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Meta confirms 1000s of Instagram accounts were hacked by abusing its AI chatbot

Hacker News · Jun 6, 2026, 6:35 PM · Also reported by 2 other sources

Key takeaways

  • Meta is notifying thousands of people whose Instagram accounts were hijacked during the months-long abuse of the company's AI chatbot, which hackers repeatedly tricked into taking control of a person's account.
  • The number of affected accounts gives some clarity as to how widespread this hacking campaign was, and for how long it operated.
  • According to the data breach notice filed with Maine's attorney general's office late on Friday, Meta notified at least 20,225 people that their accounts had been compromised, including 30 people in Maine.

Meta is notifying thousands of people whose Instagram accounts were hijacked during the months-long abuse of the company's AI chatbot, which hackers repeatedly tricked into taking control of a person's account.

In a new data breach notification letter, seen by this week in security, Meta has revealed for the first time how many people had their accounts hijacked as part of the long-running hacking campaign, which was discovered earlier this week and first reported by 404 Media ($) and Tech Crunch ($). The number of affected accounts gives some clarity as to how widespread this hacking campaign was, and for how long it operated.

According to the data breach notice filed with Maine's attorney general's office late on Friday, Meta notified at least 20,225 people that their accounts had been compromised, including 30 people in Maine.

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