Meta's AI helper Muse ran an ad for tracking Instagram unfollows

Meta ran an ad on Instagram for its AI helper, Muse, that promised to "See who unfollowed you each week." Meta has since taken the ad down. The odd part is that Instagram has avoided offering an unfollow tracker for years, so one Meta product was advertising something another Meta product deliberately skips.

What the ad showed

Rachel Karten, who writes the marketing newsletter Link in Bio, spotted the ad about a week before the story was published. It showed Muse's fuzzy mascot holding up red and green signs, like a dating app. A Meta spokesperson confirmed to Business Insider that the ad was removed and is no longer in Meta's public ad library.

Why Instagram skips this feature

People have wanted to see who unfollowed them since Instagram launched. Instagram head Adam Mosseri has said in his question-and-answer sessions that the app leaves it out so people feel comfortable unfollowing accounts they no longer care about.

The business logic fits too. If people feel bad about unfollowing, their feeds get less interesting. They may then open the app less often, which hurts Instagram.

What Muse can and cannot do

Muse is Meta's AI agent, a tool that takes actions for you. It can help organize your inbox, book travel and buy lunch. The Business Insider writer asked Muse to track unfollowers, and it said yes, with a limit. It would watch the writer's follow lists from now on, but it cannot look back to see who unfollowed in the past.

Outside apps already do something similar. Some of them ask for your login details, which the writer says he would not recommend.

What to do

• Skip unfollow trackers that ask for your Instagram password.
• Think before giving any AI helper access to your accounts.
• Remember that an agent may do things the app itself avoids.

The bigger question

The writer calls the ad a single mistake, likely made by someone far from Instagram's thinking. But he sees a larger clash. Meta views AI agents as its future. Agents are meant to help people get things done, while social media is meant to hold attention. He asks how far Meta will go in letting its AI do things Instagram and Facebook have long discouraged.