Meta Platforms Inc. has initiated a lawsuit against a Hong Kong-based company that promoted the CrushAI app through ads on its social media platforms. CrushAI creates naked pictures of people based on sophisticated artificial intelligence. This widely used application has come under fire for its vulgar content and lewd advertising ways.
Meta found a minimum of 8,010 ads in support of CrushAI that spread across Facebook and Instagram in the first two weeks of 2023 alone. This finding led to landmark lawsuit against the company. These advertisements are in direct violation of Meta’s own, extraordinarily stringent policies. For example, they explicitly prohibit the promotion of adult nudity, sexual activity as well as bullying and harassment. Meta’s stated priority in keeping its platforms safe from harm has fueled this legal action.
In February, U.S. Senator Dick Durbin called on Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. He spoke out about the flood of ads advertising nudify apps like CrushAI. Durbin’s letter referenced a report by 404 Media and research conducted by Alexios Mantzarlis from Cornell Tech, which revealed that these problematic ads were indeed appearing on Meta’s platforms.
Meta’s specialized teams have been quick to respond to these breaches. They’ve done extensive research focused on exposing and dismantling these networks of accounts trying to protect CrushAI and other similar services. Meta found four different coordinated networks trying to place ads through these applications.
“This legal action underscores both the seriousness with which we take this abuse and our commitment to doing all we can to protect our community from it,” stated a spokesperson for Meta.
The company emphasized its ongoing efforts to address the issue, stating, “We’ll continue to take the necessary steps – which could include legal action – against those who abuse our platforms like this.” They further noted, “We’ve applied the tactics we use to disrupt networks of coordinated inauthentic activity to find and remove networks of accounts operating these ads.”
As an industry leader in AI technology, Meta has positioned itself to combat misuse effectively while ensuring compliance with its advertising standards. At first glance, the specific actions taken against CrushAI seem to represent Meta’s commitment to enforcing its policies and shielding its users from abusive, harmful content.