Sexually explicit advertisements have shown up on Facebook in Europe, which raises the question of whether Meta is profiting from material its policies typically prohibit users from posting. The European nonprofit research group, AI Forensics, reported that despite the platform’s community standards, over 3,000 pornographic ads were approved and distributed on Meta platforms in the past year, reaching as many as 8 million users.
The report found the ads were shown mostly to men over the age of 44, because of its ad-targeting process.
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When researchers tried to post the same images and videos to Facebook and Instagram they were quickly taken down, which they say suggests the company is not applying the same moderation tools to paid advertisers as it does to regular users.
Researchers also looked into the company’s compliance with European regulations. The EU’s Digital Services Act says the largest online platforms must disclose key aspects of their content moderation practices, perform risk assessments of potential harms and take steps to lessen them.
In its risk assessment of Facebook and Instagram, Meta said that it proactively reviews all advertisements before they get published.
Following the report from AI Forensics, Meta said the sexually explicit ads are against its rules and it has since removed them.
“Bad actors are constantly evolving their tactics to avoid enforcement which is why we continue to invest in the best tools and technology to help identify and remove violating content,” a spokesperson for Meta said.
The spokesperson also said Meta does review ads before approving them, but admits its systems are primarily automated, noting users can report problematic ads which can lead to further review, including humans in some cases.
A past report from AI Forensics found that Meta was also failing to properly label many political ads, leading to an ongoing investigation by the European Commission.
This comes as Meta announced this week that it will replace its third-party fact-checking program with community notes later this year.
