Meta files lawsuit against developer of CrushAI ‘nudify’ app

Meta is suing a company that ran ads on its services to promote an app that lets people create nonconsensual, sexualized images of others using AI technology, the social media company said Thursday. 

The lawsuit is against Joy Timeline HK Ltd., which develops the app called CrushAI and its variants. The Hong Kong-based company ran ads on Facebook and Instagram to promote CrushAI, an app that uses artificial intelligence to take a photo of someone and create nude imagery of them.

Meta filed its lawsuit in Hong Kong with the intention of stopping Joy Timeline from continuing to advertise on its services, the social media company said.

The lawsuit filing comes after “multiple attempts” by the CrushAI maker to “circumvent Meta’s ad review process and continue placing these ads, after they were repeatedly removed for breaking our rules,” Meta said. 

“This legal action underscores both the seriousness with which we take this abuse and our commitment to doing all we can to protect our community from it,” Meta said. “We’ll continue to take the necessary steps – which could include legal action – against those who abuse our platforms like this.”

Researchers have sounded alarms about the rise of so-called nudify apps, which can be found online, in app stores and on Meta’s advertising platform.

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., sent a letter in February to Mark Zuckerberg urging the CEO to address his company’s role in letting Joy Timeline run ads that violate Meta’s standards on adult nudity, sexual activity, and “certain forms of bullying and harassment.”

Durbin’s letter cited a report by tech news outlet 404 Media and research by Cornell Tech’s Alexios Mantzarlis that found that at least 8,010 CrushAI-related ads ran on Meta’s apps during “the first two weeks of this year.”

In addition to the lawsuit, Meta said it’s also updating its “enforcement methods” and has “developed new technology specifically designed to identify these types of ads—even when the ads themselves don’t include nudity—and use matching technology to help us find and remove copycat ads more quickly.”

Meta said it’s working with external experts and in-house “specialist teams” to keep up with how nudify app makers “evolve their tactics to avoid detection.” Meta also said it would “be sharing signals about these apps with other tech companies” so they can also address the apps on their respective platforms.

“We’ve also applied the tactics we use to disrupt networks of coordinated inauthentic activity to find and remove networks of accounts operating these ads,” Meta said. “Since the start of the year, our expert teams have run in-depth investigations to expose and disrupt four separate networks of accounts that were attempting to run ads promoting these services.”

CNBC reached out to Joy Timeline for comment.