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Instagram and Facebook are letting influencers earn a commission from products — again

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Meta is diving headfirst back into social shopping — with an AI twist.

The tech giant announced a slew of new shopping-related updates on Tuesday at the e-commerce conference Shoptalk, including affiliate marketing tools and AI-powered product recommendations.

Creators are a core part of Meta’s rollout.

Here’s a quick rundown of the shopping features Meta is pushing:

  • Affiliate marketing is back. Instagram creators can earn a commission from products tagged on reels, while Facebook creators will be able to earn from products tagged on reels and photos.
  • Get ready for more detailed product descriptions on Facebook and Instagram, thanks to AI. Meta is trying to make shopping a little easier for consumers by using AI to surface more information, such as reviews or product details, if a user clicks on an ad.
  • Checking out is getting a makeover, too. Facebook is rolling out a new, streamlined way to purchase items from ads with a one-click “buy now” button. Advertisers can select a checkout partner such as PayPal or Stripe. Some early businesses enrolled in this experience include 1-800-Flowers, Fanatics, and Quince.
  • Advertisers can get more granular. Meta is allowing advertisers, specifically retail media networks (like Target, Walmart, or Amazon), to choose specific products from their catalogs instead of running broader campaigns. Brands can also leverage Meta’s AI to recommend what content format the product appears in, such as a story, reel, or carousel.

Meta’s pitch to brands and advertisers is that these tools will not just drive awareness, but also more clicks and purchases.

The company reported that its ad impressions increased 18% year over year in the fourth quarter.

Return of the affiliate

The new affiliate experiences differ slightly between the two Meta apps.

On Instagram, creators can add products directly from Meta’s brand catalog to their reels. Influencers can also add outside URLs, such as third-party affiliate links from brands or platforms like LTK and ShopMy, but only if the product is in Meta’s catalog already. Creators are capped at 30 products per reel, and any link must point to a single product, not a collection. Eligible creators — who must be at least 18 years old and have at least 1,000 followers — will soon see an “add products” option in their app.

Meanwhile, on Facebook, creators can include shoppable links to their reels or photo posts and earn a commission. Facebook’s “affiliate partnerships” program will launch in partnership with two major retailers, Amazon for US creators and Shopee for creators in select Asian markets. Facebook teased that it would add more partners, including Mercado Libre, Temu, and eBay.

Commission rates are set by the brand partners for both apps.

This isn’t Meta’s first rodeo with a native affiliate marketing program.

In 2022, Instagram sunset a test that allowed some influencers to earn a commission on products tagged in their posts. The beta program lasted about a year.

Recently, Meta caused a stir among influencers after a “Shop the Look” feature was spotted in some creators’ content, but didn’t pay commissions on any sales driven by that content. The frustration felt by influencers encapsulated a broader tension right now between Big Tech, AI, and creators.

Meta told Business Insider that “Shop the Look” was an ongoing test and that it is fielding feedback as it continues to develop the product.




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Trump’s hush-money judge alerted lawyers about a Facebook comment claiming Trump would be convicted 24 hours before it happened. The commenter describes himself as a ‘professional s—poster.’

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About 24 hours before a Manhattan jury made Donald Trump the first-ever former president to become a convicted felon — a person going by the name “Michael Anderson” made a little-noticed Facebook comment.

“Thank you for all your hard against the MAGA crazies!” he wrote in a comment on an unrelated post on the official page of the New York State Unified Court System.

“My cousin is a juror on Trumps criminal case and they’re going to convict him tomorrow according to her. Thank you 🙏 New York courts!!!! ❤️”

In a Friday afternoon letter, New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan, who presided over the trial, alerted prosecutors and Trump’s defense lawyers about the comment.

“Today, the Court became aware of a comment that was posted on the Unified Court System’s public Facebook page and which I now bring to your attention,” Merchan wrote.


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A portion of the Friday filing from New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan.

New York courts



But it’s far from clear that the comment is genuine.

Anderson — if that is his real name — claims to be a troll.

Business Insider located the Facebook comment, which was timestamped 4:39 p.m. on May 29, a day before the jury verdict. It was made in response to an unrelated Facebook post about a program from the New York state court system to promote diversity.

“Now we are married ❤️ 😁,” he posted in response to another Facebook comment, which criticized his purported cousin.


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A screenshot of Michael Anderson’s Facebook comment.

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On his Facebook page, Anderson describes himself as “Transabled & a professional shit poster.” His profile picture is an image claiming his account is restricted. His cover photo broadcasts the slogan: “Facebook: Wasting peoples lives since 2004.”

Few posts are publicly visible on Anderson’s page. Visible ones appear to be food videos and comedic Reels, a product from Facebook owner Meta that seeks to emulate TikTok videos.


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Michael Anderson’s Facebook page describes him as a “professional shitposter.”

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“As appropriate, the Court informed the parties once it learned of this online content,” Al Baker, a spokesperson for the New York State Unified Court System, told Business Insider, declining to comment further on the incident.

Trump lawyers Todd Blanche and Susan Necheles, as well as representatives for the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.

Anderson did not immediately respond to a request for comment from BI sent through Facebook, but in a public post added to his profile shortly after BI reached out, he wrote, “Take it easy, I’m a professional shitposter,” along with a laughing emoji and the Wikipedia definition of shitposting.

While it remains unclear how significant the Facebook post will become during the proceedings leading up to Trump’s sentencing, it could complicate things.

Neama Rahmani, a former federal prosecutor, told BI that the social post, though apparently trolling, could raise questions about whether outside influences managed to find their way into the jury deliberation room, which is one of the few times the defense could use jury deliberations as grounds to appeal for a new trial.

However, he said, the burden for a new trial is high and would require the defense to show an outside influence prejudiced the jury enough that the outcome may have been different without exposure to it.

“A stray comment on social media is not enough for a new trial,” Rahmani said. “But if the defense can get a declaration from a juror that they discussed the case with family members, then Judge Merchan would hold an evidentiary hearing to examine the juror to determine whether the improper influence and prejudice took place.  I don’t think a statement from the family member is enough if it’s not supported by a juror affidavit.”


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Meta’s plan to train its AI on all your old Facebook data is raising eyebrows among privacy advocates

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Meta is scrambling to compete in the red-hot AI arms race, but an advocacy group is demanding nearly a dozen European countries force Meta to pump the breaks.

The European advocacy group announced complaints in 11 European countries over an upcoming Meta policy change that would allow it to scrape old user data from Facebook to train its artificial intelligence models.

Meta “plans to use years of personal posts, private images, or online tracking data for an undefined ‘AI technology’ that can ingest personal data from any source and share any information with undefined ‘third parties,'” the group, aptly named None of Your Business, or NOYB, said in a press announcement asking authorities to step in and suspend the policy.

Meta’s updated privacy policy is scheduled to go live in late June. It would impact some 400 million European users, NOYB said. The group said it was concerning that users would have to manually opt out of providing data in the future.

“Instead of asking users for their consent (opt-in), Meta argues that it has a legitimate interest that overrides the fundamental right to data protection and privacy of European users,” NOYB said. Europe has strict data privacy laws outlined in the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation, which went into effect in 2018 and has had a profound effect on Big Tech’s operations in Europe.

NOYB filed complaints in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, and Spain.

A Meta spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider, but the company previously told Reuters that its new policy followed the law.

“We are confident that our approach complies with privacy laws, and our approach is consistent with how other tech companies are developing and improving their AI experiences in Europe (including Google and Open AI),” a Meta spokesperson said, according to Reuters.

In the United States, Meta AI has already had access to public user data and private chat conversations on Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, and there is no way to fully opt out of sharing your information, The Washington Post reported.


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