10/18/2026
We're having a serious conversation about whether we want to remain on Instagram and Meta's platforms.
On October 30th, Meta's updated commercial terms go into effect, expanding its ability to access, collect, and analyze content from websites associated with businesses using its platforms, including potentially using that content to train and improve its AI systems.
And here's what makes this even more infuriating: businesses have been given very little time to understand these changes, evaluate the risks, and figure out what to do about them.
For small businesses like ours, these aren't decisions we can make overnight. We've spent years building our communities, creating content, and developing relationships with customers through these platforms. We don't have entire legal departments, marketing teams, or unlimited resources to suddenly change how we operate.
Yet we're expected to scramble, accept the new terms, or potentially walk away from platforms we've spent years investing in.
How is that a meaningful choice?
After seeing reports of what happened to Bookshop.org, with its advertising allegedly taken and regurgitated into AI-generated slop, we're increasingly worried about what this means for us and our community.
We share photos of our events, our customers, our staff, and the incredible artists and creators who make The Secret Lantern what it is. The thought of someone's likeness, artwork, or creative work being taken and repurposed without their knowledge or permission is deeply disturbing.
This is the world we're living in now. Our bodies, our art, our words, and our creativity are being treated as raw materials to feed algorithms. Algorithms powered by massive data centers consuming enormous amounts of water and energy, straining communities, and raising serious questions about privacy, surveillance, and environmental destruction.
And for what? So corporations can continue profiting from the things human beings create?
We're a small, independent business. Social media is how we tell people what's happening, how we connect with our community, and how many of you discover us in the first place.
Walking away isn't a small decision. It could genuinely hurt our business.
But at what point do we stop accepting something simply because we've been told we have no choice?
We've opted out. We've objected. We've made our stance on generative AI abundantly clear. Yet we keep finding ourselves pushed back into systems we never consented to participate in.
It's disgusting. It's exhausting. And frankly, we're tired of it.
We need meaningful regulation. We need protections for artists, creators, small businesses, and everyday people. We need elected officials who take these concerns seriously, and we need communities willing to demand accountability.
Consent should not be the price of participation in modern society.
So what can we do?
We can start by refusing to treat this as inevitable.
Ask questions. Speak up. Contact your elected representatives and demand answers about what protections exist for our privacy, our likenesses, and our creative work. Find out where candidates stand on AI regulation, consent, and intellectual property rights. Make these issues part of the conversations happening in your communities.
Support the artists, writers, photographers, and independent businesses whose work makes our communities worth being part of. Support human creativity, and respect the people behind it.
And please, don't let these platforms become the only way we stay connected.
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https://www.thesecretlantern.com/
Tell your friends about the independent businesses you love.
We've never been quiet about where The Secret Lantern stands on AI, but October 30th may be the point where we need to take a firmer stance, even if that means rolling the dice on how we reach our community.
We're still figuring out what that looks like. We don't want to lose touch with you, and we don't believe staying connected should require surrendering our creativity, our privacy, or our consent.
Our creativity is not an invitation. Our presence online is not consent. And our livelihoods should not depend on surrendering either.
www.TheSecretLantern.com
