An Australian regulator claims Facebook hasn’t done enough to remove fraudulent cryptocurrency ads from its platform
Meta, the parent company of social media giant Facebook, is once again in hot water due to advertisements for cryptocurrency scams.
According to a recent report published by The Wall Street Journal, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, the main competition regulator in Australia, has taken the tech giant to court, alleging that it failed to stop conclusively on fake celebrity advertising. Used to be.
Commission chairman Rod Sims says the company should have done more to protect users from malicious ads.
However, Meta claims it is cooperating with the regulator using its scam-detection technology.
Several prominent Australian celebrities, such as politician Mike Baird, have been embroiled in cryptocurrency fraud schemes, with their names used conversely to promote such products.
The modus operandi for years has been more or less the same: scammers usually post fake news articles containing concrete quotes from celebrities to entice people to invest in cryptocurrencies.
While experienced crypto users are unlikely to fall prey to such scams, it is not unusual for ordinary people to part ways with their money. The regulator says a single victim could lose up to $450,000 after clicking on a fake cryptocurrency ad.
Of course, such a problem is not limited to Australia. Politicians, movie stars and TV hosts from all over the world have found themselves promoting fraudulent cryptocurrency products on social media without even knowing anything about it. Some celebrities have personally called out their impersonators. For example, Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen cautioned his followers against trusting crypto articles using his name.
Financial campaigner Martin Lewis sued Facebook over fake crypto ads using his name before dropping the lawsuit in early 2019.
If Meta loses the lawsuit filed by the Australian regulator, it will face a fine of millions of dollars.