The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has banned a series of adverts appearing on Meta’s social media platforms as they sexualised and objectified women.
Following its investigation, the watchdog concluded that five ads were irresponsible included harmful gender stereotypes which were likely to cause “serious offence”.
The ads were identified for investigation following intelligence gathered by the ASA’s Active Ad Monitoring system, which uses AI to proactively search for online ads that might break the rules.
One of the adverts promoted tyan.ai, an AI companion generator app. It featured a young woman telling viewers they could create a personalised AI girlfriend “ready to follow your orders”, alongside claims including “I am your AI girl, designed to follow your instructions”.
The ASA found the advert portrayed women as “submissive and compliant sexual object[s] created for the viewer’s gratification”, reinforcing harmful gender stereotypes by suggesting women existed to satisfy users’ wishes.
In a second ruling against the same advert, the watchdog concluded it also appeared to sexualise someone who seemed to be under the age of 18. It said the combination of youthful facial features, pigtails with bows, teddy bears, child-themed bedroom décor and the slogan “Daddy’s Girl”, alongside revealing outfits and sexually suggestive poses, created the impression of a minor being presented in a sexual way.
The regulator ruled that both adverts breached the CAP Code’s rules on social responsibility and harm and offence, ordering them not to appear again in their current form. Both cases have been referred to the Committee of Advertising Practice’s compliance team for further action.
The ASA also criticised the companies behind the adverts, which included Animcha Ltd, Guangxi Baise Tianyi Agricultural Development Co Ltd, and Sinosea Technology PTE Ltd, for failing to respond to its enquiries. The watchdog described their lack of engagement as an apparent disregard for the advertising code.
Responding to the complaints, Meta confirmed that the ads had appeared on its platform, adding that they breached its advertising guidelines and standards. The company claimed the ads had already been removed before the ASA contacted them.
“Encouraging and condoning the objectification of women and the creation of explicit content from people’s images has the potential to cause real-world harm,” said Nicky Baker, regulatory projects manager at the ASA. “That’s why we’ve taken proactive action and why we have a zero-tolerance approach when we see ads like these.”
The ASA ruling follows an investigation by Ofcom in January this year over concerns that X’s AI tool Grok was being used to create sexualised images. Following the investigation, the social media platform said it had implemented measures to address the issue.
In July, SpaceX-owned xAI, creator of Grok, sued Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison in federal court in an attempt to block a state law that would penalise platforms hosting AI-generated non-consensual nude images, claiming it violated First Amendment protections.
The company failed to convince a judge to halt the law’s enforcement, but filed an appeal earlier this week.
