Online Risk Labs identified 25 clusters of advertising accounts systematically promoting adult content across the EU and Great Britain. These clusters alone account for 120,000 ads running in 2025 and 2026, with a cumulative reach of at least 135 million. The real scale of the problem is likely significantly larger. The clusters identified in our research represent only a fraction of the broader ecosystem of adult-content advertising currently operating on Meta platforms. We assume that the actual reach of such advertising in Europe may be multiple times higher than what we were able to document.
In most cases, the advertisements openly promoted adult websites, pornography, or applications offering erotic streaming or chat services. However, some campaigns went even further — not only linking to adult platforms, but directly displaying explicit nudity, vulgar language, and even pornographic material within the ad creatives themselves.
Our analysis also identified tactics apparently designed to conceal the true nature of the advertisements. In some cases, landing pages linked from the ads were accessible only from IP addresses located in the country targeted by the advertisement, making independent monitoring and research more difficult.
Our findings suggest that the platform’s current moderation approach is failing to keep pace with the scale, persistence, and adaptability of adult-content advertising networks.
Advertising promoting adult content on Meta reaches millions of users across Europe every month. Our findings show that the platform’s moderation is not keeping pace. Problematic ads are repeatedly removed, yet nearly identical campaigns reappear within days or weeks. Advertisers clearly understand this dynamic and actively exploit it.
Particularly concerning is the potential exposure of minors to such content. Because Meta does not require universal age verification, children can easily provide false ages when creating accounts. As a result, it cannot be ruled out that advertisements displaying explicit nudity or pornographic material — as well as ads promoting adult websites and applications — may also reach underage users.
The research was based on publicly available data. This research was only possible thanks to the Digital Services Act, which requires very large online platforms operating in the European Union to maintain transparent advertising libraries containing historical advertising data. Without these transparency obligations, independent research into the scale and nature of such advertising campaigns would be significantly more difficult
The research was first published in Politico’s Morning Technology newsletter.