warrant was for computer fraud. By her own admission, Smith was not a very tech savvy person.

She had a feeling she was being set up. After discussing with the officers the practicalities of what was about to happen — she was allowed to get her contact lenses — they took her away in handcuffs to the local jail where she spent three nights.

The reason for Smith’s arrest, she learned later, was that a scammer had tricked someone on Facebook Marketplace into sending $1,000 to a CashApp account in her name that the scammer controlled. The scammer created the account using her Social Security number and date of birth. Smith said she has never used CashApp.

What developed over the next few days, and has now stretched across six months, is a Kafkaesque situation in which Smith, in her telling, is being asked to prove her innocence in an ongoing criminal case, while CashApp refuses to provide her any information about the account because she couldn’t prove that she was the owner.

Read the rest of this story here.

MORE FROM 404 MEDIA

“Suspicious behavior:” A federal intelligence center warned police that city council meetings about Flock “may be viewed by extremists as a desirable target,” and told them to be on the lookout for “emotional confrontations” between people who oppose surveillance and government officials, according to a copy of the warning obtained by 404 Media.

“Black October?” For much of the last month, many cybersecurity experts have been warning of an AI-powered “Black Swan” event, saying they’re alarmed by the number of vulnerabilities suddenly discovered, and of the apparent power of AI agents to find and exploit previously unknown bugs. So, what’s really going on? 

The UN met this week to discuss autonomous weapons. “The technology is developing at a pace that is very concerning,” Laurent Gisel, the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross’s (ICRC) legal warfare team, told 404 Media. Gisel was in NYC this week to address the UN about all the things that are driving conflict across the planet. His prepared remarks include a statement on the illegal arms trade, nuclear weapons, mines, and, of course, AI.

FROM AROUND THE WEB 

That’s a W for the Rebel Alliance. In San Diego, where Darth Vader famously spoke in favor of Flock cameras and mass surveillance, the city council just voted to end its contract with Flock. The decision still has to be confirmed, NBC 7 reports, but this is huge news for a city where council members have voted multiple times to keep Flock watching its citizens. 

There is a lot of stuff about how creepy ad targeting is in today’s newsletter. Our first story is one I did, about how advertisers — or really anyone with 5 minutes on their hands — can inject ads into your ChatGPT session based on your phone number or email address. This is pretty normal in the advertising world, but I seriously doubt that when most of ChatGPT’s many, many users see an ad, they realize that might be because someone, somewhere, uploaded their phone number into OpenAI’s systems. I made my own ad on ChatGPT (without using peoples’ personal data) to test out the system. Then, in other news, there is new research confirming, I think for the first time, that online ads are being used to deliver zero-click mercenary malware against targets.

Sorry for the late newsletter today, we’re still a little sleepy. To ease you into this afternoon, I have an interview with the guy who coined the term “smutstep,” and has become a sensation among a very specific section of dark romance BookTok — as well as a lot of haters. I thought he had some interesting things to say about the content creation game and not taking yourself too seriously while respecting your own craft and audience. Enjoy.

The Creator of ‘Smutstep’ Wants You to ‘Let Your Freak Flag Fly’

Last week, a video came across my feed of a man saying horny lines over a dubstep beat. “On your knees,” he snarled. As the beat dropped, he growled, “Mmm, now look at me.”

“Instagram reels just showed me a guy who makes 'smutstep' for the booktok crowd and it is the funniest thing I have ever watched,” the person reposting the video on X wrote. The replies are predictably harsh: “I think this is actually the worst thing I have ever heard.” “Who the FUCK is demanding this 😭” 

People demanding this is why it exists. DARQ DAGR, whose real name is James, is a dubstep musician and voice artist who’s been working in the voice acting world for years. But smutstep is what’s made his work go viral, in large part thanks to the people who hate it so much. Smutstep emerged as a reaction to BookTok, a subculture within TikTok built by book lovers and their various followings. Within BookTok, the romantasy book genre thrives, with series like The Fourth Wing and A Court of Thorns and Roses (ACOTAR) gaining massive readerships for their blend of elven high fantasy and dragon-based erotica. The romantasy genre is not a quaint fandom. It’s a billion-dollar industry.

Like so many online communities devoted to things a little horny and misunderstood, the wider world tends to scrutinize and discredit romance readers, especially when Fae fucking is involved. James, who wants people to know he does read the books too, saw a way into two niches that could compliment each other.

“I think what I like about the whole culture — the BookTok culture and dubstep culture — it's just letting your freak flag fly in a way,” he told me in a call. “It’s accepting and embracing what you're into within a safe and healthy space. I think that's a really beautiful thing.” 

Read the rest of this story here.

MORE FROM 404

Sentry mode? The “security protocols” on a Tesla stopped a Homeland Security Investigations agent from placing a tracking device on it, according to a warrant reviewed by 404 Media. On Halloween of 2025, an HSI Special Agent filed a more than 60 page application to place a tracking device on the Tesla of a suspected drug trafficker in Milwaukee. Agents had been watching alleged drug dealer Sam Stair — a local landlord they believed was using his rental properties as the front for a drug trafficking operation — for months when they asked a judge to let them install a tracker on his car. According to the warrant application, Stair went everywhere in a white Tesla and the agents wanted to see where it was when they couldn’t keep eyes on it.

FROM AROUND THE WEB

Ghosting much... SpaceX will testify before the New York City Council this week about AI safety risks. This is after Elon and co ditched a hearing on Oct. 5.  

Good Monday morning! Today's big story is an investigation from Joseph about cops and an AI tool that takes data from sites like Airbnb and Zillow and identifies specific properties. The internet is full of photos of the interiors of people's homes, from real estate and rental listings to short-term stays, and that data is in the hands of law enforcement.

And in other news, a very interesting interview with the whistleblower subject of Sorkin's new movie, some big legislative impact, and what caught my eye over the weekend around the web. Let's get into it.

AI Company Lets Cops Pinpoint Specific Houses Based on a Single Interior Photo

An AI company now lets cops take a photo and nearly instantly figure out what specific home it was taken in, using only clues in the photo itself, and is clearly pulling data from sites like Zillow and Airbnb. 

The tool, called Raven, shows the increasing power of AI capabilities available to local law enforcement agencies. 404 Media previously reported that both the Los Angeles Police Department and Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office (MDSO) have bought access to Raven, which was previously called GeoSpy. Now, Raven, made by a company called Graylark Technologies, has added features that let cops analyze the interior of homes.

In a post on LinkedIn earlier this month, Graylark CEO Daniel Heinen wrote the company was introducing “the ability to geolocate interior images across millions of short-term rental units worldwide.” An accompanying demo video shows someone taking a photo from X of a washer/dryer unit inside a building. They upload it to Raven, select “Find Property: Interior and exterior property geolocation,” and then choose a region to search.

After a couple of seconds, the map interface zooms in on an area in Charlotte, North Carolina. On the right hand side, the screen displays a list of results. The top one reads, “Renovated! Walk Uptown/located in 2 Hot Spots!” That result directly quotes the language on a specific Airbnb listing in Charlotte, and the photos in the Airbnb listing show the same property.

Read the rest of this story here.

MORE FROM 404 MEDIA 

Spoilers ahead for “The Social Reckoning.” Did you catch this week’s interview episode? Jason talked to former Facebook employee Frances Haugen, who became one of the most important tech whistleblowers in 2021 when she exposed how Facebook’s algorithm was pushing people toward hate groups, showed Instagram was making teen girls feel worse about themselves, and showed that the company knew about its detrimental impacts on society. Haugen’s story is the basis for Aaron Sorkin’s new movie “The Social Reckoning,” which follows her evolution from model employee to leaker to formal whistleblower. Jason and Frances discuss what the movie got right about journalist-source relationships and how AI is supercharging privacy concerns. 

Listen to the weekly podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or watch the convo on YouTube.

Howdy, it's hump day and we're rolling along. Today we've got an update on a very strange case involving a man whose image was resurrected from the dead via AI and made to appear in front of a judge to announced "forgiveness" of his murderer. 404 Media contributor Matthew Gault had a long conversation with the man's sister, who wrote the words and generated the video, and she said that swaying the judge was the entire point.

THE BIG STORY

Her AI-Generated Video Swayed the Judge. The Court Said it Carried 'Undue Emotional Weight'

A man convicted of manslaughter in Arizona will be resentenced because an AI-generated video of his victim speaking from beyond the grave was ruled to have carried “undue emotional weight” as an impact statement. An appellate court in Arizona ruled that the manslaughter charge will remain, but the judge must reconsider the length of the man’s prison term because of AI.

In 2021, Gabriel Horcasitas shot and killed Christopher Pelkey during a road rage incident. A jury found him guilty of manslaughter. During Horcasitas’ sentencing hearing, Pelkey’s sister Stacey Wales played an AI-generated video of her brother as part of her victim’s impact statement. In the video, which she scripted with her own words that she made an AI generated likeness of Pelkey say, the AI avatar of Pelkey forgives his killer and said they “could have been friends” in another life. 

“I loved that video,” the judge said while handing down the maximum sentence of 10 and a half years.

Wales told 404 Media that her intent with the video was to sway the judge. “Isn’t that what you want human connection to be?” she said. “Do you ever come out of a movie and say: ‘Well, that was too emotional. That was too powerful. Human connection is powerful, and trying to convey that to somebody that's never known another person, this person on the earth, to convey their lifetime of 37 years down to a two-hour sentencing event is hard to do, and I think that victims and victims' families should be afforded every opportunity.”

Read the rest of this story here.

MORE FROM 404 MEDIA

A flock of new laws incoming. Several recently introduced pieces of legislation would, if passed, dramatically curb federal agencies’ access to Flock cameras, with the lawmakers referencing reporting by 404 Media in their explanations for why the legislation is needed. “At a time of growing concern about the unchecked power of artificial intelligence, Flock is eviscerating the very notion of privacy by installing tens of thousands of cameras in communities across America without their consent,” Bernie Sanders said.

Student journalists meet the moment, as we’ve seen most recently this week. As the Cornell University sexual abuse case highlights the importance of student journalism, public records reveal how schools try to censor on-campus news outlets. Claire Woodcock talked to students and legal experts about how censorship from above impacts their work. “One of the biggest things we’ve certainly found with censors over the years is they want to be called everything but a censor,” one expert said. “What they’re doing is everything but censorship.” 

How Schools and Universities Try to Censor Student Journalists

Student journalists, their advisors, and legal advocates say colleagues and administrators are attempting to undermine student reporting on Jeffrey Epstein, Gaza, and other issues that public institutions would rather not have their reputations connected to.

Public records obtained by 404 Media show administrators taking meetings with parents and alumni when they take issue with student reporting and asking advisors to compromise their professional ethics. They also show escalating tensions between student newsroom staff and administrators, prompting more legal aid requests to advocacy groups. 

This comes as student journalists at The Cornell Daily Sun earned recognition for breaking the “Cornell Seven” story regarding the lawsuit filed in New York’s trial court last month by a Jane Doe accusing current and former Cornell University students of drugging and sexual abuse. The student journalists told The Cut this week that a vague university and campus police statement from nearly two years ago prompted more questions than answers. Such is the basis for most accountability journalism on college campuses. 

The cases we reviewed involved the phase of the reporting process that comes later, where a factual dispute the newsroom has defended or a complaint where the person doesn’t bother to explain what is allegedly wrong with the students’ reporting. 

Read the full story here.

MORE FROM 404 

Look at my lawyer dawg. A New Mexico attorney used ChatGPT to generate briefs that included completely made-up witnesses and testimony while representing a man accused of shooting his wife. When the judges caught him, the lawyer blamed it on his own “stupidity.” I'll say.

Surveillance isn’t just about who is collecting the data. Surveillance is, of course, also about who that data ends up with. A great story from Jason today looks at that with Flock and other automatic license plate reader (ALPR) data: some local cops are being forced to feed their ALPR data into obscure federal systems where that data may be kept for much longer than usual, and searched by many more people and agencies than the residents being surveilled probably realize.

And, we now know which birds are the two loudest on the planet. Maybe. Welcome back to our new experiment with daily newsletters. If you like this, subscribe here.

How Cities Are Forced to Funnel License Plate Data to a Massive Federal Surveillance Program

The Trump administration is using an anti-drug trafficking grant program from the 1980s to force cities around the country to funnel their ongoing collection of automated license plate reader data into large federal surveillance centers that fall under the White House’s jurisdiction, according to public records and court documents reviewed by 404 Media.

A thing I’ve been saying over and over is that surveillance companies can’t be trusted to regulate themselves or to make privacy decisions themselves, because one company’s red line is another company’s business opportunity. Today we’re investigating a company that saw Flock was not offering facial recognition and saw a challenge.

Also: Some dudes are letting ChatGPT drive a car in a parking lot in San Francisco, a data center company promises to cut people big checks if their data center gets approved, and the Muse backlash has begun. Welcome back to our new experiment with daily newsletters. If you like this, subscribe here. -Jason

Surveillance Company Wants to Add Facial Recognition to Flock Cameras

As Flock continues to be the center of a nationwide conversation about automatic license plate reading cameras, the company has said that it doesn’t, and won’t, do facial recognition: “We will not add facial recognition to our devices,” Flock CEO Garrett Langley said in a recent video. But other, third-party companies are telling cops that they are willing to add facial recognition to data gathered by Flock cameras in order to “close that gap.” 

A company called VIDIZMO is advertising the capability to export footage from FlockOS to its own platforms that do facial recognition, behavior prediction, and racial and gender analysis on live camera feeds. VIDIZMO is a several decades-old video analysis and database company that has started offering facial recognition technology to cops within the last six months. In a May email to Johnson City, Tennessee, deputy police chief Michael Adams, a salesperson from VIDIZMO wrote that the company’s product could do facial recognition on both Flock and Axon data in “one searchable platform.”