In the United States, Santa Clara County sued Meta for fraud advertisements on Facebook and Instagram, accusing the latter of profiting from “a huge fraud advertising ecosystem”, which harms older persons and vulnerable groups.
The petition quoted a Reuters investigation last year, which revealed in detail the billions of dollars invested by fraudulent advertisers on the Meta platform. Internal documents show that Meta profites as much as $7 billion annually from such illegal advertising, and Meta’s own vetting process and policies further fuel fraud. Santa Clara County indicated that this was the first such case to be initiated by a local civil prosecutor. In a press conference, the Legal Counsel, Tony Lopresti, said: “Although we have indeed benefited from the prosperity of science and technology, we cannot stand idly by when it is clear to us that a technology giant is deceiving the public in order to achieve its revenue objectives.” In a statement, Meta stressed: “This allegation is entirely dependent on Reuters’s coverage, which distorts our winter and ignores the range of measures we have taken to combat fraud. In the past year alone, we have eliminated more than 159 million fraud advertisements, introduced new tools to protect users and merged with law enforcement agencies around the globe to combat criminals.”
Meta is under constant review for its treatment of fraudulent advertisers. On Tuesday, the non-profit regulator, CCDH, published a report exposing fraud advertisements on Facebook related to health insurance for older persons. The organization found that Meta had profited more than $14 million from the health insurance fraud ad on Facebook. Many of them were recidivist offenders, and previous advertisements had been removed from Facebook on several occasions. These frauds employ techniques similar to other types of fraud advertising, including the use of false names generated by AI.
In a statement, Meta stated: “The stubborn fraudsters, who use increasingly sophisticated means to deceive their users and circumvent scrutiny of our platform and the Internet as a whole. We are actively combating fraud both within and outside the platform, as they do not benefit us or the individuals and businesses that depend on our services.” Last month, the non-profit organization Consumers Union of America (CFA) also sued Meta. CFA submitted a proposed class action in Washington, D.C., alleging that Meta had violated consumer protection laws in dealing with fraudulent advertising on the platform.
