Meta, a company named after its biggest flop, has managed to unleash a product that makes Facebook's many controversies look mild. It calls them Meta Glasses, but the world is calling them "pervert glasses", and they could be the company's biggest liability yet.
Fitted with microphones and ultra-HD cameras, the sinister shades have sparked an almighty backlash, mainly over privacy concerns. While smartglasses can have positive uses, particularly for people with visual impairments, there have been complaints about nonconsensual filming and sexual harassment with videos sometimes posted to social media to humiliate victims.
Considering how fast internet privacy company DuckDuckGo's Normal F****** Sunglasses sold out, there's a chance that Meta might get the message that this is the least wanted product since the Metaverse. In the meantime, some women have come up with a solution to unwanted filming that's somehow clever and tragic at the same time.
watched a women saying that if u feel like u're being recorded by meta pervert glasses, play disney songs so that if the video gets posted, disney's copyright system will take it down.this is why i hate this society, cos clearly music is more protected than women in big 2026.August 3, 2026
If I see somebody walking around with those Meta pervert glasses, I’m blasting The Beatles and Disney music as loud as possible to ruin their day.July 28, 2026
Some women have suggested playing Disney music when in the vicinity of anyone who's wearing Meta Glasses “because Disney music is more protected than women,” one person writes.
The idea is that Disney is very active in protecting its copyright, so if the "pervert glasses" wearer makes a recording, the video should get removed if it's posted to social media. If you're not a Disney fan, some suggest that The Beatles or The Eagles' Hotel California could have the same effect.
It's fascinating to think that Disney classics could become a public early warning system. Next time you hear A Whole New World from Aladdin blaring out in a shop, it might mean there's a glasshole lurking.
Alas, although it's nice to see Disney as the hero of the story for a change after the Pixar layoffs and the decision to bring TikTok to Disney+, its music might not be a very effective weapon against pervert glasses. It could make a recording harder to post or to profit from, but there's no guarantee the video get blocked.
Several platforms have tools that automatically detect copyright violations. YouTube, for example, has Content ID. This notifies rights holders, but they have the option to choose whether to block the video, leave it or monetise it. When it's music, they often choose the latter. TikTok sometimes mutes audio but leaves the video.
Creeps with glasses could also simply edit the video, remove the audio or attempt to filter out the music.
Regardless of the technicalities, the worst part of this is that we've got to the point where going out in public is deemed to require the preparation of a Disney soundtrack ready to play at any moment as if it were a rape alarm.
From social media to AI, Meta's attitude to ethics and privacy has tended to be that these aren't part of its purview. It "moves fast and breaks things" and leaves it to others to work out how to put them back together.
Unless it learns to fix things itself, the best solution for now might be the one being discussed in Germany, where the data protection authority commissioner has said that camera glasses could be banned under laws that prohibit recording devices hidden in everyday objects. The viral reaction to the spoof Meta Glasses advert with Kyle Jenner suggests people elsewhere might support similar legislation.
