A guerrilla advertising campaign on the streets of London has placed Meta at the center of a severe public reputation crisis. The billboard installed on Carnegie Street, a few meters from the company's headquarters in King's Cross, displayed a stock photo of late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein edited with Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, accompanied by the forceful slogan: "Glasses for people who don’t do consent."
The action was claimed by Everyone Hates Elon, a British collective for political activism and culture jamming. The group installed the billboard in an outdoor advertising space to draw attention to the ethical implications and legal loopholes surrounding wearable devices with integrated cameras and Artificial Intelligence, capable of recording audio and video in public spaces without the explicit consent of the people being recorded.
The impact on digital platforms like Reddit and X was immediate, going viral with derogatory epithets for the device such as "pervert glasses." The protest comes at a time of increasing scrutiny for the tech company led by Mark Zuckerberg, due to the misuse of the device by certain content creators and manfluencers to record strangers in gyms, public transport, and public streets. Although the glasses incorporate an LED light to indicate when the camera is active, various groups and regulators consider this measure insufficient to protect individual privacy.
From the next+ team's perspective, this incident demonstrates that the main obstacle to the mass adoption of wearable tech is social and ethical acceptance. When a physical product begins to be collectively associated with privacy violations and harassment, negative public perception can completely neutralize multi-million dollar investments in hardware and AI. Big Tech must not only design functionally advanced products but also anticipate and mitigate social frictions through more rigorous privacy safeguards. Otherwise, they risk public stigma limiting the device's use and forcing restrictive governmental regulation that hinders innovation in immersive technologies.