Meta removes Dutch activists' satirical video filmed with its own AI glasses
Bits of Freedom says Instagram took down the clip, shot at Meta's Amsterdam office, as bullying and harassment. The group has reposted it and wants the glasses banned.
Meta has removed a satirical video that the Dutch digital rights group Bits of Freedom made with its own AI glasses, the group said on Thursday. The group and the programme maker Roel Maalderink visited Meta's office in Amsterdam, filming with the glasses as they asked Meta employees what they thought of them.
According to Bits of Freedom, Meta told it the video broke its rules against bullying and harassment. The group said every employee's face in the clip was blurred and unrecognisable. It said the video had been viewed about half a million times across several platforms, including Instagram, before it came down. Those figures are the group's own.
"I've been making satirical videos about everything for 10 years: Gaza, Ukraine, refugees," Maalderink said in the group's statement, in this paper's translation. "But I have never had a video removed." Bits of Freedom has since posted the full clip on its own website. Meta's reasoning is known only through the group's account, and this paper has not seen a statement from Meta on the removal.
The video was part of a campaign the group launched a day earlier, calling for a ban on what it calls the gluurbril, Dutch for peeping glasses. Bits of Freedom says thousands of videos online show men filming women without consent using the glasses, on beaches, in toilet cubicles and in saunas. It says Meta's glasses sales tripled worldwide in 2025.
The group argues the removal shows that Meta can push a product and also decide how criticism of it is heard on its own platforms. A thread linking to the story reached the Hacker News front page on Thursday with more than 140 points. The takedown comes a day after Meta announced new glasses, including camera-free Ray-Bans, at its Connect conference.