UK watchdog bans AI app ads for promoting objectification and explicit content

The UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has prohibited a series of advertisements for artificial intelligence applications, ruling that they promoted the objectification of women and the creation of sexually explicit material. The regulator targeted five ads promoted via Meta platforms, stating they relied on harmful gender stereotypes and posed a risk of real-world harm.

Nicky Baker, a representative for the ASA, emphasized the severity of the violation: “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.” Although Meta had already removed the offending content, the watchdog insisted its intervention demonstrated a zero-tolerance stance toward such advertising.

The ban follows recent legislative changes in the UK, which outlawed applications designed to generate non-consensual deepfake nudity. This legal shift was prompted in part by public outrage over X’s Grok chatbot complying with requests to create nude images of women. The ASA noted that future investigations would assess advertisements against both existing law and regulatory standards.

The violations were uncovered using the ASA’s AI-powered Active Ad Monitoring System. Among the flagged content was an advertisement for an AI companion app developed by Animcha Ltd, which the regulator said depicted a synthetic female character under the age of 18 in a sexual manner, combining explicit imagery with childlike clothing. Other banned ads promoted tools such as Nexaipic, Rusto AI, and PictoPop, which encouraged users to upload photos of acquaintances to generate explicit videos or images.

One specific ad for an app identified only as KH31 DD22 showed a clothed woman transforming into a topless figure, suggesting the software could be used to digitally expose women’s bodies. Despite the ASA’s enquiries, none of the application creators responded.

This action comes amid broader scrutiny of Meta regarding similar advertisements. Researcher Alexios Mantzarlis reported in September that his investigation identified over 11,000 ads on Meta’s platforms claiming to convert images of clothed individuals into sexually explicit content. While Meta stated that most were removed automatically, it acknowledged that some promoted previously flagged domains.

Meta declined to comment specifically on the ASA ruling but highlighted its previous efforts to combat nudification apps. The company reported that between November 2025 and January 2026, it removed more than 344,000 advertisements for such apps across Facebook and Instagram, citing the use of new detection technologies and legal action.