Meta Sues AI App Crush AI Over Sneaky Ads on Facebook and Instagram

Meta has sued AI app Crush AI, popularly known as Nudify. According to TechCrunch, the AI app ran thousands of ads on different Meta platforms. Besides the lawsuit, Mata said that it will be taking new steps to crack down on other applications similar to Crush AI. Meta sued the AI App in Hong Kong.

Meta Ad Guidelines AI Breach

Meta is accusing Crush AI of breaching its advertising guidelines. The social media giant alleges that to distribute ads for AI nudify services, the company behind Crush AI tried to circumvent its review process.

In a blog posted on its website, Meta said that it removed ads published by Joy Timeline HK, which owns the app, for violating its policies. Despite these efforts, the company placed additional ads.

“This legal action underscores both the seriousness with which we take this abuse and our commitment to doing all we can to protect our community from it. We’ll continue to take the necessary steps – which could include legal action – against those who abuse our platforms like this,” Meta said.

Crush AI uses generative AI to create fake, explicit content images of actual people without their consent. In the first weeks of this year, the AI App company ran over 8,000 ads of what the company calls AI undresser service on different Meta social media platforms.

A Growing Threat

A report published on the Faked Up newsletter claimed that the website of Crush AI attracted approximately 90% of their traffic from Instagram or Facebook. The author of the newsletter, Alexios Mantzarlis said that he flagged multiple of such websites to Meta.

“I was able to find a dozen ads by CrushAI live on the platform and a hundred more from other ‘nudifiers’. This abuse vector requires continued monitoring from researchers and the media to keep platforms accountable and curtail the reach of these noxious tools,” Mantzarlis said.

Meta and other social media platforms like X (formerly Twitter), Reddit, YouTube, and TikTok are struggling to keep up with a rise in AI-generated content that is increasingly threatening user safety, particularly adolescents and minors.

According to researchers, there was a significant spike in linking to undressing apps across social platforms in 2024. Millions of people were reportedly featured on ads in these tools on YouTube alone.

Crush AI Nudify App is alleged to have changed domain names frequently. Most of the accounts it used were named Eraser Anyone’s Clothes. According to Mantzarlis, these accounts included numerical digits. At one point, Crush AI set up a Facebook page to promote its service.

Social Media Response

Meta and TikTok responded to the AI image manipulation app by blocking keyword searches related to it and other applications that offer similar ads. However, the social media giants still face the challenge of removing them from their platforms fully. Meta says it has created new tools to detect and remove these ads, even if they don’t contain explicit content.

The company is using matching technology to find copycat ads faster and has expanded the list of flagged terms and emojis. Meta also said it’s adopting its traditional approaches to break up harmful networks to target those promoting AI undressing services.

Since early 2025, Meta has disrupted four such networks. Outside of its own platforms, Meta is now sharing data on AI nudify apps with the Tech Coalition’s Lantern program. This is a group effort by big techslike Google, Meta, and Snap to combat child exploitation.

“Since we started sharing this information at the end of March, we’ve provided more than 3,800 unique URLs to participating tech companies,” the social media giant said.

Meta said it will continue to support laws that give parents more control over their children when it comes to app usage. The company has supported the “Take It Down” Act in the US and is now working with lawmakers to roll it out.