Facebook - The beginning of the end...

Facebook has been slammed by Twiggy Forrest over its refusal to remove clickbait cryptocurrency scams.
He joins the likes of that bloke Koch on TV, Dick Smith, Waleed Aly, Chrism Helmsworth and others whose images are used in sams taht peel off billions every year.
Meta, Facebooks parent company, has pleaded no guilty in court (see WA Today ) and the case has been taken over by the ACCC (AFR ).
They may find that it is atd more difficult to pay off the judiciary in OZ as compared to America,
Alphabet is just as bad.
Google ads permeate everything, and unless you use an Ad Blocker, you will get spurious ads non stop that sometimes crowd out the data you want to see on a site.
And of course they are just indiscriminate, I was getting so many totally innapropriate ads about women's clothing, or improving the metrics in my online presence bla bla that I have given up on some sites completely.
Never get in the way of a bunch of ar$eholes making money.
Mick

mullokintyre said:

Facebook has been slammed by Twiggy Forrest over its refusal to remove clickbait cryptocurrency scams.
He joins the likes of that bloke Koch on TV, Dick Smith, Waleed Aly, Chrism Helmsworth and others whose images are used in sams taht peel off billions every year.
Meta, Facebooks parent company, has pleaded no guilty in court (see WA Today ) and the case has been taken over by the ACCC (AFR ).
They may find that it is atd more difficult to pay off the judiciary in OZ as compared to America,
Alphabet is just as bad.
Google ads permeate everything, and unless you use an Ad Blocker, you will get spurious ads non stop that sometimes crowd out the data you want to see on a site.
And of course they are just indiscriminate, I was getting so many totally innapropriate ads about women's clothing, or improving the metrics in my online presence bla bla that I have given up on some sites completely.
Never get in the way of a bunch of ar$eholes making money.
Mick

Click to expand...

To his great credit, Twiggy Forrest is using his money to pursue Meta in California.
The bastards established their presence in Oz so as to make them immune from prosecution in Australia, due to declaring that they are not conducting any business in OZ.
From Evil Murdoch press

Meta is using a near 30-year-old US law in an alleged attempt to evade prosecution over scams and fraudulent advertising running rife on Facebook and its other platforms in Australia, an explosive lawsuit by mining billionaire Andrew Forrest claims.
The Fortescue Metals executive chairman has been pleading with Meta for the past decade to remove scam advertisements from its platform, which he says have “bilked innocent Australians out of millions” of dollars.

Dr Forrest first raised the fraudulent advertisements with Meta in 2014.

But the tech giant told him to set up a “verified” Facebook page to combat the scammers. This was despite him not wanting to be on social media, and when he did sign up, it failed to stamp out fraud and Australians being fleeced.

Dr Forrest is now suing Meta in California, where the company’s headquarters are located and it claims to have immunity from liability over fraudulent posts and other material that is published across its apps, according to court documents.

The law in question is Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which US Congress enacted in 1996 to protect internet companies from liability of content posted by third parties. In subsequent years, tech giants have claimed that extends to digital advertising – a position Dr Forrest is challenging.
Dr Forrest’s complaint in the US District Court also claims that Meta has deliberately set up its corporate structure to evade regulation and prosecution in Australia, prompting him to take action in California – a move that would be beyond the reach of most Australians.

“On the basis of the ownership and structures that Meta has in fact chosen, Meta asserts that it does not do business in Australia and is not subject to Australian law, where there is no equivalent to Section 230 immunity,” the lawsuit alleges.

“But with respect to Dr Forrest’s claims brought in California, Meta asserts that it is entitled to Section 230 immunity. In doing so, Meta is seeking to circumvent Australian law, denying Dr Forrest access to justice in either Australia or in California.
“Its recalcitrance in submitting to jurisdiction in Australia are all a result of deliberate corporate choices designed to export Section 230 immunity to cover Meta’s advertising and other activities abroad, so that Meta can continue to run its advertising business exactly as it wants, without regard to any harm it causes anywhere in the world.”



Andrew Forrest says scam ads using his likeness have proliferated across Facebook.
Dr Forrest isn’t the only one challenging Section 230 immunity. Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak is suing YouTube over scams that featured his likeness.

Despite Meta claiming it does not do business in Australia, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission found that Australian advertising revenue for Meta-owned Facebook and Instagram in FY21-22 was between $4.7bn and $5.1bn.

Dr Forrest said he has spent “hundreds of thousands of dollars”, investigating the criminals behind the scam ads as well as increasing cybersecurity and defending himself and his business reputation.

“Currently, upon information and belief, the scammers involved in engaging Meta’s services to produce and distribute the current Scam Ads are located in areas outside the United States, including Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia.

Andrew Forrest first alerted Meta to scams using his likeness across its platform in 2014.
“Meta also services its Australian users from offshore. Meta’s automated digital review of advertising occurs offshore from Australia. Any manual review of advertising content is undertaken in weakly regulated, low-labour-cost Asian countries; and the law enforcement liaison and data centres for Meta’s Australian social media platforms are in Singapore.”
The Australian revealed this week that a single international fraud syndicate had duped more than 30,000 Australians out of hundreds of millions of dollars with the help of mass advertising campaigns on Facebook and other online platforms. At least seven Australians have lost more than €1m ($1.7m) each, according to initial data analysis. One lost €3.3m.

Data from mobile security company Zimperium – which protects the devices of US troops – has detected close to 100,000 Meta-related scams, compared with 3344 hits on X, 11,612 on Telegram and 148 on Reddit.

“The effect of the scam ads on Australian users has been far-reaching,” Dr Forrest’s lawsuit states.
Dr Forrest raised the “proliferation of scam ads” with managing director and vice president of Meta in Australia, William Easton, in May 2019, demanding that “Meta dedicate its enormous and sophisticated machine learning and human resources to prevent any further dissemination of the scam ads”.

“It’s well known William (Easton), that you have the most sophisticated machine learning and artificial intelligence tools for targeting advertising at users. What amazes me is your absolute lack of concern, and more worrying your obstinance in using machine learning to keep your platform free of obvious scams,” Dr Forrest wrote.

“All of these threaten users like me, the integrity of public discourse, and allow innocent mums, dads, and retirees to be robbed of their savings. If this was you or (Meta founder and chief executive) Mr (Mark) Zuckerberg being framed, or your own parents, or his losing their hard earned retirement savings, I know you would react immediately and effectively.”


meta has the morals and ethics of a Mexican drug lord.
May Zuckerberg get hit by lightning.
Mick

For reasons best known to themselves, the DPP have dropped the case against Facebook, much to the chagrin of twiggy.
Given some of the money they have wasted on other court cases, ya gotta wonder who got to them.

The Commonwealth Department of Public Prosecutions has dropped charges laid against Facebook over its fraudulent advertising, in a blow to Andrew Forrest’s crusade against the social media giant.

DPP prosecutors on Friday morning told the District Court of Western Australia that the agency had decided to discontinue all charges against Facebook parent company Meta Platforms after accepting a brief of evidence in the case.

It ends a years-long quest by Dr Forrest to have Facebook criminally prosecuted in Australia over its role in proliferating fraudulent advertising on its platforms. Several Australians have lost their life savings after clicking on advertisements on Facebook featuring Dr Forrest’s likeness.

The DPP’s decision came as lawyers for Dr Forrest appeared in court in California, where the mining magnate is also attempting to pursue Meta.

Dr Forrest issued a statement overnight accusing Meta of “knowingly advertising the content of criminals”.

He said he has taken action as part of a crusade to protect the “innocent and vulnerable”, and to stop Meta “overriding democracy all over the world”.

“They just blatantly refuse to have any influence on the content on their sites no matter how fraudulent,” Dr Forrest said.

“I’ve repeatedly asked Facebook to remove the thousands of scam ads featuring my image. But they continue to proliferate with Facebook’s knowledge on their paid advertising campaigns.”

Click to expand...

Mick

Facebook copping it again, this time from the banks.
Given all the media blitz about scammers from just about everyone, the likes of the big Social Media companies just seem to scare the **** out of Australian Governments, ASIC, APRA, TAB and a hot of other self proclaimed supervisory agencies.
I am still wavering as to whether social media is more destructive than gambling.
Its touch and go.
Mick

Social media giant Meta has been accused by Westpac of failing to deal with a scam and fraud epidemic with the big four bank taking aim at the tech player for failing to deal with fake posts.
Westpac customer and corporate services group executive Carolyn McCann wrote to Meta on August 2 raising 360 scam incidents noted by the bank since October last year, saying the social media giant was failing to tackle scams on its platforms.

In the letter, seen by The Australian, Ms McCann implored a Meta representative “to review the way the Facebook platform is being used to scam ordinary Australians”.

“I see every single day the increasing impact this scourge is having on customers and the community,” she said.

The flashpoint follows the competition regulator earlier this year taking a swing at Meta over its handling of scams, warning the tech giant was the worst tech giant to deal with when trying to stamp out financial crime.

Ms McCann noted Westpac had been alerted to at least 320 customers who reported they had been scammed through Meta’s Facebook Marketplace platform.

This was in addition to another 40 Westpac customers who reported they had been scammed through house or car rental ads placed on Facebook.

Westpac noted several customers who had lost thousands of dollars on the scams.

This included one customer who lost $80,000 on a crypto scam advertised on Facebook.

A recent court judgement found half the cryptocurrency related ads on Facebook, highlighted in an Australian Competition and Consumer Commission case, were scams or violated Meta’s policies.

This included “celeb-bait” cases where fake public figures endorsed products, with the court noting these had been on Facebook since at least September 2017.

Several Westpac customers also lost thousands on fake rental bond cases, or fake car deposit incidents.

“These numbers are only for Westpac customers. Across the financial services sector, the number would be significantly higher,” Ms McCann said.

Ms McCann called on Meta to meet to discuss the issue, however Westpac reported no response was received.

Ms McCann, who is responsible for handling Westpac’s scam and fraud prevention, said social media companies should pay more attention to the issue of crime on their platforms.

“That’s where many scams find their victims,” she said.

“I recently wrote to Meta regarding 360 different scams on Facebook which Westpac customers have complained about. We’re ready to work with Meta to get these scams taken down.”

The broadside from the banking giant is the third time Westpac has raised concerns with Meta over its social media platforms and their use by scammers and fraudsters.

Meta responded to Westpac’s latest missive on Friday, after failing to respond to one of the bank’s earlier two letters, 16 days after it was sent and only after it was raised by The Australian.

This saw the social media platform outline to Westpac some of the action it was taking on scams.

A Meta spokesman told The Australian the company had recently joined an intel-exchange deal with Australia’s bank and telcos.

“We believe that cross-industry collaboration is the most impactful way to tackle scams, and we look forward to continuing this essential work as we deepen our collaborative efforts with industry partners, the government and law enforcement on this important issue,” he said.

As part of efforts to stamp out scammers on its platforms, Meta announced in June it would require advertisers to provide verified phone numbers before posting ads, for the first time.

Click to expand...

mullokintyre said:

Facebook copping it again, this time from the banks.
Given all the media blitz about scammers from just about everyone, the likes of the big Social Media companies just seem to scare the **** out of Australian Governments, ASIC, APRA, TAB and a hot of other self proclaimed supervisory agencies.
I am still wavering as to whether social media is more destructive than gambling.
Its touch and go.
Mick

Click to expand...

Funny how they have no problem banning Trump on facebook, but can't stop scammers, hypocrisy abounds when people are running the narrative.

Just among my own circle, it's pretty much dead at this point.

I'm on Facebook but bottom line is not a single one of my friends, or myself, has posted anything at all in the past month and many haven't posted in the past year, making it effectively dead. At least one has deleted their account outright.

If I look at it, all I see is ads masquerading as content and posts from all sorts of people and things I don't know and aren't friends with. That's what's killed it in my view. It's no longer usable for its original purpose, being completely overwhelmed by other things.

Smurf1976 said:

Just among my own circle, it's pretty much dead at this point.

I'm on Facebook but bottom line is not a single one of my friends, or myself, has posted anything at all in the past month and many haven't posted in the past year, making it effectively dead. At least one has deleted their account outright.

If I look at it, all I see is ads masquerading as content and posts from all sorts of people and things I don't know and aren't friends with. That's what's killed it in my view. It's no longer usable for its original purpose, being completely overwhelmed by other things.

Click to expand...

I've never been on facebook, despite the kids nagging me to join.
Fortunately an old bloke I met at the local council gym, about 10 years ago, asked me to unsubscribe him as he couldn't work it out.
It really was difficult to unsubscribe, just the fact it wasn't easy to unsubscribe was enough for me not to join, let alone the personal questions they ask to join.