Meta Pulls Dutch Satirist's Ray-Ban Glasses Video Over 'Bullying'

Meta removed a video from Instagram in which Dutch satirical journalist Roel Maalderink, wearing the company's own Ray-Ban camera glasses, approached Meta employees to ask how they felt about the device. The takedown cited "bullying and harassment," Dutch News reported. The video, made with the digital-rights group Bits of Freedom, remains accessible on YouTube.

"I've been making satirical videos about everything for 10 years now: Gaza, Ukraine, refugees," Maalderink said, calling it the first of his videos to be taken down.

Bits of Freedom framed the removal as a demonstration of platform power over public debate. "Meta determines what becomes publicly discussable and how the debate unfolds," the group said. "Apparently, there's no room for criticism directed at Meta itself."

The dispute landed the same week the Dutch privacy watchdog AP warned that sharing images from the camera glasses breaches GDPR unless every person pictured has consented. It follows Meta's own opt-out letting Ray-Ban wearers keep visual data out of AI training, announced a day earlier and part of a long run of Meta stories in our tracker this quarter.