Meta’s Oversight Board Steps In Over Fake Ronaldo Ad
Facebook’s parent company, Meta, has been told to take down an AI-altered video of Brazilian football star Ronaldo Nazário. The clip, which showed him supposedly endorsing an online game, was flagged as misleading—but it stayed up for way too long before anything was done.
The Oversight Board, an independent group that reviews Meta’s content decisions, called the post a clear violation of the platform’s rules on fraud and spam. They also pointed out that Meta shouldn’t have allowed it to run as an ad in the first place. “Using a celebrity’s image to trick people into clicking isn’t just shady—it’s against Meta’s own policies,” the board said.
But here’s the thing: the video racked up over 600,000 views before anyone acted. Even after users reported it, the complaint didn’t get priority. The person who flagged it had to escalate the case twice—first to Meta’s appeals process, then to the Oversight Board—before it got real attention.
Why This Keeps Happening
This isn’t just about one fake Ronaldo ad. AI-generated deepfakes are popping up everywhere, and platforms are struggling to keep up. Last month, Jamie Lee Curtis called out Mark Zuckerberg directly after her face was used in an AI ad without her consent. Meta took down the ad but left the original post up, which… doesn’t exactly solve the problem.
The Board’s ruling hints at a bigger issue: only certain teams at Meta can handle these cases, so a lot of fake content slips through. They’re urging the company to enforce its rules more evenly—but that’s easier said than done when the tech keeps outpacing the policies.
The Push for Tighter Rules
Lawmakers are starting to take notice. Back in May, a bipartisan bill called the Take It Down Act was signed into law, forcing platforms to remove non-consensual deepfakes—especially explicit ones—within 48 hours. It’s a response to the surge in AI-generated abuse, from fake porn to scams like the Ronaldo video.
And it’s not just serious stuff. Even absurd deepfakes, like one of Donald Trump suggesting dinosaurs should patrol the U.S.-Mexico border, are going viral. The line between harmless parody and harmful deception is getting blurrier by the day.
For now, the Oversight Board’s decision is a small win. But without faster action from platforms—and maybe stricter laws—these fake videos will keep causing trouble. And honestly, it’s hard to say which will come first: a real solution or an even more convincing deepfake.
