Meta’s tough talk on nonconsensual imagery is running into an uncomfortable reality: one of its own advertising partners in China has reportedly been funneling thousands of ads for “nudify” apps straight into Facebook and Instagram feeds.
The claim comes from the Tech Transparency Project (TTP), a D.C.-based nonprofit that scrutinizes big tech. According to its findings, Beijing-based agency GatherOne placed thousands of ads promoting apps designed to digitally undress women, complete with sexually suggestive imagery. More alarmingly, TTP says some of the promoted apps contained child sexual abuse material (CSAM).
GatherOne isn’t a fringe operator. It’s one of Meta’s authorized business partners in China, and that status matters. Because Facebook and Instagram are both banned inside China, Chinese firms that want to reach foreign audiences have to route their ad spend through licensed agencies like GatherOne. That makes GatherOne a gatekeeper — and, apparently, a very busy one, placing over 30,000 ads per month on Meta’s behalf.
Here’s the twist that TTP highlights: Meta’s own transparency database was the tool used to surface these violations. In other words, the evidence was hiding in plain sight. During the investigation, Meta removed many of the offending ads and disabled some of the fake accounts behind them. What it did not do was ban GatherOne outright.
TTP’s read on that decision is blunt. “TTP’s findings suggest that Meta is tolerating policy violations by one of its principal partners in the lucrative Chinese market,” the group writes, adding that the situation “highlight[s] Meta’s role in the spread of nudify apps that can be used to create nonconsensual sexualized images, contributing to exploitation and psychological harm.”
The money helps explain the leniency. Despite its services being blocked in China, the country remains one of Meta’s most valuable markets thanks to that agency-advertising loophole. TTP reports Meta’s China revenue hit $18.35 billion in 2024 — and roughly $3 billion of that came from ads for scams, illegal gambling, pornography, and other banned content.
Meta, for its part, insists the door is firmly shut. “We do not allow nonconsensual intimate imagery or nudify apps on our platform and we take aggressive steps to combat them,” Cindy Southworth, Meta’s Head of Women’s Safety Policy, told Bloomberg.
The gap between that policy and the ad database is exactly what TTP wants attention on. “Meta appears to be giving a free pass to one of its top Chinese advertising partners when it comes to nudify ads,” says TTP director Katie Paul.
It’s not an isolated concern, either. Apple and Google have both faced reporting that their app stores and search results steer users toward similar AI “undressing” tools. The common thread is uncomfortable for the whole industry: the platforms condemning nudify apps are frequently the same ones profiting from their distribution.
