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Meta continues to run ads promoting child sexual abuse material in India - report
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Warning: This story contains descriptions of abuse.
Key facts
- The ads that BBC had found in its investigation also directed users to another app
- the messaging app Telegram
- where they could buy the material for as little as 99 rupees [$1.05; £0.80]
- Washington-based Tech Transparency Project (TTP), external says it found 332 adverts with CSAM that ran on Facebook and Instagram, most them (274) in August this year
- About a quarter (84) of the ads ran in India and 78 of these were published after the Indian government's order on removing CSAM and its meeting with senior Meta officials
- TTP said that it tried reporting ads via Meta's own reporting system and that of the 84 ads that ran in India, they were able to report 55
Summary
Meta ran hundreds of paid ads with artificial intelligence-generated child sexual abuse imagery, including several in India, over the past 10 months, a new report by US-based campaigners has found. The report comes two months after the Indian government ordered Meta to remove all ads and content promoting child sexual abuse material (CSAM) on Instagram. Washington-based Tech Transparency Project (TTP), external says it found 332 adverts with CSAM that ran on Facebook and Instagram, most them (274) in August this year. When the BBC wrote to Meta about these findings, they said "The team don't tolerate nudify apps or any kind of child exploitation, whether real or AI-generated. The TTP report, published on Tuesday, says that it identified several photos of real children, including a member of a European royal family, that were used in the ads and then manipulated using AI.