Analysis: Facebook infested with porn and gambling ads

This issue reveals a larger systemic failure within Facebook's ad approval process, raising critical concerns about the platform's ability to ensure user safety. Despite claims that its AI-driven moderation system effectively blocks illicit content, Facebook appears overwhelmed by an influx of sexually explicit material and gambling promotions that violate its own rules.

As Facebook continues to profit from these campaigns, this raises questions about the platform's commitment to enforcing its ad guidelines.

Key findings of our investigation include:
1. There's a rise of Facebook ads promoting undressing AI apps, like CrushAI, which allow users to erase clothes, and this way generates nudity-containing content involving anyone.
2. There's also a surge in sponsored gambling ads featuring sexually suggestive content, and they explicitly encourage the transfer of funds and supposedly real monetary gain.
3. Users often report them but remain active for extended periods before being taken down. Even more troubling is the lack of accountability for the advertisers, who continuously find ways to bypass Meta's ad policies.
4. These ads are persistent – they come back in waves when taken down. Over a short period of time, ads that featured full nudity or pornography under the keywords “AI girlfriend” and “eraser clothes” rose exponentially, at one point reaching 1900 active campaigns.
5. They are supported by bot accounts created almost simultaneously in 2023. Most of them lead to pages like crazybody.online, dizyer.info, and pharmacity.today.
6. These ads also target underage Facebook users.
7. Facebook is profiting significantly from those nudity-featuring ads. For instance, a week-long ad campaign can cost from 300 USD, and our team, as mentioned earlier, found 1900 active nudity-featuring ad campaigns.
8. The process of entering user payment details on the CrushAI page isn't entirely secure—VirusTotal has found that one vendor for CrushAI was marked as malicious.
9. Undress AI apps amplify child pornography, and Facebook ads contribute to its promotion. They permit uploads with no content moderation, and there have been cases of child predators using AI to generate deep-fake pornographic content.