Stricter social media rules for AI-produced nude pictures
AI-produced fake nude pictures on social media is a growing problem. Deepfake intimate images create severe harm and removing them is the only effective way to protect people impacted, Meta’s Oversight Board says. They disproportionately affect women and girls. The Board wants Meta to introduce stricter rules for manipulated sex pictures.
In two cases of explicit AI images that resemble female public figures from India and the US, the Board says that both posts should have been removed from Meta’s platforms.
“Deepfake intimate images disproportionately affect women and girls – undermining their rights to privacy and protection from mental and physical harm. Restrictions on this content are legitimate to protect individuals from the creation and dissemination of sexual images made without their consent.”
“Given the severity of harm, removing the content is the only effective way to protect the people impacted. Labelling manipulated content is not appropriate in this instance because the harms stem from the sharing and viewing of these images – and not solely from misleading people about their authenticity.”
The Board wants to make Meta’s rules on this type of content more intuitive and to make it easier for users to report non-consensual sexualized images.
The Board concludes that it is clear the two images have been edited to show the faces of real public figures with a different (real or fictional) nude body. Contextual clues, including hashtags and where the content was posted, also indicate they are AI-generated.
The Board notes that external research shows that users post such content for many reasons besides harassment and trolling, including a desire to build an audience, monetize pages or direct users to other sites, including pornographic ones.
“Therefore, Meta’s rules on these images would be clearer if the focus was on the lack of consent and the harms from such content proliferating – rather than the impact of direct attacks”.
In the first case (Indian public figure), the Board overturns Meta’s original decision to leave up the post. In the second case (American public figure), the Board upholds Meta’s decision to take down the post.
The first case involves an AI-generated image of a nude woman posted on Meta-owned Instagram. The image has been created using AI to resemble a public figure from India. The account that posted this content only shares AI-generated images of Indian women.
“The majority of users who reacted have accounts in India, where deepfakes are increasingly becoming a problem”, the oversight board has said..
In this case, a user reported the content to Meta for pornography. As a result of the board selecting this case, Meta decided that its earlier decision to leave the content up was in error and removed the post.
The second case concerns an image posted to a group for AI creations on Meta-owned Facebook. It is an AI-generated image of a nude woman with a man groping her breast. The image has been created with AI to resemble an American public figure, who is also named in the caption. The majority of users who reacted have accounts in the United States.
“In this case, a different user had already posted this image, which led to it being escalated to Meta’s policy or subject matter experts who decided to remove the content as a violation of the Bullying and Harassment policy, specifically for “derogatory sexualised photoshop or drawings”, the oversight board explains.
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