By Kat Tenbarge - NBC News
Facebook and Instagram ran ads featuring a blurry fake image of a naked underage celebrity to promote an app that presented itself as a way to create sexually explicit images with artificial intelligence.
A review of Meta's ad archive revealed that the company behind the app ran 11 ads that used a doctored, blurred photo of Wednesday actress Jenna Ortega, taken when she was 16 years old.
The ads appeared on the two platforms, as well as its Messenger app, for most of February.
The app, called Perky AI, advertised that it could undress women with artificial intelligence.
The ads showed how the Perky app could change Ortega's outfit in the photo based on text prompts, including “latex suit,” “Batman underwear,” and, finally,
“no clothes
. ”
Jenna Ortega, at the Met Gala in New York, in 2023.Dimitrios Kambouris / Getty Images for The Met Museum file
The app promised that it could create NSFW images, short for
Not Safe for Work
, that is, of naked or sexually explicit people.
The company listed as developing the Perky AI app is called RichAds.
On its website, RichAds defines itself as a “self-service global advertising network” that offers businesses ways to create “
push
ads ” and other types of ads and notifications.
The company's address is in Cyprus and has not responded to requests for comment.
After NBC News contacted Meta, the company suspended the Perky app page, which had run more than 260 ads on Meta's platforms since September.
It's unclear how many people saw the ads, but one of Ortega's Instagram ads
had more than 2,600 views
.
A total of 30 of those ads were previously suspended for not complying with Meta's advertising standards, but those that showed Ortega's photo when he was a minor were not among them.
An ad, blurred by the account, shows a photo of Jenna Ortega, when she was 16 years old.Avia Instagram
NBC News was unable to view the ads that Meta had already suspended.
Other recent ads for the Perky app that Meta did not remove until NBC News contacted the company included a photo of singer Sabrina Carpenter taken when she was in her early 20s, along with the same claim that they made her look naked.
Representatives for Ortega and Carpenter did not respond to requests for comment.
“Meta strictly prohibits nudity of children, content that sexualizes, and services that offer non-consensual nude images generated by artificial intelligence,” Meta spokesperson Ryan Daniels said in a statement.
Apple also removed the Perky app that was advertised in its App Store, after NBC News contacted the company.
The app did not appear to be available on Google Play.
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It's unclear if the Perky app has been able to serve ads on other platforms, as
most companies don't archive their ads
like Meta does.
The ads are part of a growing crisis on the Internet, where fake images of naked young people and women, as well as fake sexually explicit videos, have spread widely thanks to the increasing availability of tools like the one NBC has identified. News.
More deepfake
or deepfake videos of non-consensual sexually explicit content were posted online in 2023
than in all previous years, according to independent research by
deepfake
analyst Genevieve Oh and MyImageMyChoice, a victim advocacy group.
The same investigation revealed that Ortega is among the 40 most searched famous women on the largest deepfake website.
Last week, police in Beverly Hills, California, began an investigation into high school students who, according to school authorities, used these types of tools to take fake nude photos of their classmates.
NBC News also reported last week that some of the top search results on Google and Bing included manipulated images showing children's faces on top of naked adult bodies.
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Deepfake images and videos of people naked or engaged in sexually explicit behavior have been circulating on the internet for decades, but with the use of artificial intelligence tools, this type of material is more realistic looking and easier to create and spread never.
When misleading content is created with AI, it is often called
deepfake
.
Sexually explicit and non-consensual images mostly target women and girls.
Adult victims face a legal gray area, while safeguards against computer-generated sexually explicit material from children
do not always apply.
Apple doesn't have any rules on deepfake
apps
, but its App Store guidelines prohibit apps that include pornography, as well as those that create "defamatory, discriminatory, or mean-spirited content" or are "likely to humiliate, intimidate, or harm a person." individual or group.”
According to Apple, the Perky AI app had already been rejected from the App Store on February 16 for violating policies on “overtly sexual or pornographic material.”
The app was in a 14-day review period when NBC News contacted Apple, but it could still be downloaded and used during that time.
Apple has since removed the Perky app from its store and suspended the company responsible for its developer program.
The application is still usable for people who had already downloaded it.
Pewrky AI charges $7.99 per week
or $29.99 for 12 weeks.
When NBC News tried to use the app to edit a photo, it had to pay to see the results.
Before being removed from the Apple App Store, the app had a 4.1 star rating and 278 user reviews.