The Australian government has filed a lawsuit against Facebook parent company Meta for allowing scam ads to target users with fake celebrity endorsements.
A regulator said that the tech giant had engaged in “false, misleading or deceptive conduct” by knowingly hosting the ads for bogus cryptocurrencies.
Facebook is being accused of running ads in Australia that promote scams. When users clicked on the ad, they were directed to a website with quotes attributed to a public figure endorsing the cryptocurrency or money-making scheme. Users would then be contacted by scammers who used high-pressure tactics to convince them to deposit funds into the fake schemes.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) says the ads used Facebook’s algorithms to target susceptible users and featured bogus quotes by Australian celebrities.
This follows in the wake of technology companies being forced by the UK government to tackle scam advertisements through the new Online Safety Bill.
Identities used without permission included former New South Wales Premier Mike Baird, prominent TV host David Koch and millionaire entrepreneur Dick Smith.
“The essence of our case is that Meta is responsible for these ads that it publishes on its platform,” ACCC chairman Rod Sims said in a statement on Friday.
The legal action, filed in the Federal Court of Australia, alleges Meta did this knowingly and failed to prevent the scams even after celebrities raised objections.
“In one shocking instance, we are aware of a consumer who lost more than A$650,000 (£360,000; $480,000) due to one of these scams being falsely advertised as an investment opportunity on Facebook. This is disgraceful,” Mr Sims said.
A spokesperson for Meta said: “We don’t want ads seeking to scam people out of money or mislead people on Facebook – they violate our policies and are not good for our community.
“We use technology to detect and block scam ads and work to get ahead of scammers’ attempts to evade our detection systems,” they added.
“We’ve cooperated with the ACCC’s investigation into this matter to date. We will review the recent filing by the ACCC and intend to defend the proceedings.
“We are unable to further comment on the detail of the case as it is before the Federal Court,” they concluded.
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