Meta faces Australian lawsuit over fraudulent ads
Australia’s competition regulator has taken Meta to court for allowing misleading ads about cryptocurrency via Facebook, in a test case of the parent company’s responsibilities over actions that cause harm to the consumer across the social media platform.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said the company had violated consumer and investment laws. The US company has also aided and abetted false or misleading conduct and representations.
The regulator’s legal action follows a separate case launched by Andrew Forrest, who sued Meta this year after his image was used to promote cryptocurrency schemes without his consent.
The alleged scam began in 2019 and used Facebook photos of famous Australians to link to false media articles urging consumers to sign up for cryptocurrency schemes. Facebook users were exposed to selling tactics under great pressure.
“We use technology to detect and block deceptive ads,” she said. We work to pre-empt fraudsters’ attempts to evade our detection systems.
According to the company, 5 percent of Facebook’s monthly active users were fake accounts. The company removed 1.7 billion of these accounts in the fourth quarter of 2021.
The ACCC case is its latest attempt to crack down on digital platforms. This follows the introduction of the news bargaining system last year. The law forced Meta and Google to pay media companies for their journalism.
