Paul Bouchaud

Snapchat's DSA Ad Transparency

Snapchat's ad transparency tools fell far short of DSA requirements: the Ad Gallery was searchable only by advertiser name, the repository was unavailable 99.7% of the time observed, and commercial communications were not labelled on the web.

How fossil fuel companies and their financiers avoid criticism on X

Major fossil fuel companies use X ad-targeting to hide their advertising from the users most likely to challenge them (pro-climate audiences).

Grok Unleashed: Flood of Sexualized Images of Women and Minors

Analysis of 20k+ Grok images and 50k prompts found weak guardrails: 53% minimal attire, 81% women-presenting, ~2% appearing to be minors, 6% public figures, plus Nazi/ISIS propaganda.

App Stores & Meta's Porn: An Uncomfortable Affair

In Spring 2025 Meta approved 12,034+ pornographic ads, shown 12.8M times across all 27 EU countries, apparently violating store and Meta policies; the same images were auto-moderated when posted as normal Instagram posts.

When Personal Becomes Profitable: Sensitive Targeting on X

X let advertisers target users by sensitive personal data (political beliefs, sexual orientation); 30+ major brands were found doing so, raising GDPR and DSA concerns as VLOPs are barred from such targeting.

Meta's Failing Ad Moderation: Health Scams Targeting EU Users

Identified 46,000+ ads promoting unapproved drugs and deceptive health claims, reaching EU users 292M+ times, violating Meta's own standards and potentially several DSA provisions.

Pay-to-Play: Meta's Community (double) Standards on Pornographic Ads

3,000+ pornographic ads (including AI-generated media and celebrity deepfakes) were approved and generated 8M+ EU impressions, content that would be removed if posted by regular users.

No Embargo In Sight: Meta Lets Pro-Russia Propaganda Ads Flood the EU

A moderation loophole let pro-Russian propaganda run on Meta; under 5% of undeclared political ads were caught, and one campaign reached 38M+ users in France and Germany. The European Commission opened proceedings citing this report.