Meta ran dozens of paid advertisements containing explicit AI-generated child sexual abuse material over the last nine months. The ads targeted users in the United States, United Kingdom, and more than a dozen European countries. Researchers from the Tech Transparency Project discovered over 50 image and video ads in the company’s ad library. These listings showed links to so-called nudify or undressing apps. The ads appeared across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and Threads.
How the ads worked
Katie Paul, director of the Tech Transparency Project, told WIRED that the ads made no effort to mask the images. She noted that this was not third-party content posted on the platforms. These were ads reviewed, approved, and allowed to run by Meta while the company collected the ad dollars.
The ads were published between November last year and the start of August. Meta has since removed them for violating policies on child sexual abuse, exploitation, adult sexual solicitation, and nudity.
One video ad used a thumbnail of a child sitting on the floor. Text appeared on top of it saying: “Realizing Deep Fantasies with Generation AI [sic]. There is so much more than what is shown, use your imagination.” Clicking the link played video clips of adults in sexual acts. The system then added the child’s face from the thumbnail to the sex act.
Another ad repeatedly showed an image of a young girl lying back with her legs spread in a sexual position. Text above the image read: “I can show you more.”
Who saw the ads
Most ads were not actively shown to users when researchers found them. They remained available in the ad library for months without detection. Meta data indicated that many reached only a handful of accounts. At least one ad reached 2,563 accounts in Europe. This included France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. The database does not include details on performance in the US or all countries, so the overall reach may be higher.
Paul said the Tech Transparency Project first discovered the ads last week while investigating nudify app ads. The group had previously published a report about a Chinese advertising partner posting them. The organization immediately reported the findings to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s CyberTipline. A spokesperson for NCMEC said it does not comment on reports it receives.
Meta’s response
After WIRED contacted the company, Meta removed the ads from its advertising library. A Meta spokesperson said: “Sexual exploitation is horrific, and we work aggressively to keep it off our platform.” They added that the majority of these ads had minimal reach and many were disabled before WIRED shared them. The company noted that many ads predated new AI technology launched recently to better detect and block violating content at upload. They stated they are constantly improving these systems. From removing over 36 million pieces of child sexual exploitation content last year to taking legal action against nudify app developers, they said they will continue to relentlessly fight this abuse.
As the company implies, some offending ads got past Meta’s new AI technology. Initially, researchers found around two dozen ads displaying abusive content. However, hours before publication, they discovered around 30 more. Many of these ads had been published after WIRED first asked Meta about the content. Multiple ads were live and shown to accounts at the time of discovery.
Paul said this batch included some of the worst instances seen. One video ad showed a thumbnail of a girl appearing to put on lip gloss. When the video started playing, it morphed into the child performing a sex act.
Policy failures
Meta’s policies state that all ads are reviewed before publication. The system primarily uses automated tools to check them against company policies. Advertising standards stipulate that child sexual and exploitation materials are not permitted. When the company becomes aware of such material, it makes reports to NCMEC. Beyond this, policies say ads are not allowed to include imagery depicting nudity, sexual activity, people in explicit or sexually suggestive positions, or activities that are sexually suggestive.
The ad library now shows the ads found by the Tech Transparency Project were removed. Messages displayed that they violated rules on “child sexual exploitation, abuse and nudity” and “adult nudity and sexual activity.”
Previous incidents
In early July, a BBC investigation found that Instagram had been running ads promoting the sale of what appeared to be child sexual abuse material in India. The reporting said the ads used terminology such as “rape video” and linked to Telegram channels where the illegal content could be purchased. In response, Meta published a lengthy statement saying it takes a “zero tolerance” approach to child sexual exploitation.
Paul noted that within the cache of ads seen by researchers, there appeared to be some identical ads Meta had previously removed due to policy violations. This raises significant questions about how seriously Meta is taking child exploitation in paid advertisements if its own systems can identify identical ads but do not remove them for CSAM material. She added that there are no ways within the ad library itself to report content that may violate Meta’s policies when the ads are no longer running.
Advertisers and apps
The ads appeared to be mostly posted by Meta accounts with zero or a tiny number of followers. Where paying advertisers were disclosed, they were linked to Chinese companies. In one instance—the ad showing a girl reclining—Meta’s data indicated the advertiser was a Chinese firm called Meet Social. At one point, the company was one of Meta’s ad resellers, which handle ads in China, where Meta’s social media platforms are blocked. According to a 2019 New York Times profile, it published thousands of ads on Facebook per day and expected more than $1 billion in sales.
Meet Social did not respond to WIRED’s request for comment.
Several Meta ads found by the Tech Transparency Project linked to an app called MaskAI. The app appeared in Apple’s App Store. It was linked to a Chinese software developer and did not show any nudity before it was downloaded, according to a WIRED review. However, once opened, it exclusively contained AI-generated porn. It included features that allow users to upload images and face-swap people into sexual situations.
After being contacted by WIRED, an Apple spokesperson said it has removed MaskAI from the App Store for violating policies against nudification apps. The company said it has “always strictly prohibited apps designed to generate, distribute, or consume pornography.” An email address linked to MaskAI did not respond to a request for comment. Other ads linked to different apps or websites.
The wider problem
Since around 2020, as machine learning and subsequent generative AI technology has improved, a large underbelly of dangerous AI nudification and undress services have appeared online. They make millions for their creators and cause untold harms to countless women. They have also been used in the creation of AI-generated child sexual abuse material, which is illegal in countries around the world.
After WIRED first contacted Meta about the Tech Transparency Project findings, the company asked two online safety organizations to provide comments. Sean Litton, the outgoing CEO of the Tech Coalition, a group that works with tech companies to tackle online abuse, said in a statement that Meta has shared “thousands of violating URLs” to the group’s Lantern service. This service shares information about abuse content between companies. A spokesperson for the Revenge Porn Helpline in the UK also responded with a statement praising Meta’s partnership with StopNCII.org and some of its efforts to combat nonconsensual intimate imagery. They said: “We’ve been clear that nudify apps present a genuinely adversarial problem, not just because of who’s behind them, but because of how quickly this ecosystem adapts around any single point of enforcement.”
Alexios Mantzarlis, cofounder of digital deception publication Indicator and a former trust and safety worker at Google, says he has found and reported more than 25,000 ads for AI nudifiers on Meta’s platforms in recent years. The company has previously said it has taken down more than 344,000 ads for nudifiers and launched legal action against a Hong Kong company linked to one set of nudifier platforms. WIRED has previously collaborated with Indicator on reporting about how nudify tech has been used against children in schools around the world.
Mantzarlis told WIRED: “The actors on the other side are clearly well-equipped to create new advertiser accounts and new domains so that they can keep going, leveraging the same techniques used by scam networks.” He added: “Unfortunately, this industry of image-based sexual abuse has gone from a novelty to a permanent fixture of our online ecosystem because of timid enforcement from platforms across the stack.”
What it means
People making things using AI tools face a new reality where automated systems can generate illegal content that bypasses standard safety checks. The presence of these ads in a major library suggests that current automated review tools are not catching every violation. Advertisers behind these campaigns appear to be creating new accounts and domains rapidly to evade bans. This indicates that the current enforcement approach is struggling to keep pace with the speed at which these abusive services adapt and reappear.
