Jakarta, domclub Indonesia
—
Two popular social media platforms in Indonesia,
Facebook
and
Instagram
, apparently benefited from fraudulent advertisements and prohibited goods.
This was revealed in a report released
Reuters
earlier this month.The report revealed that 10 percent or around US$16 billion (equivalent to Rp. 266 trillion) of revenue from Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, came from advertisements that promoted fraud and prohibited goods.
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Obtained documents
Reuters
shows that Mark Zuckerberg’s company over the past three years has failed to identify and stop the wave of problematic advertising to billions of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp users.Fraud schemes vary, ranging from e-commerce and investment, online gambling, and the sale of prohibited medical products.
According to one document from December 2024, the average company serves its platform users about 15 billion fraudulent ads every day.Other documents also reveal that Meta earned around US$7 billion in annual revenue from the scam ads.
Most of this fraud comes from advertisers who are actually acting suspiciously enough to be flagged by Meta’s internal warning system.However, the company only bans them if its automated systems predict that they are at least 95 percent certain to commit fraud.
Responding to these findings, two United States (US) senators, Josh Hawley and Richard Blumenthal, asked the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) to investigate Meta.
“The FTC and SEC must immediately open an investigation and, if the report is accurate, carry out vigorous enforcement if necessary to force Meta to return profits, pay fines, and stop displaying such ads,” read Hawley and Blumenthal’s letter, reported by Reuters, Tuesday (25/11).
Hawley and Blumenthal also doubt Meta’s efforts to clamp down on illegal advertising.They refer to the ‘Ad Library’, a public database that displays all ads on the Meta platform.
“Even a brief review of Meta’s Ad Library at the time this letter was sent showed ads clearly promoting illegal gambling, payment fraud, crypto fraud, AI-based deepfake sex services, and bogus offers of federal benefits,” they wrote.
Both also cited reports
Reuters
which said that Meta estimates its platform is involved in a third of all fraud in the US.They also linked it to the FTC’s estimate that Americans lost up to US$158.3 billion to fraud last year.
In the letter, they also accused Meta of knowingly receiving advertisements related to scam activities.
“Scams have been allowed to take over Facebook and Instagram as Meta drastically cuts its security staff, including for FTC-mandated reviews, even as the company pours huge funds into its generative AI projects,” the two said.
They also highlighted the rise of false advertising in the name of the US government or political figures.One example is a false advertisement that claims President Donald Trump is offering US$1,000 to food aid recipients.
“Even though Meta was warned about deepfake ads impersonating politicians, the company continued to broadcast footage of the scam,” the letter said.
Both said the perpetrators behind the scam were often cybercrime groups based in China, Sri Lanka, Vietnam and the Philippines.
Responding to the Reuters report, Meta claimed to have reduced fraud reports from users by 58 percent in the last 18 months.Meanwhile, regarding Hawley and Blumenthal’s letter, they said it was too much.
“We aggressively fight fraud and scams because people on these platforms don’t want this content, legitimate advertisers don’t want it, and we don’t want it,” said Andy Stone, a Meta spokesman.
(dmi/dmi)
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