Meta has taken legal action against a company called Joy Timeline HK Limited, the entity behind CrushAI apps. These apps allow users to create AI-generated nude or sexually explicit images of individuals without their consent. The lawsuit has been filed in Hong Kong—where the company is based—in an effort to stop it from advertising these apps on Meta’s platforms.
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“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,” Meta said in a blogpost. “We’ll continue to take the necessary steps – which could include legal action – against those who abuse our platforms like this.”
Meta revealed that it had removed ads from Joy Timeline multiple times, but the company continued to bypass its ad review process. As a result, Meta decided to sue in order to prevent further violations.
To stop the spread of these apps beyond its own platforms, Meta has started sharing information such as website URLs with other tech companies. This is done through the Tech Coalition’s Lantern program. Since March, Meta has shared more than 3,800 links to offending apps and websites with other firms to help them take action as well.
Meta has also improved its systems to catch these harmful ads, even when they don’t directly show nudity. Some of these ads use innocent-looking images to avoid detection, or use new domain names to stay ahead. Meta now uses matching technology and a wider list of keywords and emojis to detect such ads faster.