TikTok has banned 20 accounts after the BBC highlighted that AI-generated black female influencers were being used to drive users to sites promoting sexually explicit content.
These are part of a growing number of accounts on Instagram and TikTok that have been criticized as racist, exploitative and misleading due to their use of racial metaphors and language.
Researchers from the BBC and independent AI publication Riddance discovered dozens of accounts on the two platforms that featured highly sexualized digital characters or avatars of black women.
Although the images and videos are AI-generated, they are not labeled as such, clearly violating the platform’s guidelines.
Almost all of the accounts were on Instagram, and about a third also had a version on TikTok. Instagram’s parent company Meta told the BBC it was investigating, but declined to say it had taken any action.
Avatars are often depicted with exaggerated body shapes, wearing skimpy swimsuits or other revealing clothing.
Some people have very dark skin tones that have been digitally altered to give them an artificial look.
Account names include terms such as “black,” “noir,” “dark,” and “ebony.” Some people included comments about white men in their posts, such as “I love white men” and “Why I need white men in my life.” Many accounts follow and like each other.
The BBC, working with analysts Jeremy Carrasco and Ridgedance’s Angel Nurani, identified 60 such accounts, primarily on Instagram, that were linking or chaining links to paid sexually explicit content on third-party sites. The site labeled the image as AI-generated, but the Instagram account did not.
The investigation also identified more accounts on both Instagram and TikTok that used similar AI-generated avatars that were not linked to paid content.
