Meta is facing a lawsuit over its advertising policies. Consumer Federation of America has filed a proposed lawsuit against Meta, accusing it of “failing to safeguard users” from scam advertisements on Facebook and Instagram. The lawsuit, first reported by Wired claims that Meta violated consumer protection laws in Washington D.C. because it misled Facebook and Instagram users regarding scams on their apps, and that the company “chased profits instead of protecting its users.” The filing includes a number of examples of alleged scam advertisements that CFA claims it found in Meta’s ad libraries. Ads promoting “a free government iPhone” and those offering $1,400 checks for people born in specific years are included. CFA claims that many of the ads are AI videos. CFA’s lawsuit includes some examples of alleged scam advertisements. The report also highlighted Meta’s processes that have made it difficult for its employees to combat malicious advertisers. CFA’s lawsuit claims that Meta claims it is doing everything it can to crackdown on scam advertising. Meta has taken deliberate steps and adopted policies to increase its bottom line, at the expense of users’ safety and wellbeing. Meta does not ban advertisers it has determined to be a greater risk to its users, as other tech companies such as Google have done. Instead, Meta charges them more. Meta profits more the riskier an advertiser is. Meta’s spokesperson said that CFA’s accusations “misrepresent our work” and that they will be fought. “We aggressively fight scams across all our platforms to protect businesses and people. Last year, we removed 159 million ads, 92% before anyone reported them. We also took down 10.9 millions accounts on Facebook and Instagram that were associated with criminal scam centres. We fight scams because they are bad for business — people don’t want them, advertisers don’t want them, and we don’t want them either.”This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/meta-has-misled-users-about-scam-ads-on-facebook-and-instagram-lawsuit-says-193220235.html?src=rss
