AI turned Filippa’s photo into pornographic ads on Meta

A photo of a 24-year-old Swedish woman was manipulated with artificial intelligence into a pornographic video and used in advertisements on Facebook and Instagram, DR reports.

Filippa first learned that her images had been misused when DR contacted her. The original photo showed her and a friend on a bus journey home from work. In the manipulated video, her top is removed and her friend appears to touch her breasts.

“It is my body and my face. But I have not done this. I have not approved it,” Filippa said.

She appears in at least 94 advertisements across the two platforms. An analysis by DR Verifies using the market research tool BigSpy found that the ads had been viewed by more than 12,000 users.

DR Verifies has spoken to six women whose images were used in sexualised deepfake advertisements on Meta’s platforms. They include one Danish woman, three Norwegian women, one Lebanese woman and Filippa. The Danish woman does not wish to be identified.

DR also contacted 20 other women and men who appeared in similar advertisements, but they did not respond.

“This is severe. It means that anyone can be subjected to this kind of image manipulation, which is a violation of criminal law,” said Ask Hesby Holm, director of the organisation Digital Responsibility.

Ads violate Meta’s own rules

The advertisements promote apps that allow users to turn photographs of real people into fake pornographic videos. The videos are known as deepfakes, while the apps are commonly called nudify apps.

DR Verifies found 29,389 advertisements for apps targeting a Danish audience on Meta’s platforms. The ads promoted the creation of deepfake content with a pornographic appearance, according to an analysis using BigSpy.

The advertisements were active on Facebook and Instagram between September 8, 2024, and September 8, 2026. DR shared the list of apps promoted in the ads with Meta, which said it could not verify whether the figure of 29,389 was accurate.

Meta’s advertising rules prohibit images showing nudity, sexual activity, people in strongly sexual poses or poses with sexual undertones. The company also says it does not allow the promotion of nudify apps.

“We do not tolerate nudify apps or any form of sexual exploitation, whether real or AI-generated, and we are taking firm steps to keep our platforms safe,” Meta wrote in an email to DR.

The company said it had removed many of the advertisements examined by DR.

Meta rejects claim it overlooks the ads

Advertisers pay Meta whenever they buy advertising on Instagram or Facebook. Ask Hesby Holm said it appeared to him that Meta was overlooking advertisements for such apps because the company made money from them.

Meta rejected that claim, saying it had taken legal action against one company for repeatedly advertising nudify apps, sent cease-and-desist demands to more than 45 others and blocked 92 million sexual advertisements over the previous 10 months.

Meta said the 92 million advertisements included all ads containing sexual content, not only those linking to apps that create deepfake material.

The company said criminals behind this activity constantly change their methods to avoid detection, adding that it was continuing to strengthen its defences and hold them accountable.

DR found that the advertisements featuring Filippa were repeatedly removed by Facebook and Instagram, but the video continued to reappear in new advertisements.