Meta’s Response to Reuters Report on ‘Romance AI Chatbots’ for Teenagers

Andy Stone, VP of communications at Meta, responding, in a series of tweets on Twitter/X, to Jeff Horwitz’s report at Reuters yesterday, linked here last night, which claimed that “Zuckerberg blocked curbs on sex-talking chatbots for minors”:

Never let the facts get in the way of a good story, eh, @Reuters, @JeffHorwitz!

The documents you cite in the story itself contradict this headline.

The headline says “Zuckerberg blocked curbs on sex-talking chatbots for minors”

But the story cites a document that says “Zuckerberg believed that AI companions should be blocked from engaging in sexually ‘explicit’ conversations” w young people.

Huh?!

After my post last night, a friend of mine, with a career of experience working in a large company, sent me this:

A word of caution. “Scumbag middle manager says CEO said” is not the same as “CEO said.”

I could believe Zuck shitcanned parental controls, but I am certain there are thousands of snakes inside that company who would lie about it to get what they want.

That’s a good and fair point, and I think it’s what Stone is trying to emphasize above. The New Mexico lawsuit filing doesn’t contain evidence that Zuckerberg nixed parental controls for teens engaging in chats with AI bots; it contains evidence that other (unnamed employees) claimed in internal discussions that Zuckerberg had nixed them. That is different.

But so let’s take Zuckerberg out of it personally. It’s still the case that Meta shipped these chatbots for teens to use. And the buck, presumably, stops at Zuck’s desk. Read Horwitz’s report from back in August, detailing a leaked internal document listing Meta’s content guidelines for generative AI chat.

Sidenote: Why in the world is Meta’s VP of comms doing this on Twitter/X, not Threads, which continues to grow?

★ Wednesday, 28 January 2026