Why Teayana Taylor is Catching Heat for Wearing Meta’s Smart Glasses

Teyana Taylor is in the crosshairs of social media’s beef with Ray-Ban’s Meta smart glasses after she rocked them onstage at the BET Awards. The move has people saying she’ll do anything for a check and is disregarding the safety of Black women. Let’s get into it.

A quick swipe through X and you’ll see users expressing their annoyance towards Taylor. Folks online say she is helping to push spy technology and disregarding the harm generative AI has done to the Black community, especially Black women, by using her platform to promote smart glasses.

“Meta is trying hard to make fetch happen with their AI spyware, sending them for ‘free’ to Black SM influencers and using Black celebrities like Teyana Taylor as ambassadors, and why shouldn’t they when Black women’s biometric data is being used to make AI Chatbots named Aisha?” wrote user @CarrieCnh12.

In the comments of @CarrieCnh12’s post, users were quick to add that they were disappointed in Taylor for wearing the “pervert goggles” because of the ways they’ve been used to film women without their consent.

Related: New AI Assistant Aisha Launches for Black Users

On social media, it’s becoming increasingly common to see videos of men wearing the glasses while approaching women, flirting with them, and then posting the assumed private interactions online for millions to see.

In one case reported by CNN, a Black woman, Toluwa, was filmed by a man wearing smart glasses at the airport. He used their interaction to grow the library of pickup content on his page, even though Toluwa didn’t agree to being in his TikTok.

Although the glasses put women in vulnerable positions, their encounters with people wearing them also tend to make them the subject of scrutiny. Folks often ask how the women didn’t know they were being filmed, given that the glasses shine a light when recording (even though a quick TikTok search will produce plenty of tutorials on how to bypass this feature). Users show how to drill the light out or pick it out with a knife, which only shows how the glasses can be altered and become even more dangerous.

To make matters even more concerning, according to Wired, Meta has been testing Rank One’s facial-recognition software in its glasses. Per Wired, Rank One is a technology company that supplies facial recognition tools to the U.S. Marshals Service and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. Those agencies use it to identify prisoners without requiring data such as DNA.

In a recent study, two Harvard students proved the dangers of this technology. According to the London Evening Standard, the students used the smart glasses to uncover the home addresses of complete strangers by using nothing but screenshots of their faces. And on TikTok, one user referenced the study to mock the idea that the glasses are just a harmless fashion trend, warning that they will inevitably be used to stalk women.

“Everything’s edgy, and it’s so unique, and it’s not like there’s a creepy f*ing guy who is using those glasses to monitor all of them, the women around him,” she said. “And maybe we should ignore the fact that two (Harvard) students were able to break into the glasses and then use facial recognition software to find people, not just their Facebooks, their addresses, their workplaces, their full names.”

In the comments, women expressed that the glasses make them more vulnerable to being found by abusers.

“I’m a domestic violence survivor these things put me in danger,” wrote one user.

“Women and CHILDREN,” emphaisized one user with a heartbreak emoji.

“I hope we all don’t buy them enough is enough,” added a third.

While Teyana Taylor has not addressed the backlash she has received for promoting the glasses, Meta seems to be ramping up its online promotion. The tech giant continues to push the specs with Black influencers such as Tyrell Hampton and Lov Vassallo, and celebrities like Kylie Jenner are getting on the Meta wave. Meanwhile, Black women online continue to call out the safety and privacy issues that come with the device.