Meta is yet again under the spotlight from Australia’s Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) over misleading ads and not taking the right steps to tackle the issue. One of the main issues found with the ads is the fact that the advertisers are attaching their advertisements to well-known public figures in Australia. In their post, they stated that,
“Apart from resulting in untold losses to consumers, these ads also damage the reputation of the public figures falsely associated with the ads. Meta failed to take sufficient steps to stop fake ads featuring public figures, even after those public figures reported to Meta that their name and image were being featured in celebrity endorsement cryptocurrency scam ads,”
They also stated that at one point a customer lost over $650,000 due to one of these advertisements.
“In one shocking instance, we are aware of a consumer who lost more than $650,000 due to one of these scams being falsely advertised as an investment opportunity on Facebook. This is disgraceful,” They stated.
To be fair, Facebook is a media platform and they are currently making an obscene amount of money from cryptocurrency ads. It would be hard for them to keep tabs on everything and close the valve, which will affect their revenue and then affect their stock price which was plummeting at the start of the year.
This is not to justify their actions but it’s obvious why they might not want to stop the crypto ads which are false.
Over the last couple of years, probably since the first crypto-mania in 2017, we have seen an explosion in cryptocurrency ads giving false promises to gullible and vulnerable civilians. Better education is needed in the public’s eye on how to not get scammed in these schemes.
India at the moment is doing a good job with this, as they have created laws that are forcing advertisers to create sections in their video dedicated to showing the risk involved with cryptocurrencies.
