The social media platform has yet again bumped into Australia’s laws for promoting crypto-based scams to consumers.
According to a report by the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC), the regulatory authority will be taking Meta (formerly Facebook) to court for publishing misleading crypto ads to the Australian public.
The main issue addressed by the ACCC was that the ads had Australian celebrities, which gave users the idea that they are part of those crypto projects. Likewise, the ads featured external links that took consumers to fake websites with misleading celebrity quotes, urging them to sign up for the scheme.
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Several Australian celebrities were targeted by the ads without their consent including former Premier of New South Wales Mike Baird, David Koch, and Dick Smith. Some of them already sought legal action against media outlets that were linking them to crypto scams.
Rod Sims, who is Chair of the ACCC, spoke on the fake advertisements targeting the Australian public, stating:
"The essence of our case is that Meta is responsible for these ads that it publishes on its platform. It is a key part of Meta’s business to enable advertisers to target users who are most likely to click on the link in an ad to visit the ad’s landing page, using Facebook algorithms. Those visits to landing pages from ads generate substantial revenue for Facebook."
While Meta did not respond to the allegations, the ACCC claims that the social media platform swept the threat of users getting scammed under the rug, did not take proper action to protect its users from crypto schemes, and ignored prominent Australian figures who had their integrity threatened.
According to Sims, some consumers suffered immense losses due to the crypto scams, with one person getting lured into an investment scheme that cost him $650K. The regulator addressed Meta’s reluctance to do anything about the situation, and the ACC will be seeking legal action against the social media platform.
Last month, the ACCC addressed the same situation with Australian billionaire Andrew "Twiggy" Forrest whose image was used to promote fake crypto scams on Meta.
