Washington, Aug 20 (IANS) US Senator Mark Warner has demanded answers from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg over paid advertisements containing alleged child sexual abuse material, citing an earlier investigation that found similar advertisements running on Instagram in India.
Warner, a Virginia Democrat, said Meta had allowed advertisements featuring child sexual abuse material, or CSAM, and non-consensual intimate images to appear across its platforms. He also questioned whether the company 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 wrote in a letter dated August 18.
The senator asked Meta to explain how the advertisements passed its review systems, how much money the company received from them and what action it had taken to identify and remove similar content. He set an August 26 deadline for a response.
Warner cited research by the Tech Transparency Project that said Meta ran dozens of paid advertisements containing AI-generated CSAM across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and Threads over nine months.
Researchers found more than 50 image and video advertisements containing exploitative imagery of children in Meta’s public Ad Library, according to the letter. The advertisements reportedly ran between November 2025 and early August 2026.
They reached users in the United States, Britain and more than a dozen European countries. At least one advertisement reached more than 2,500 social media accounts in Europe, the letter said.
Some directed users to “nudify” applications or websites capable of creating non-consensual intimate images. Others used pictures of children as thumbnails leading to sexually explicit content or placed a child’s face on an adult’s body.
“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.
“The CSAM and NCII that Meta hosted were paid ads that Meta’s own systems reviewed and approved per Meta’s advertising procedures,” he added.
Warner said researchers continued to find new advertisements after Meta had been alerted. He said that notification followed a July 2026 BBC investigation that found similar CSAM-linked advertisements running on Instagram in India.
The senator contrasted the findings with Meta’s advertising policy, which states: “Ads must not contain imagery depicting nudity, sexual activity, depictions of people in explicit or sexually suggestive positions, or activities that are sexually suggestive.”
Warner asked Meta to disclose when each advertisement was detected, removed and reported to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. He also sought an explanation for 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 and removed for violating policies on child abuse, exploitation or “nudify” services.
Warner demanded the dates on which those advertisements ran, their targeting methods, total impressions, US impressions and payments received by Meta. He also asked whether Meta retained the resulting revenue.
He sought data on paid advertisements later flagged for nudity or exploitation that were shown to US users aged 13 to 18 during 2025 and in 2026.
Warner introduced the SAFE AI Act in July as part of a wider legislative agenda on artificial intelligence. The proposed measure 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.
--IANS
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