According to Meta, the application alters images of individuals—predominantly women—to produce nude pictures without consent. The company asserts that Joy Timeline persistently breached advertising regulations by attempting to circumvent its ad review processes, leading Meta to pursue legal action in Hong Kong to prevent the ads from resurfacing.
“This legal action highlights our commitment to combating this abuse and our determination to safeguard our community from it,” Meta stated. “We will persist in taking necessary measures—which may involve legal action—against those who exploit our platforms in such a manner.”
The lawsuit comes amidst growing concerns from researchers and lawmakers regarding the proliferation of “nudify” apps. These applications have been found across the internet, on app stores, and within Meta’s own advertising system.
In February, US Senator Dick Durbin wrote to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, urging the company to take responsibility for allowing Joy Timeline to promote CrushAI, which allegedly contravened Meta’s policies on adult content, sexual activity, and harassment. Durbin referenced reports from tech outlet 404 Media and research conducted by Cornell Tech’s Alexios Mantzarlis, which indicated that over 8,000 ads for CrushAI appeared on Meta platforms within the first two weeks of the year.
Meta announced that it is enhancing enforcement measures by deploying new detection systems aimed at recognizing these advertisements, even if nudity is not explicitly depicted. The company is also implementing matching tools to more swiftly identify copycat content.
Furthermore, Meta stated it has been collaborating with external experts and internal specialist teams to monitor how developers of nudify apps adapt their strategies to evade moderation. “We’ve also employed tactics typically reserved for disrupting coordinated inauthentic activity to locate and eliminate networks of accounts running these ads,” the company claimed, noting that it has dismantled four such networks since January.
Meta intends to share information about these apps with other tech companies to assist them in addressing the issue on their own platforms.
Joy Timeline has not yet issued a public response to the lawsuit.
