San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu has issued a cease-and-desist letter to Meta, ordering the company to immediately stop running paid advertisements containing AI-generated child sexual abuse material on its platforms.
The action follows an investigation by the Tech Transparency Project (TTP) that discovered more than 350 ads in recent months that transformed still images of minors -- some of them real, identifiable individuals, including a member of a European royal family -- into short videoclips depicting them performing sexual acts. When clicked, the ads directed users to download AI image- and video-generation apps, some capable of digitally undressing people or creating nonconsensual intimate imagery.
The ads reached more than 29,000 accounts across the European Union, the United States, Australia, and India via Facebook, Instagram, and Threads. Critically, more than 250 of the total ads ran after WIRED's initial report about a batch of 53 ads at the start of August, suggesting Meta failed to act on its own platform.
'Meta has failed to address a known issue of AI-generated child sexually explicit ads, while profiting from them,' Chiu said in a statement. 'These ads are deeply disturbing and cause harm to real children. Meta claims to have zero tolerance for child exploitation, yet the scale and persistence of these issues suggest current efforts are woefully inadequate.'
The four-page letter demands Meta explain how the ads bypassed its moderation systems, detail how it escalates and reports ads to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and outline how it addresses repeat offenders. Chiu wrote that the findings suggest 'broader systemic problems' with how Meta detects child sexual abuse in advertising.
Meta has responded by claiming the ads are outside San Francisco's jurisdiction because there is 'no indication' they were displayed within the city. The City Attorney's Office dismissed this argument: 'San Francisco consumers can access the unlawful ads through Meta online spaces.'
TTP Director Katie Paul noted that since her organization's September 8 report, 'more brand-new ads have run featuring some of the same children TTP sent to Meta.' The organization reported the ads to both Meta and the NCMEC.
Meta says the total ad spend across all 300-plus identified ads was under $5,000 and that many had been removed before they were reported. The company prohibits nudification apps and child exploitation content in its advertising policies, and says all ads undergo automated and sometimes manual review.
Despite these claims, the volume and persistence of the ads -- including duplicates uploaded multiple times -- point to significant gaps in Meta's ad review pipeline, particularly for AI-generated content. Chiu has given Meta 28 days to respond.
