Facebook and Meta ran adds for an AI app which used deepfake nude photos of an underage Jenna Ortega.
The ‘Wednesday’ star was targeted by the Perky AI app, which marketed itself as a way to create sexually explicit images of anyone using artificial intelligence.
The software ran at least 11 ads on the social media platforms last month, according to NBC. At least one showed a blurred image appearing to show a topless Ortega based on a picture taken when she was 16-year-old.
The $7.99-a-week app demonstrated to users how to create faux nudes of real people using prompts like ‘no clothes’, ‘latex costume’ and ‘Batman underwear’.
A description of the app on the Apple store describes how users can, ‘enter a prompt to make them look and be dressed as you wish’.
Facebook and Meta ran adds for an AI app which used deepfake nude photos of an underage Jenna Ortega
The ‘Wednesday’ star was targeted by the Perky AI app, which marketed itself as a way to create sexually explicit images of anyone using artificial intelligence
The software ran at least 11 ads on the Meta platforms last month before they were pulled from Facebook and Instagram, NBC reports
The AI-powered app ran more than 260 different ads on Meta since September, 30 of which were axed by the social media company for violating its terms.
One of the ads of Ortega, now 21, had more than 2,600 views, NBC reports.
The adverts were removed by Meta and Apple after the news outlet got in touch to flag them.
Meta makes 95 percent of its revenue from advertising and raked in more than $131 billion in 2023.
Perky AI listed its developer as RichAds, a Cyprus-based ‘global self-serve ad network’ which creates push ads, according to its website.
As well as Ortega, singer Sabrina Carpenter was also targeted in several ads.
Carpenter is currently on tour supporting Taylor Swift, another celebrity who has fallen victim to the worrying deepfake trend.
Swift was left ‘furious’ about the AI images circulating online and was considering legal action against the sick deepfake porn site hosting them.
The singer was the latest target of the website, that flouts state porn laws and continues to outrun cybercrime squads.
One of the ads of Ortega, now 21, had more than 2,600 views before it was pulled
Taylor Swift has been targeted by AI porn and was said to be considering legal action against the website which hosted it
Singer Sabrina Carpenter was featured in the explicit Perky AI app ads
Dozens of graphic images were uploaded to Celeb Jihad, that show Swift in a series of sexual acts while dressed in Kansas City Chief memorabilia and in the stadium.
The pornography was viewed 47 million times before it was removed, although still remains accessible.
Experts warned that the law is woefully behind on the issue and that increasing numbers of women and girls might find themselves being targeted.
‘We are too little, too late at this point,’ said George Washington University Law School Mary Anne Franks.
‘It’s not just going to be the 14-year-old girl or Taylor Swift. It’s going to be politicians. It’s going to be world leaders. It’s going to be elections.’
The pernicious technology had already begun to infiltrate schools before the Swift scandal.
It recently emerged that a group of teenage girls at a New Jersey high school had been targeted when their male classmates started sharing nude photos of them in group chats.
On October 20, one of the boys in the group chat reportedly spoke about it to one of his classmates who brought it to school administrators.
75 percent of people agree that people who share deepfake pornographic images online should face criminal charges
Lawmakers proposed the Defiance Act that would allow people to sue those who created deepfake content of them
But it wasn’t until deepfake photos of Taylor Swift went viral that lawmakers pushed to take action.
U.S. senators introduced the Disrupt Explicit Forged Images and Non-Consensual Edits Act of 2024 (DEFIANCE Act) shortly after Swift became a victim of the technology.
‘Although the imagery may be fake, the harm to the victims from the distribution of sexually explicit ‘deepfakes’ is very real,’ Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) said last week.
‘Victims have lost their jobs, and they may suffer ongoing depression or anxiety.
‘By introducing this legislation, we’re giving power back to the victims, cracking down on the distribution of ‘deepfake’ images, and holding those responsible for the images accountable.’
A 2023 study found that in the last five years, there has been a 550 percent rise in the creation of doctored images, with 95,820 deepfake videos posted online last year alone.
In a Dailymail.com/TIPP poll: 75 percent of people agreed that people who share deepfake pornographic images online should face criminal charges.
Deepfake technology uses AI to manipulate a person’s face or body, and there currently are no federal laws in place to protect people against the sharing or creation of such images.
‘Meta strictly prohibits child nudity, content that sexualizes children, and services offering AI-generated non-consensual nude images,’ Ryan Daniels, a Meta spokesperson, said in a statement to NBC.
DailyMail.com has contacted Meta and Perky AI for comment.