Meta’s latest AI feature allowing users to alter Instagram content has sparked outrage, and you know what that means: the mainstream media is suddenly clutching its pearls, pretending this is a new moral low. Outlets like CNN are spinning this as a dangerous liability, while ignoring the silent complicity in other tech giants’ controversial features. They love to vilify Meta but conveniently forget that their favored companies have been doing similar things for years.

Why the sudden disdain for feature manipulation? Because it’s Meta, the sacrificial lamb of the tech ecosystem. They’ve been in the crosshairs for a while now. When TikTok, owned by Chinese tech giant ByteDance, allows users to warp reality with filters and effects, you’d be hard-pressed to find the same level of outrage. Instead, it’s a celebration of creativity—even if it compromises authenticity. That’s the hypocrisy of the so-called “journalists” who promote the agenda of regulating our online freedom while begging for attention clicks.

In a country where we lionize creators for altering reality in art, why do we throw Meta under the bus for allowing similar expressions? The media’s narrative is clear: Control the narrative, control the dissent. But remember, this is the same outlet that peddled misinformation on social media’s role in democracy, all while fishing for your clicks and ad dollars. The dissonance is deafening.