Meta continues to run ads promoting child sexual abuse material in India – report

This was in the aftermath of a BBC Eye investigation which found that Instagram was running paid adverts promoting CSAM in India.Washington-based Tech Transparency Project (TTP), external says it found 332 adverts with CSAM that ran on Facebook and Instagram, the majority of them (274) in August this year.When the BBC wrote to Meta about these findings, they said in a statement, "We don't tolerate nudify apps or any kind….

These criminals constantly shift tactics to evade detection, which is why we keep strengthening our detection and enforcement."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.

It says more than a dozen ads appeared on Meta platforms even after TTP made the company aware of its findings.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.After the BBC investigation, several Indian agencies including the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights and the National Human….

They say they have reported all the ads to NCMEC.According to TTP, almost all the ads they found start with a photo of a child, and, as the video plays, the photo is manipulated by AI to show them engaging in a graphic sexual act.TTP described one ad which ran in India as: A photo of a preteen girl animated so that she performs a graphic sex act, with a….

All the characters are real people and there are many options.

This is the AI men actually use." The BBC has not seen this ad.According to TTP, the ad was posted by more than 50 different handles in India over a fortnight in August this year.In July, after BBC's investigation, Meta had put out a detailed post on its website, external about how it fights child exploitation on its apps."Anyone on our platforms can report ads if they believe they violate….

Meta only gives the option of reporting ads when they are live.For 43 of these, TTP got a reply that said, "We've taken a look and found that this ad doesn't go against our Advertising Standards."For 11 ads, they were told that the content had already been removed.

They haven't received a response yet for one ad.In July, after BBC's investigation, Meta had put out a detailed post about how it fights child exploitation on its appsWhen the BBC reached out to Meta for a comment, they said, "we've built strong defenses, including systems that block violating ads as well as ongoing monitoring in case we initially miss something: that's why many of the ads flagged to us….

When the BBC used Meta's reporting system to report one of the ads featuring child sexual abuse to Instagram, the platform did not take it down.Later, when the BBC asked Meta for comment, it said it had already disabled several adverts and suspended the accounts posting them.

The company said it had removed additional ads, disabled more accounts and blocked URLs for other content that violated its policies in response to the BBC's findings.TTP said that the vast majority of the 332 ads they found directed users to AI image or video generation apps, mostly from Chinese developers.The report alleged that by advertising these apps using images of child sexual abuse, the implication is that they can….

Its review system relies primarily on automation and is designed to check images, video, text and audio, as well as who the ad is targeting and where links send them to.After the BBC's investigation, Meta had said that "no system is perfect" and that "determined criminals continue to try to exploit our platform, including through our advertising systems".But TTP found that several of the ads featuring child sexual abuse were….

The partners did not respond to TTP's questions.TTP said that new ads have continued to appear even after they made Meta aware of their report's findings.

They shared details of 17 ads including 11 that ran in India on 1-2 September.