Meta Ran Ads for App Promising to Turn Female Politicians Into Deepfake Porn

Meta's social media platforms recently hosted advertisements for an app called Kromix, marketed as an "AI image styler," that encouraged users to generate pornographic videos resembling well-known female US politicians. One ad showed a woman whose face closely resembled a prominent politician, first posed in front of American and presidential flags, before cutting to a pornographic scene featuring the same face.

The app, previously available on Apple's App Store, allowed paying users to upload photos to generate various scenarios, including depictions of sexual assault. The ads were targeted exclusively at male users and were taken down only after journalists asked Meta about them. In total, 32 ads were linked to the account behind the campaign, running for between five and 46 hours each, with most receiving ten or fewer views.

A Recurring Problem

A researcher at a tech transparency organization that uncovered the ads noted that the material they've found consistently sexualizes and pornographically depicts women, raising questions about how the company will handle such content—particularly when it targets female politicians. Elected officials, overwhelmingly women, have long been targeted by nonconsensual deepfakes; similar cases were reported this year in Sweden, England and Northern Ireland.

Meta's official policy bans sexual content in ads and prohibits promotion of so-called "nudify" apps, yet violations persist. The company says it removed 344,000 such ads between last November and January, and has filed a lawsuit against at least one app developer. A Meta representative explained that advertisers often disguise pornographic content behind innocuous cover images, such as beaches or mountains, to evade automated detection.

Apple removed Kromix from its App Store after being contacted by journalists, saying the app appeared to have added prohibited content after its initial review. Separately, more than 50 ads containing child sexual abuse material linked to another app were recently found on Meta's platforms as well.