Meta must face Australian billionaire Forrest's US lawsuit over scam Facebook...

[ABCbits]

Meta must face Australian billionaire Forrest's US lawsuit over scam Facebook crypto ads

June 18 (Reuters) - A U.S. judge rejected Meta Platforms' (META.O), opens new tab bid to dismiss a lawsuit by billionaire Australian mining magnate Andrew Forrest over scam Facebook advertisements that show him promoting fake cryptocurrency and other fraudulent investments.

In a decision on Monday, U.S. District Judge Casey Pitts in San Jose, California said Australia's second-richest person can try to prove that Meta's negligence in allowing the ads breached its duty to operate in a commercially reasonable manner... Read more here.


We know that there are many fake/scam cryptocurrency ads on internet, although usually we only can either block or ignore it. So it's good to see one of them forced to take responsibility over it. Your opinion is greatly appreciated.

[NotATether]

It's the same thing with Youtube. You can't seem to watch a video without going through a barrage of ads first, if you're one of those poor souls that browses the internet without an ad-blocker. I've gotten my fair share of crypto ads too.

And then there are accounts which are hacked to just livestream Elon Musk with some fake crypto project/tweet 24/7. Sometimes they succeed (I say sometimes because the vast majority don't get any victims), so it's good that the Australian government is finally forcing Facebook to reckon with this kind of stuff.

[Lucius]

All those who have popular platforms such as social networks must simply take much more responsibility when it comes to the content of what is advertised through their platforms. It's a debate that's been going on for years, and it always boils down to the fact that all these companies simply don't want to spend their money on new employees who could filter out bad advertisers.

There is no doubt that it would be a very demanding job and would require a lot of people, but these companies make billions of $ every year and they need to redirect some of that money to ensure that their platforms are not a scam paradise. If they cared about their users, they would have done it a long time ago.

[TomPluz]

We know that there are many fake/scam cryptocurrency ads on internet, although usually we only can either block or ignore it. So it's good to see one of them forced to take responsibility over it.

Actually, it is annoying to me because many of these ads in Facebook are clearly "scammy" in nature and yet the strict vetting system of Meta failed to catch and send them to hell. There is one famous health figure in my country and in many ads he was supposed to be endorsing this and that product and yet the truth is that officially he just endorsed one milk brand and nothing else...and his face and personality appeared in many Facebook ads. I am in fact wondering if Facebook is actually allowing them to run just because the social media giant is actually making good money from those bad ads never mind the possible victims the ads can add to statistics. While Facebook is so stringent with real, genuine and honest advertisers, it is open to such red flag ads. I am glad that somebody already moneyed and I assume also powerful to take Meta to court for allowing scams to be shown on the network. Facebook should stop those ads and must make sure that they never return anytime they want to.

[RidwanMalik]

Meta must face Australian billionaire Forrest's US lawsuit over scam Facebook crypto ads

June 18 (Reuters) - A U.S. judge rejected Meta Platforms' (META.O), opens new tab bid to dismiss a lawsuit by billionaire Australian mining magnate Andrew Forrest over scam Facebook advertisements that show him promoting fake cryptocurrency and other fraudulent investments.

In a decision on Monday, U.S. District Judge Casey Pitts in San Jose, California said Australia's second-richest person can try to prove that Meta's negligence in allowing the ads breached its duty to operate in a commercially reasonable manner... Read more here.


We know that there are many fake/scam cryptocurrency ads on internet, although usually we only can either block or ignore it. So it's good to see one of them forced to take responsibility over it. Your opinion is greatly appreciated.

It's time to deserve what they do, These corporations are greedy and taking ads money while they have no idea what kind of harm causes to their users... Man I agree with NotATether, because if you take a look on youtube searching crypto related, you'll see bunch scammers commenting on saying something like "Mr. Goldman helped me to get a car by investing pennies!!"

[Rruchi man]

We know that there are many fake/scam cryptocurrency ads on internet, although usually we only can either block or ignore it. So it's good to see one of them forced to take responsibility over it. Your opinion is greatly appreciated.

Reputation is everything at a point, and for this Billionaire, his reputation has been tarnished due to negligence from Meta to screen the ads they show. I support him because someone has to make an example of them so that they take that department more seriously. There are many unsolicited ads that Meta allows, and these ads are not always helpful or educational, Scammers take a lot of advantage of it.

[Stompix]

The bad part is that Australian courts denied a criminal charge case, the good part is that this case in the US if won would prove not only Facebook negligence but the fact that they actually benefited and intentionally did not take full measure to stop such ads that were contributing to their revenues.

It would be great to have them lose in court, it opens the gate to anyone who was portrayed in an ad without their consent to sue them.

[Captain Corporate]

Turth be told, facebook has been doing bogus ads for a long time now, and there needs to be some sort of consequences for this already. I know that the people who needs to be jailed are the ones who make these bogus claims firstly, and I still think that they should be. But that doesn't mean that we shouldn't keep facebook accountable for letting these type of people advertise on their platform, they have the responsibility to check every ad, and hire enough people to be able to approve or reject ads based on merit and credibility. Without that, anyone can advertise anything and that would be very illegal.

[robelneo]

Finally, someone capable has made a stand. This has been going on for many years since Cryptocurrency is not yet very popular, there's a Ponzi scheme scam MLM, and they allow it, which is why Meta is making billions every year because they do not screen or weed out bogus and scammy advertising, all they want is to generate profits they don't care about their users.

They only take action if there are reports, but on their own, they approve these ads as long as they are continuous, and they don't even investigate the nature of the ads before releasing them.

[ABCbits]

All those who have popular platforms such as social networks must simply take much more responsibility when it comes to the content of what is advertised through their platforms. It's a debate that's been going on for years, and it always boils down to the fact that all these companies simply don't want to spend their money on new employees who could filter out bad advertisers.

On top of that, their current content moderator (someone who manually see and filter content on social media) is known to be underpaid and suffer from mental health issue. I even saw news where some of them try to sue the company due to those reasons. So it's not surprising they don't hire someone to filter the ads.

[Stompix]

On top of that, their current content moderator (someone who manually see and filter content on social media) is known to be underpaid and suffer from mental health issue. I even saw news where some of them try to sue the company due to those reasons. So it's not surprising they don't hire someone to filter the ads.

I don't know why you use singular there, they have thousands of them for that task, indeed low paid but despite the work environment and the pay that's not the issue, the problem is the policy of FB that actually lets a ton of both content and ads through that is clearly either illegal or a scam. Their list of what to reject is so tiny and they don't preapprove all ads, they only flag them and review once they receive a report.   

[Kemarit]

Good, at least the judge was fair enough and so let the games begin. But still the burden of proof is on the side Andrew Forrest. But as crypto enthusiast, and with the advancement of AI and deep fake videos who already know that there are a lot of scams being proliferated in Facebook.

And who can't forget those fake game ads as well, those mobile ad games that pop up from time to time and then it's not even close to the actual game. Even if we reported those fake ads, how many are taken down? Maybe it's kinda late when someone has been scam for thousands or even millions of dollars.

[ABCbits]

On top of that, their current content moderator (someone who manually see and filter content on social media) is known to be underpaid and suffer from mental health issue. I even saw news where some of them try to sue the company due to those reasons. So it's not surprising they don't hire someone to filter the ads.

I don't know why you use singular there, they have thousands of them for that task, indeed low paid but despite the work environment and the pay that's not the issue, the problem is the policy of FB that actually lets a ton of both content and ads through that is clearly either illegal or a scam. Their list of what to reject is so tiny and they don't preapprove all ads, they only flag them and review once they receive a report.   

Im not native english speaker, so sometimes i made such mistake. Anyway, while i agree the main problem is due to their policy, i also believe cost of paying moderator also contribute to the problem. They have less things to do if they wait someone to report, where only few people bother do that.

[Jating]

On top of that, their current content moderator (someone who manually see and filter content on social media) is known to be underpaid and suffer from mental health issue. I even saw news where some of them try to sue the company due to those reasons. So it's not surprising they don't hire someone to filter the ads.

I don't know why you use singular there, they have thousands of them for that task, indeed low paid but despite the work environment and the pay that's not the issue, the problem is the policy of FB that actually lets a ton of both content and ads through that is clearly either illegal or a scam. Their list of what to reject is so tiny and they don't preapprove all ads, they only flag them and review once they receive a report.   

It's just weird though to hear if that is the real reasons why there are so many that slip under their radar because their moderators are under paid? They are one of the top companies globally, so for sure their employees are being played handsomely and with good perks around it. So I doubt that is the main reason.
Perhaps it's the lack of implementation and as what you have describe, they just react, which is sometimes too late as many could have been the victims already before that ads is taken down. Something has to change within their policy, but I guess at the end of it, everything is business. If these scammers are paying up-front, then all they do is accept it without seeing the ads first.

[ABCbits]

It's just weird though to hear if that is the real reasons why there are so many that slip under their radar because their moderators are under paid? They are one of the top companies globally, so for sure their employees are being played handsomely and with good perks around it. So I doubt that is the main reason.

It's not the main reason, but it's true that their moderator is underpaid. If you search "facebook moderator problem" or "facebook moderator mental health", you'll see many news or report about it.