A new report by the US-based Tech Transparency Project (TTP) has revealed that Meta ran 332 paid advertisements containing AI-generated child sexual abuse imagery on Facebook and Instagram over the past 10 months. The majority of these ads (274) were published in August alone.
The report, released on Tuesday, identified several photos of real children, including a member of a European royal family, that were manipulated using artificial intelligence to depict graphic sexual acts. About a quarter of the ads (84) ran in India, with 78 of them appearing after the Indian government ordered Meta to remove all CSAM content from Instagram.
This follows a BBC Eye investigation that exposed Instagram's promotion of CSAM ads in India, prompting action from Indian authorities. TTP claims that more than a dozen ads continued to appear even after the company was alerted to the findings.
Meta responded to the BBC, stating, "We don't tolerate nudify apps or any kind of child exploitation, whether real or AI-generated. These criminals constantly shift tactics to evade detection, which is why we keep strengthening our detection and enforcement." However, critics argue that Meta's efforts are insufficient.
Bhuwan Ribhu, founder of Just Rights for Children, a network of over 250 organizations, said, "Social media companies are clearly flouting Indian laws by not reporting child sexual abuse content to Indian law enforcement agencies as mandated by our child protection laws." His organization has filed a petition in India's Supreme Court demanding mandatory reporting and identification of those promoting CSAM.
TTP reported that almost all ads began with a photo of a child, which was then animated to perform sexual acts. One ad running in India featured a voiceover saying, "There are no restrictions. All the characters are real people and there are many options. This is the AI men actually use." The ad was posted by over 50 different handles in India over a fortnight in August.
TTP also highlighted the ineffectiveness of Meta's reporting system. Of the 55 ads they reported in India, Meta responded to 43 that they did not violate advertising standards. This raises serious concerns about the platform's ability to detect and remove such content.
The ads largely directed users to AI image and video generation apps, mostly from Chinese developers, which could be used to create or view CSAM. Meta has prohibited the promotion of such "nudify" apps, but TTP found that many ads were placed by Meta's own ad agency partners in China.
Despite Meta's claims of robust defenses, TTP found that new ads continued to appear even after they made the company aware of the report's findings. The company stated that many flagged ads had already been removed, most had fewer than 200 impressions, and total ad spend was under $5,000. However, the persistence of these ads underscores the ongoing challenges in combating AI-generated CSAM on major platforms.
Source: www.bbc.co.uk