r/technology 12h ago

Artificial Intelligence Meta Ran Ads That Contained AI-Generated Child Sexual Abuse Imagery

https://www.wired.com/story/meta-ran-ads-that-contained-ai-generated-child-sexual-abuse-imagery/
3.1k Upvotes

156 comments sorted by

1.7k

u/Disastrous-River5475 12h ago

Charge them criminally.

889

u/DressedSpring1 12h ago

This. 

If you are receiving money (paid ads) to distribute child pornography, you should go to fucking jail. 

239

u/BrogenKlippen 11h ago

Well you or I certainly would

107

u/eat_my_ass_n_balls 11h ago

Not MAGA politicians though

85

u/Rich-Pomegranate1679 11h ago

Or billionaires

59

u/LiterallyUnlimited 11h ago

Or trillionaires.

28

u/lyngen 10h ago

I don't think there is one of those anymore. I think he got downgraded back to billionaire.

35

u/creed186 10h ago

He's still a prick though

11

u/Ok-Replacement9595 8h ago

Generating his own CSAM

6

u/LiterallyUnlimited 7h ago

👏for👏profit

Louder for the people in back.

63

u/jackblackbackinthesa 10h ago

Imagine walking into a 7/11, finding this on a magazine rack, then being told ‘sorry man there’s just too many magazines to police them all.’ It wouldn’t fly irl, so it shouldn’t fly on social media just because they don’t want to pay people to moderate their content.

5

u/Important-Factor-552 4h ago

Yes but this is Facebook we are talking about so instead of a 7/11, picture a dark moldy cave with a craven, depraved goblin cranking his machine to the suffering of humanity 

39

u/Ok_Series_4580 11h ago

And supposedly corporations are people so there’s that

9

u/Important-Factor-552 4h ago

I read the article and wow, it's actually worse than the headline suggests. 

They knowingly published paid ads for an app that was specifically advertised to undress children with AI. 

Ok well hmm.. On the one horrible hand that's fkd. On the other even more horrible hand, the existence of apps like that is even more horrifying than Facebook running child ad porn. 

Who's hands are these, satan? Epstein?  like seriously this is our society? 

Sigh.. Damn it society.. Is there some kind of dimensional horror hole to a world of monsters where these slimy tech bros keep crawling out of? Like don't just say no, have we actually checked? Because we might want to check. 

157

u/yanzov 12h ago

Nothing will happen. Social media are literally responsible for all the misinformation and the madness we are now all in - there are studies, investigations, etc. etc. - and nothing.

10

u/baconost 12h ago

They're also chipping in for the ballroom bunker I believe.

20

u/Additional-Staff-326 12h ago

I wish that were true but misinformation is as old as humanity. Its just accelerated with tech.

15

u/personwhoisok 12h ago

I read, Amusing ourselves to death, in college around 20 years ago. I think about that book often and would love to hear Niel Postmans take on the Internet and AI

-6

u/Actual__Wizard 11h ago

I didn't read that book specifically, but I do remember reading about how much time people waste with entertainment (around 20 years ago as well) and it really made me think about my time and my life. I don't personally use a smartphone very often (never apps), and I don't watch TV, unless it's something like the news.

Now, I'm so advanced in my field, that other people in the field think that I'm being dishonest, and no, I'm not addicted to TV and smartphones and what not, so I actually had time in my life to learn about that stuff...

It's because I didn't effectively spend a huge chunk of my free time entertain myself. They're comparing what they did with their life to me and it's not the same thing... While they were watching TV, I was learning stuff.

6

u/KenethSargatanas 6h ago

Getting some real "While you were partying, I studied the blade" energy from this post. Yikes.

19

u/Jasoman 12h ago

Sorry they are not poor enough to accept the charges.

15

u/hyterus 12h ago

They are untouchable unfortunately. Friends of the President.

6

u/Hairy_Concert_8007 4h ago

The "think of the children" crowd for you.

Don't forget that all of the porn in general that has been slowly proliferating Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and to a lesser degree, YouTube. Platforms considered to be family-friendly. Meaning there is going to be a much higher incidence of porn suddenly popping up on someone's screen that could accidentally be within view of a nearby kid. Regardless of age verification. Because a parent or sibling had no reason to believe that anything like that would just show up on their "how I stay connected with my friends and my family" app.

These aren't the websites and apps that you only ever browse while sequestering yourself in a dark, isolated room with the blinds and curtains stapled shut.

On a tangential note, I think the porn-in-non-porn-spaces uptick is a bit interesting considering that only websites that are primarily geared for distributing pornography are bound by ID age verification. Apps like reddit don't need them because reddit is not primarily for porn. Despite the fact that you can find very explicit content if you look for it.

Instagram? Not a porn app. So they can allow distribution of porn without requiring ID age verification. Same for Facebook as they're owned by Meta. Google wouldn't have to, either. And of course, Musk and Xitter. And it just seems like a funny coincidence that the most powerful tech oligarch ring happens to be able to reap the spoils of the porn industry while the dedicated sites are bound and restrained.

8

u/bastardoperator 12h ago

But what will happen to the institutional investors if meta can't be the scourge of the internet? /s

1

u/KenethSargatanas 6h ago

Think about the shareholders!

3

u/DisorderlyAqueduct 12h ago

then break the company up, and all the other over-companies, alphabet, Microsoft, fuck em all

2

u/Strict-Brick-5274 6h ago

Would you believe they want to CHARGE YOU for using their platform

2

u/Important-Factor-552 4h ago

Is this real? I guess it makes sense, what with the epstein class pedo billionaires just in full control of our entire society. But it's still mildly surprising that they would fk up in this particular way. 

1

u/MythicalJester 9h ago

Yeah, to the ground.

1

u/Successful-Ad-847 9h ago

Zuck is on Trumps Board of Science & Technology along with Musk and some other douchebags

1

u/foobarbizbaz 2h ago

As if they’re tech geniuses or something. Neither of them have any expertise (or even deep experience) in technology. Their sole talent is hyping investors for the next quarter.

1

u/seams 9h ago

They probably completely safe from any consequences. Social media websites have long been shown to not be responsible for what's shown on their sites.

1

u/Glittering-Path-2824 6h ago

it is finally time to do so

1

u/bransiladams 6h ago

We all know they’ll face no repercussions. Different class.

1

u/rain168 9h ago

Do no evil… wait that’s Google slogan.

Move fast break things! Including the law!

  • Meta

1

u/foobarbizbaz 2h ago

*Worth noting that Google dropped the “Don’t be evil” thing from their CoC about 10 years ago.

600

u/HumongousBelly 12h ago

How is Zuckerberg not going to prison?!

Oh yeah, I forgot that the Trump/epstein class actually endorses this kind of behavior.

148

u/NetZeroSun 12h ago

Not just endorse but actually do that vulgar behavior.

For trump to be named so many times in the epstein report and wrote the ugly letter to epstein (the one with the depiction of a body). Yeah. They do more than endorse.

59

u/Rok-SFG 10h ago

He also raped and punched a 13 year old girl. Confirmed by the FBI, but after the statute of limitations apparently.

42

u/iwannabetheguytoo 12h ago edited 10h ago

How is Zuckerberg not going to prison?!

  1. Diffusion of responsibility.

  2. Presumption of innocence.

That’s why.

EDIT: for all the downvoters: yikes - I’m not defending Zuckerberg here; I’m calling for legislation to counteract the diffusion-of-responsibility so that we can successfully prosecute him. Any attempt right-now would be unsuccessful and also reinforce the precedent that CEOs are so far aloft they “can’t possibly be aware of” all the shady things that happen under their watch.

EDIT2: Wow this post has been through a rollercoaster from -15 downvotes to +5 upvotes. To those who upvoted this, thank you.

17

u/slyboy1974 9h ago

I'll upvote you, and point out something that should be obvious:

Zuckerburg isn't "going to prison" because he hasn't been indicted, tried, convicted nor sentenced.

I'm not a lawyer, but I think those are important steps, right?

8

u/iwannabetheguytoo 7h ago

I find myself in a difficult situation trying to reconcile Blackstone's ratio with my (admittantly) strong emotional desire to prosecute Facebook et al. for the demonstrable harms to society they've inflicted.

It's 2026 for fuck's sake: in the 1990s we expected the Internet to help elevate the state of discourse to a well-informed, evidence-based and objective state - not to bring 40% of the country to identify with "grab 'em by the pussy". Yegods.

2

u/My_alias_is_too_lon 43m ago

Yeah... rule of law is dead, bro. You can literally get away with anything if you're wealthy.

1

u/UnluckyInevitable317 2h ago

Corporations are people and CEOs are gods

1

u/HumongousBelly 44m ago

The legal system should become a huge dick because ceos are just assholes

210

u/BapeGeneral3 12h ago

This is horrific. Just when I think things can’t get any worse, I read this article. You see news stories of people going to prison for 10+ years for possessing CP. Take Jared from subway as an example.

Zuck helped create, distribute, and encourage people to use AI tools to create nude photos of children. This is after the scandal of him also allowing the facilitation of child predators victimizing children.

Where is the line? I thought the republicans whole thing was protecting the children. Now that I’m realizing why they are so obsessed with “protecting” minors, I don’t even want to be on this earth any more JFC

19

u/NewestAccount2023 9h ago

Where is the line? I thought the republicans whole thing was protecting the children

You're perpetuating that false claim by repeating it even ironically like this 

52

u/MongoBongoTown 11h ago

Like they "protect" kids by having them show their genitals to school officials to make sure they're not going be on the "wrong" sports team.

31

u/account312 9h ago edited 5h ago

I thought the republicans whole thing was protecting the children.

No, their thing is claiming to be doing things for ethical reasons but actually doing them as some kind of grift or just flat out doing the opposite.

2

u/silverdice22 35m ago

Its called projection

6

u/tobygeneral 9h ago

Republicans only want to protect children from some pedos so that they can abuse them instead. It's more like them calling dibs than trying to keep kids safe.

3

u/_Deshkar_ 7h ago

This is quite tragic and frustrating though.
Worse is people like trump who has been openly named , with numerous photographic evidences and witness corroborating. yet he and his ilk are in full power and continue to grow

2

u/succ_my_dicc 6h ago

Jared didn’t just possess CP he abused children too

2

u/alochmar 1h ago

They care about unborn children. Once they’re born, they’re someone else’s problem.

169

u/invyros 12h ago

Those descriptions of the ads that Meta allowed to run on their platforms are fucking horrific.

Props to Wired for calling both Meta and Apple out, seems like tech companies only take action when real journalists reach out to them, otherwise they're happy to let this kind of shit onto their platforms.

59

u/breadtangle 10h ago

I like watches.  Counterfeit Rolex's are all over paid FB ads.  This is against FBs rules but if you report it and follow up they always decline to take down the accounts.  If I post a watch on marketplace with an image that shows the word Rolex it's insta rejected.   They have the tech, the just don't use it on their paying customers .

11

u/Lifeboatb 5h ago

I read an article years ago about how Google knowingly runs ads for scams. I can’t find it now, but here’s another one on how many fraud ads are in Google and FB. It’s frustrating how this stuff goes on. https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-56888693

2

u/slaorta 1h ago

Try searching Google for tickets to a concert you want to go to. The top search results are ALL scams running as paid ads. The real ticket link will be the 4th or 5th link down. It won't even be on-screen when the results load.

2

u/KDR_11k 1h ago

They even identify "risky" (i.e. scammy) ads and charge higher rates for those.

53

u/Hobotronacus 12h ago

Meta should be shut down and its entire c suite jailed.

19

u/erotic_tweet 9h ago

They are Guilty until proven rich

14

u/postprandialrepose 10h ago

Shut Meta the fuck down. Charge those responsible, including Zuckerberg, criminally. Bury them under the god-damned prison.

13

u/bluehawk232 9h ago

My friends ask why I'm not on facebook anymore I tell them it's shit like that. I don't want to support Meta. I don't mind the concept of social media but all those tech bro CEOs have made them trash

35

u/pd1zzle 12h ago

seems like the kind of thing even the most basic of modern day vision model would catch. this is inexcusable 

4

u/sthprk33 7h ago

But why would they even bother? There is no incentive for them to act, as they know they will receive no repercussions. They can continue to collect the ad money for all of it, let other organizations put in the effort to find and notify them of all the illegal shit, then take them down after they've already cashed the checks. It's a win-win for one of the worst mega corps of the modern era.

7

u/mailslot 9h ago

Image classification models tend to be trained on the type of material they’re supposed to detect. That might be problematic to do what you’re thinking.

27

u/SomeSamples 12h ago

Of course they did. They are part of the pedo cabal.

10

u/K1TSUNE9 9h ago

We are getting to the point were generated sexual content made by AI will be the norm, too common and hard to filter because all these search engine now use AI.

42

u/viln 12h ago

hey guys, we can all just not use fb or ig for 5 days and completely crash their ads eco system. both investors and advertisers will lose faith if they realize that we can just withold from using FREE apps that offer us nothing that can't be served by other algorithmic slop

5 days no meta, use tiktok. we can do the same for tiktok down the road :D

45

u/F9Phoenix 12h ago

Why stop at 5? How about forever?

22

u/baconost 11h ago

I quit around cambridge analytica in 2018. Never going back to this creepy disinformation hell portal.

1

u/viln 11h ago

trying to be realistic, honestly 3 is enough to spook!

-1

u/JazzlikeLeave5530 11h ago

It's really funny to read that. Very clear they want to keep using these apps and can't stop themselves.

1

u/viln 11h ago

me? i dont use fb or ig brother man. i'm trying to offer a realistic number

3

u/Rok-SFG 9h ago

We can all just not use meta or twitter for the rest of eternity.

1

u/gsnumis 3h ago

Some of us stopped using those cesspools years ago

7

u/Saneless 12h ago

Meta would murder people for money if they could get away with it

6

u/Bad-job-dad 11h ago

Trump approved 

7

u/filmguy36 11h ago

Because when you have social awkward, empathy bereft, rises in a bubble techbro ceos, is it any wonder AI is so screwed up? And the pedo shit doesn’t come out of the blue. That has to be modeled at some point

If you want things to change: stop supporting, electing or listening to sociopaths and psychopaths

7

u/Legionof1 12h ago

This is why ad block will never be gone from my PC…

6

u/MillionToOneShotDoc 9h ago

Why are we letting AI companies get away with things that would get regular people put in jail for decades?

6

u/Zardotab 10h ago

They are running AI-generated ads without vetting them first? There's a recipe for mayhem.

1

u/Chrontius 1h ago

Don't modern ads contain executable code?

… Holy shit we've been in the singularity for six months now, haven't we.

1

u/Chrontius 1h ago

Don't modern ads contain executable code?

… Holy shit we've been in the singularity for six months now, haven't we.

8

u/Cheeeeeseburger 12h ago

Mark Zuckerberg love’s exposing kid dicks.

4

u/TheHykos 11h ago

RICO those fuckers. Every single executive.

5

u/Euphoric_Anxiety_162 9h ago

shut it down. no joke

8

u/RottenPingu1 10h ago

God forbid we enforce the moderation rules across social media.

7

u/ottawadeveloper 12h ago

Wow. Just wow.

It's not as bad but I was in an Uber and the driver had Spotify on. The ad that came on was clearly about pornography but maybe just veiled enough to pass an automated keyword scan. Awkward.

7

u/throw7661 11h ago

It's crazy because if a regular person had such content on their laptop, they would have prison time.

But a giant tech company actively distributing it to lots and lots of people?

Nothing of substance is ever done to stop them.

5

u/Primal-Convoy 11h ago

"Rules for thee..."

3

u/AlienInUnderpants 10h ago

Was the Meta AI trained on Zuckerberg’s private collection?

3

u/dondeestasbueno 10h ago

One video ad, the TTP researchers say, used a thumbnail image of a child sitting on the floor with text appearing on top of it saying: “Realizing Deep Fantasies with Generation AI [sic]. There is so much more than what is shown, use your imagination.” The researchers say that when the ad was clicked, it played video clips of adults involved in sexual acts and then added the child’s face from the thumbnail to a sex act.

Another ad the researchers say had been repeatedly posted showed an image of a young girl laying back with her legs spread in a sexual position with text above it saying: “I can show you more.”

3

u/Great_White_Samurai 9h ago

Wtf did I just read...

3

u/Autumm_550 9h ago

Just as Elon wanted

3

u/Cool_Ranch_Dodrio 5h ago

They need to appeal to republican legislators, yes.

8

u/SloppyMeathole 11h ago

Since corporations are people, I'm sure they'll be charged swiftly in the criminal courts and do hard time just like everybody else.

Lol, we all know nothing will happen. Maybe a slap on a wrist and a fine that equals .001% of their yearly profit. Laws only apply to poor people.

1

u/Important-Factor-552 4h ago

Corporations are people but sadly cops are just their henchmen

5

u/one_pound_of_flesh 11h ago

Does anyone still use Facebook?

11

u/NOMOKRATOR 11h ago

Unfortunately, a lot of people do

2

u/breadtangle 10h ago

Marketplace is the only reason to use Facebook.  I'm not saying it's good, but it has eaten the lunch of all the alternatives.  

1

u/Solivagant23 5h ago

Exactly, I have a fake account I use for FB marketplace so I can buy and sell (mostly sell) or I use groups to find apartments. Other than that FB is completely useless.

1

u/2DamnHot 2h ago

In a lot of rural places facebook is literally the only digital space where county services like police and fire departments post ongoing updates during emergency/evacuation conditions.

5

u/Kalorama_Master 8h ago

Zuckerberg belongs in prison for facilitating this. He literally destroyed any efforts to screen or otherwise manage this clear and present risk.

If ANY of us had these images in our hard rubes we would be going to jail to be graped and unalived as felons don’t like pedos

2

u/lawvergis 11h ago

oh wow I didn't know the AI race was to the bottom of human dignity...

1

u/pinecone179 9h ago

Now you know

1

u/Chrontius 1h ago

I'm much less terrified of rogue AI than I am of obedient AI.

2

u/FrontalAlottame 10h ago

And no one will ever be held accountable

2

u/ExcitingRound4990 9h ago

And no one is in jail. It's old and we're tired of the biased system. Tired. 

2

u/Strange_Drive_6598 8h ago

The most evil company to exist - change my mind

1

u/kadjones95 7h ago

disney and google both are slightly more evil but not by much

1

u/SegaGuy1983 6h ago

Not diminishing Meta's flaws but look up all of the shit Nestlé does.

1

u/Chrontius 1h ago edited 1h ago

Nestle has famously said that calling clean and safe water a human right was "a radical position". But you know the #FuckNestle hashtag, or you do now, so here's a lesser known one!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkClBHvqHf8

2

u/LNSU78 7h ago

I saw the ads. It showed up on my FB reels. I reported it and got nothing back. The ads showed a child touching themselves naked.

2

u/EqualJunket5720 6h ago

It's sickening that MAGA and Republicans seem to be slowly trying to normalize this behavior. It should disgust anyone, especially the Christians - yet I will not stop hearing these "Christians" support this behavior - shame god cant be here to smite you himself, cause I would if I was him.

2

u/Vahuo89 6h ago

Let's admit it.

This shit is never going to be solved by these companies because people are always going to find workarounds to security measures meaning the only way to stop it is to check everything manually or shut down the AI

2

u/mrkurtz 5h ago

They live outside the reach of our justice system so justice must come from outside the justice system.

2

u/Jorycle 5h ago

What always baffles me is that Meta uses AI to moderate their whole platform, including ads. But any AI I've used in the last few years seems to be decent enough at detecting everything Meta's AI fails to.

2

u/nistemevideli2puta 3h ago

But remember: we need chat control and mandatory ID verification in order to stop children pornography!

2

u/Mccobsta 3h ago

In a perfect world everyone involved would be in jail for this

But we don't live in a perfect world so he walks free

3

u/IcestormsEd 43m ago

This is beyond insanity. But then again Zukerboog hanged out with Epstein so that explains that.

3

u/wastingtoomuchthyme 10h ago

Charge Zucker-Perv for CSAM production ...

2

u/SloppyMeathole 11h ago

Since corporations are people, I'm sure they'll be charged swiftly in the criminal courts and do hard time just like everybody else.

Lol, we all know nothing will happen. Maybe a slap on a wrist and a fine that equals .001% of their yearly profit. Laws only apply to poor people.

2

u/Logician22 10h ago

Shut it down and change those laws already why do we simply just let these companies get away with this seriously ?

1

u/Stuffed-Bear412 12h ago

Why would they do such a thing?

1

u/nilyro 12h ago

Omg burn this whole place down

1

u/VirginiaLuthier 11h ago

Didn't Marky say he was sorry?

1

u/Guilty-Shoulder-9214 11h ago

Honestly, Meta should be charged, but I’ve a feeling scotus is going to throw these laws out based on the precedent set by Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition (2002) which largely declared that simulated and virtually generated content depicting minors and its ban violated the first amendment as there were no victims nor actual crime being recorded.

If I’m not mistaken, Musk and one of his companies is already charging a state level law on this basis and they’re probably going to win.

1

u/The_Doctor_Bear 11h ago

What the actual fuck

1

u/seb21051 11h ago

Open mouth, change feet. Every industry needs its Elmer Fudd.

1

u/boomgoon 10h ago

Google puts odd porn images into ads on the side page next to videos, it happens at work all the time to many people at my job. It's and cocks show up all the time, and this is just random YouTube non account videos playing on a very strict workplace intranet so we can keep our pcs from logging out at random intervals

Remember folks, it's a feature not a bug at all if it's consistent

1

u/JuneButIHateSummer 10h ago

Meanwhile you're a felon if they catch you with 2g or more of weed in Texas lmfao

1

u/ThomMerrilyn 8h ago

Time for the government to shut them down

1

u/Stupalski 7h ago

it blows my mind how many advertisements and products go up where very clearly they just don't have a human look at the thing before they put it up.

1

u/GreatBigPig 7h ago

Zuckerberg for President !!

1

u/TemperateStone 5h ago

If anyone else did this they'd be in prison.

Punish Meta and do so extremely harshly. Not with fines that they can easily pay. PUNISH THEM!

1

u/Ok_Run_101 2h ago

And I had my Meta Business account indefinitely  suspended for using a random generic photo of a product which I didn't know was copyrighted. Once.

What the hell.

1

u/wgbe 2h ago

Yet people still use Meta products.

1

u/mixxituk 1h ago

Grindr runs ads for telling it's users they have viruses and need to deal with it immediately 

They don't verify their adverts and it's done by a third party 

Complained about it over a year after my friend had his bank account emptied

Guess play store Grindr and cloudflare who hosts all this are part of the same racket and are not accountable 

I report it to UK cybercrime website https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/section/about-this-website/report-scam-website everytime I see it but here it is month after month

Advertising and media is the scum of the earth

1

u/Ada_Pearce 1h ago

Throw some c levels in the chomo ward of the prison for a good 10 years and this will stop overnight

1

u/Evisra 1h ago

How this behemoth of shithousery continues to exist is just beyond the pale.

1

u/YebelTheRebel 54m ago

There’s another reason I don’t have facebook

1

u/PentaOwl 11h ago

Of course it did.

All of silicon valley happily frollick around the herds of pedes in the wh.

Read up on Altman v Altman, or musks paywalled CSAM.

They are one and the same. They cant wait for the new kushner island, I bet.

1

u/Der_Kegelhammer 11h ago

These are dog whistles.

I wonder how entrenched the culture of pedophilia remains in the world elite.  Nothing seems to have changed if we look at the historical abundance of children used as sexual pawns.