The most disturbing aspect of the latest revelations about child sexual abuse material (CSAM) on Meta’s platforms is not that criminals have discovered another way to exploit technology. Criminals will always seek loopholes. The deeper problem is that a company possessing extraordinary technological resources, sophisticated advertising systems and vast amounts of user data appears unable to prevent its platforms from being used to market the sexual exploitation of children.

This is not an ordinary contentmoderation problem. Advertising is a commercial transaction. An advertisement is created, submitted, reviewed, approved and distributed according to rules established by the platform. If advertisements containing AI-generated sexual abuse imagery can pass through that process repeatedly, the failure extends beyond an imperfect algorithm. It raises questions about the effectiveness of Meta’s system of corporate oversight; some will say about its intentions.

The government has already ordered Meta to remove material promoting child sexual abuse after earlier investigations exposed the problem. Yet a subsequent investigation reportedly found 84 such advertisements in India, with 78 appearing after the intervention.........

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