Meta must do more to address non-consensual, deepfake porn, Oversight Board says

Meta failed to remove an explicit, AI-generated image of an Indian public figure until it was questioned by its Oversight Board, the board said Thursday in a report.

Meta failed to remove an explicit, AI-generated image of an Indian public figure until it was questioned by its Oversight Board, the board said Thursday in a report that calls on the tech giant to do more to address non-consensual, nude deepfakes on its platforms. The report is the result of an investigation the Meta Oversight Board announced in April into Meta’s handling of deepfake pornography, including two specific instances where explicit images were posted of an American public figure and an Indian public figure. The threat of AI-generated pornography has gained attention in recent months, with celebrities like Taylor Swift, as well as US high school students and other women around the world, falling victim to the form of online abuse. Widely accessible generative AI tools have made it faster, easier and cheaper to create such images. Social media platforms including Meta’s — where such images can spread rapidly — have faced growing pressure to combat the issue. In the case of the image of the American public figure posted to Facebook — which was generated by artificial intelligence and depicted her as nude and being groped — the company immediately removed the picture, which had previously been added to a matching bank that automatically detects rule-breaking images. But in the case of the Indian public figure, although the image was twice reported to Meta, the company did not remove the image from Instagram until the Oversight Board took up the case. “Meta determined that its original decision to leave the content on Instagram was in error and the company removed the post for violating the Bullying and Harassment Community Standard,” the Oversight Board said in its report. “Later, after the Board began its deliberations, Meta disabled the account that posted the content.” The report suggests that Meta is not consistently enforcing its rules against non-consensual sexual imagery, even as advancements in artificial intelligence have made this form of harassment increasingly common. The report also points to continued issues at Meta moderating content in non-Western or non-English speaking countries, which the company has faced criticism over before.