Meta continues to slowly adapt Facebook and Instagram policies to account for increasing AI harms, this week confronting how it handles explicit deepfakes spreading on its platforms.
On Tuesday, the Meta Oversight Board announced it will be reviewing two cases involving AI-generated sexualized images of female celebrities that Meta initially handled unevenly to “assess whether Meta’s policies and its enforcement practices are effective at addressing explicit AI-generated imagery.”
The board is not naming the famous women whose deepfakes are being reviewed in hopes of mitigating “risks of furthering harassment,” the board said.
In one case, an Instagram user reported a nude AI image created to “resemble a public figure from India” that was posted to an account that “only shares AI-generated images of Indian women.” Instead of taking down the deepfake, Meta automatically closed the user’s report “because it was not reviewed within 48 hours.” The user’s attempt to appeal the report was also automatically closed.
Meta ultimately left the deepfake up until the user appealed to the oversight board. Meta’s spokesperson declined Ars’ request to comment on Meta’s delay in removing the image before the board intervened. “As a result of the Board selecting this case, Meta determined that its decision to leave the content up was in error and removed the post for violating the Bullying and Harassment Community Standard,” the board’s blog said.
A Facebook user had much better success in reporting a deepfake created to “resemble an American public figure” who was depicted nude “with a man groping her breast.” That AI-generated image was posted in “a Facebook group for AI creations” using a caption that named the famous woman, the board said.
