Meta has begun pushing AI on Facebook, Instagram, and Whatsapp — so much so that you can’t turn Meta AI off.
As it turns out, the tech giant’s own features aren’t the only AI proliferating on Meta’s platforms.
Explicit ads for AI “girlfriends” are populating Facebook and Instagram, Wired reported.
Searches by Wired found that at least 29,000 ads for explicit AI “girlfriends” have been published on Meta platforms, most with sex-related messaging; at least 19,000 ads have the term “NSFW” and 14,000 “NSFW AI.”
These explicit ads appear to violate Meta’s adult content advertising policy, which bans advertisers from running ads that “contain adult content, such as nudity and depictions of people in explicit or suggestive positions, or activities that are overly suggestive or sexually provocative.”
Yet, these NSFW AI “girlfriend” ads apparently skate through.
Wired’s report isn’t the first instance of ads for explicit AI apps showing up on Meta: Deepfake ads featuring Jenna Ortega and other celebrities ran on Meta platforms as well.
When Wired contacted Meta about this, 2,700 AI “girlfriend” ads were active.
You are unable to disable Meta AI because it has started to be heavily promoted on Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. It turns out that AI isn’t just showing up in the tech giant’s own features on Meta’s platforms. According to Wired, there are many explicit advertisements for AI “girlfriends” on Facebook and Instagram.
According to searches conducted by Wired, at least 29,000 advertisements for explicit AI “girlfriends” have been posted on Meta platforms; the majority of these advertisements contain sex-related content; at least 19,000 of these advertisements include the term “NSFW,” and 14,000 mention “NSFW AI.”. Wired ran searches on Meta’s ad library, which has the capacity to show all of the advertisements that are currently running on its platforms, all of the advertisements that have been shown in the EU during the past year, and all of the advertisements from the previous seven years that are associated with politics, elections, or social issues.
Sex workers, erotic artists, LGBTQ users, sex educators, and others have long claimed that Meta unfairly targets their accounts and content because of these policies. Mashable users have reported that Whatsapp bans sex worker accounts, Instagram shadowbans LGBTQ and sex educator accounts, and they fear being targeted under Meta community guidelines. In a test carried out last autumn by the sexual wellness company Unbound, Meta consistently disapproved of sex toy advertisements aimed at women while accepting those aimed at men. According to Mashable, in November of last year, Meta allegedly turned down a period care advertisement because it was too mature or political.
Light Speed Mashable.
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These offensive AI “girlfriend” advertisements seem to get by, though. Although deepfake advertisements starring Jenna Ortega and other celebrities ran on Meta platforms, Wired’s report is not the first to mention that advertisements for explicit AI apps have appeared on Meta.
2,700 AI “girlfriend” ads were up when Wired reached out to Meta about this. A representative for Meta, Ryan Daniels, told Wired that the company forbids these kinds of advertisements, is examining them, and would remove any that didn’t follow its guidelines. He said to Wired, “We take swift action to remove any ads that violate our policies. That’s what we’re doing here.”. Our systems, particularly the way we identify advertisements and actions that violate our policies, are still being improved. “.”.
Even so, the publication discovered that days later, thousands of these advertisements remained active.
Mashable has contacted Meta to request a statement.
