US senator seeks answers from Meta over child abuse advertisements

Washington: US Senator Mark Warner has sought an explanation from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg over paid advertisements allegedly containing child sexual abuse material (CSAM), citing an earlier investigation that uncovered similar advertisements on Instagram in India.

Warner, a Virginia Democrat, said Meta had allowed advertisements featuring CSAM and non-consensual intimate images to appear on its platforms. He also questioned whether the company had profited from the content.

“It is unacceptable that any of this material appears on Meta’s platforms and appalling that your company is seemingly profiting from it,” Warner said in a letter to Zuckerberg dated August 18.

The senator asked Meta to explain how the advertisements passed its review systems, how much revenue the company generated from them and what measures it had taken to identify and remove similar content. He set August 26 as the deadline for the company’s response.

Warner cited research by the Tech Transparency Project, which reportedly found that Meta had run dozens of paid advertisements containing AI-generated CSAM across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and Threads over a nine-month period.

According to the letter, researchers identified more than 50 image and video advertisements containing exploitative imagery of children in Meta’s public Ad Library. The advertisements were reportedly active between November 2025 and early August 2026.

The ads reached users in the US, the UK and more than a dozen European countries. At least one of them was seen by more than 2,500 social media accounts in Europe, the letter said.

Some advertisements allegedly directed users to “nudify” applications or websites capable of generating non-consensual intimate images. Others reportedly used images of children as thumbnails that led to sexually explicit content or digitally placed children’s faces on adult bodies.

“It strains credulity that Meta was, or is, unknowingly hosting — and profiting from — such blatantly illegal content, when your company explicitly states that it reviews and approves all ads,” Warner wrote.

He said the CSAM and non-consensual intimate images were distributed through paid advertisements that Meta’s own systems had reviewed and approved under its advertising procedures.

Warner added that researchers continued to find new advertisements even after Meta had been alerted. He said the notification came after a BBC investigation in July 2026 found similar advertisements linked to CSAM on Instagram in India.

The senator also pointed to Meta’s advertising policy, which prohibits advertisements containing nudity, sexual activity, explicit or sexually suggestive poses, and sexually suggestive activities.

Warner asked Meta to disclose when each advertisement was detected, removed and reported to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. He also sought details about any delay between detection and reporting.

The letter asked whether Meta had distributed, transported or advertised CSAM, including computer-generated material. It also sought information about advertisements placed by 11 Chinese resellers that were removed for violating policies related to child abuse, exploitation or “nudify” services.

Warner demanded details of when the advertisements ran, how they were targeted, their total number of impressions, impressions among US users and the payments Meta received. He also asked whether the company retained the revenue generated from the advertisements.

In addition, he sought data on paid advertisements that were later flagged for nudity or exploitation after being shown to US users aged between 13 and 18 during 2025 and 2026.

Warner introduced the SAFE AI Act in July as part of a broader legislative agenda on artificial intelligence. The proposed legislation would bar federal agencies from procuring AI systems capable of generating CSAM or non-consensual intimate images and prohibit software designed to bypass AI safety controls.

(Inputs from IANS)