“This is the AI men actually use”: Meta ads pushed apps nudifying real teens

Even more troublingly, TTP emphasized in a press release that these findings came after the group teamed up with Wired and flagged an earlier batch of 53 ads in August. At that time, Meta claimed that it had “recently rolled out new systems to better detect child exploitation.” But TTP “found hundreds of new CSAM ads ran after Meta boasted about its new technology.” And a Wired analysis published Tuesday “found hundreds of ads including explicit content that contain similar language to those ads found by the TTP researchers.” The problem goes beyond CSAM. Wired also independently identified “hundreds of other related ‘nudification’ ads containing explicit content of adults on Meta’s platforms,” likely without their consent. Michelle Kuppersmith, executive director of Campaign for Accountability, which runs TTP, noted that the report comes after a historic $18 billion settlement forced Meta to agree to make changes to platforms to enhance child safety. Its ad approval process requires interventions, too, Kuppersmith suggested. “If Meta’s ad approval process can’t detect and reject such obviously horrific content before it is shown to Facebook and Instagram users, then Meta’s whole ad review system should be called into question,” Kuppersmith said. Meta has removed the ads flagged by TTP and Wired. But TTP criticized Meta for sometimes dragging its feet when deleting ads and inconsistently applying its policies in ways that extend harms. In the hours after TTP flagged more than 300 ads, Meta quickly removed about half the ads from its archived ad library. But many of the ads were curiously not marked as violating Meta’s policy on child exploitation until TTP noted the discrepancy and Meta updated its records. This unexplained omission, TTP warned, “suggests Meta may be undercounting instances of child sexual abuse.” That’s especially troubling since Meta continued running dozens of CSAM ads in the days after the first batch was reported, TTP said. The young European royal was among real kids whose images continued to run, TTP noted. Also concerning, the ad featuring the young girl depicted in the stock photo could have been removed before hardly anyone saw it. TTP reported the ad on the day it started running. But Meta delayed removal for days as the ad leaped from four impressions to 330. Meta is also “inconsistent” in decisions to remove ads, despite claiming to review all ads to ensure advertising standards are met. Meta took down one “ad showing a girl engaged in a graphic sex act,” but refused to remove an “identical” ad featuring the same image and text. Confusingly, Meta claimed the copycat ad did not violate its ad standards. In other instances where TTP reported ads as a “problem involving someone under 18” and/or “seems like sexual exploitation,” Meta “took at least a week to review the reports and often took no action.” Perhaps most glaringly, a Facebook page called “Divine Productions”—which claimed to represent the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—ran a CSAM ad that escaped Meta’s notice. Meta only disabled that page after TTP flagged it. Katie Paul, TTP’s director, told Wired that Meta’s delayed response is an issue, because “there’s a lot of harm that can come from this all while Meta is raking in money in the process.” Meta does not disclose ad reach for every region, but TTP reported that the ads “collectively reached more than 29,000 people in [the] EU and 6,800 people in [the] UK.” About 80 percent of ads were served in the US, and a smaller portion ran in Australia, TTP reported. Meta did not respond to Ars’ request for comment. A spokesperson told Wired, “We don’t tolerate nudify apps or any kind of child exploitation, whether real or AI-generated.” However, some ads evaded detection because “the clips of the minors were brief or blurred.” And Meta seemed to minimize that it profited off ads, noting that the flagged ads on average got fewer than 200 impressions and had a total ad spend under $5,000. But TTP suggested that Meta’s potential undercount of CSAM ads could mean it’s profiting more than it’s admitting. Now lawmakers and regulators are swirling, Wired reported. Attorneys general in Michigan and Florida have said they’re looking into the CSAM ads. Last month, Senator Mark Warner (D.-Va.) sent a letter demanding that Meta “put an end to these illegal and inappropriate ads,” following Wired’s August report. Meta intends to respond to that letter, the spokesperson told Wired. After that, Meta will probably have to answer to Australia’s eSafety Internet regulator, which recently banned under-16s from social media. A spokesperson told Wired that the Australia regulator is concerned and requested “information on this matter from the company at a senior level.” Emma Hardy, director of communications at the Internet Watch Foundation, told Wired that “AI apps are making it far too easy to create realistic criminal imagery of child sexual abuse, creating the new risk of everyday photos of children being taken and transformed into sexual content.” “Platforms and companies must make sure there is nowhere these apps can be advertised and spread,” Hardy said.