Australians are still being shown Facebook and Instagram adverts promoting an AI app that generates sexual “deepfake” images of people without their consent, despite the issue being repeatedly raised on Meta.
As the Senate prepares to consider a bill that would make it a crime to create digital sexually explicit content without an individual's consent, Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Threads, is making money from advertising for an app aimed at creating just such content.
Meta's advertising library contains several examples of advertisers promoting various applications with messaging and graphics that explicitly suggest users use the applications to generate new images of people “without clothes” or to swap someone's face to create “NSFW” content. [not safe for work] “photograph”.
In some cases, advertisers have taken steps to avoid detection. In one case, an ad within an image said only that the app could “remove clothes from photos,” with a caption promoting the app as a “writing assistant.” Such ads can still be found by searching for obvious search terms.
These ads, which originate overseas but are targeted at Australian users, direct users to listings in the Apple iOS App Store that clearly discourage the use of the application to create non-consensual sexual content (likely an attempt to avoid being removed from the App Store, which does not allow this type of app). Crikey I chose not to name the application.
While the Ad Library did not provide specific information about which Australian users were shown these ads, Meta did disclose that 18-year-olds in the European Union saw these ads.
Meta's policies do not allow posts or ads that solicit sexual content (AI-generated or not), or content that promotes non-consensual sexual imagery, yet the company has repeatedly allowed its advertising platform to promote these applications to users.
During April, 404 Media The outlet reported that Meta was allowing the advertising of exactly these types of applications, and sent some examples to Meta, which removed them.
There have been dozens of ads this month similar to those that have been posted in past months. In some cases, the exact same ads were displayed using the same graphics, promoting the same applications, and coming from different Facebook accounts.
when Crikey One example was sent through but was deleted by Meta. The other example was Crikey However, posts that do not appear on Meta will remain online, including posts that use the exact same images or language as those that were removed.
Crikey The company declined Meta's request to send more examples, and the company was unable to remove the ads it monitored. Crikey, This shows that the $1.3 trillion tech company still has little control over its advertising platforms.
In previous surveys Crikey Meta has also been found to be showing ads for the sale of drugs, guns and even monkeys to Australian users.
Last month, a 17-year-old boy was warned by Victoria Police after fake sexual images of 50 schoolgirls were circulating online. In response, eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman-Grant said her office received deepfake images “regularly” and that there were now thousands of such applications available.
Mehta declined to comment.
