Instagram’s “AI Content” labeling system is once again in the spotlight amid user complaints that it labels images not created with AI while missing actual AI content. Users report that their images are automatically labeled after using Canva’s Background Remover tool or making edits that fix minor flaws in photos. Some people said that their entire photo was labeled as AI-generated even though they had only removed a “speckle” in Canva.
A similar issue also occurred in 2024, a few months after the feature was rolled out. Meta said at the time that it scanned IPTC and C2PA metadata in images, but did not share details about its methods. It was reported that even minor generative AI edits in Adobe metadata caused photos to receive the “Made by AI” label. Meta later said it would change its labeling approach to better reflect the amount of AI used in an image.
Some of the recent problems are reportedly caused by Canva. Canva said that some assistive AI tools had been mistakenly labeled as generative AI and that the tools are now labeled correctly. However, some Threads users report that the labels still appear when Background Remover continues to be used. It has also been reported that the AI label appears on some images even though the Canva tool was not used.
Images from the cosmetics company About Face, founded by Halsey, were also labeled even though they were taken with an iPhone and edited only in a photo app. The company said that AI was not used in its content. The SynthID watermark was also not detected in the images using Google’s verification system. Spatial Reframing, Extend and the Clean Up tools updated with iOS 27, which use Apple Intelligence, can add some AI metadata; however, it is unclear how Meta evaluates these signals.
Tests showed that images edited or created using Canva, Photoshop, Adobe Firefly, Google’s Nano Banana model within Gemini and iOS Apple Intelligence tools were not labeled by Meta. Content created with Meta’s own generative AI systems, meanwhile, was said to invariably trigger the label. Meta did not respond to a request for comment.
Why it matters
The issue shows that Instagram’s AI Content label can be triggered not only by the use of generative AI but also by minor edits and metadata added by tools; the same system may fail to flag some genuine AI content. This contradiction makes it harder for users who edit their photos with Canva or Apple’s tools to understand how their content is classified, while raising questions about the reliability of the signals on which the labels are based. Meta’s failure to explain in detail how it evaluates IPTC and C2PA metadata leaves it unclear why editing information from different platforms and applications produces different results. In user tests, the labeling of content created with Meta’s own generative AI systems suggests that the issue may be linked more to the tools and metadata used than to a general failure of detection.
Background
Instagram is not a new name in the FikirPilot archive: we have published 9 reports mentioning the name in the last 90 days; the latest is dated 1 September 2026.