Wired: Meta ran 50+ paid ads containing AI-generated child sexual abuse imagery
Researchers at the Tech Transparency Project found more than 50 paid image and video ads containing AI-generated child sexual abuse material or sexualized depictions of minors that ran across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and Threads between November 2025 and this week — several of them linking to 'nudify' apps. The ads were targeted at users in the US, UK and more than a dozen European countries and reached several thousand accounts. Meta removed them after Wired's inquiry, saying most had minimal reach and predated its new AI screening that blocks violating ads at upload.
Why it mattersThese weren't posts that slipped past moderation — they were paid ads that passed Meta's review and earned it money. Arriving just as US states ban nudify apps and the EU's transparency rules take effect, the report hands regulators concrete evidence that platform self-policing fails at the exact point where money changes hands.
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