Australia took legal notice against Facebook’s parent company Meta alleging it allowed scam ads personating celebrities to target users. They say the giant tech company involve in misleading and deceptive conduction hosting the ads of bogus cryptocurrencies.
Meta did not comment on the issue, however, it is part of the policy to keep scammers off its platform.
Federal Court of Australia
The legal notice is file in the Federal court of Australia against Meta. It says Meta did this knowingly and failed to prevent the scams even though celebrities had raised concerns over the issue.
ACCC chairman Rod Sims said in a statement on Friday. “The essence of our case is that Meta is responsible for these ads that it publishes on its platform,”
Mr Sims added. “In one shocking instance, we are aware of a consumer who lost more than a$650,000 (£360,000; $480,000) due to one of these scams being falsely advertised as an investment opportunity on Facebook. This is disgraceful,”
Meanwhile, a Facebook spokeswoman says the company was ‘’ always clear about the information we collect and how it is used.’’
Australia Privacy Regulation
Australian privacy regulators also had a separate lawsuit against the social media giant Facebook. They are alleging Facebook for breaching user privacy with a personality test run by political marketing consultant Cambridge Analytica.
Google also faces accusations from Australian privacy regulators over misleading information about users’ data collection. Rob Nicolls, a specialist in competition law and associate professor at the University of South Wales says, unlike the U.S lawsuit that forced Facebook to sell its assets. However, the Australian lawsuit can ask to change the way tech giant discloses its activities to users.
Nicholls added, “Rather than take the antitrust approach of ‘the only way to solve this is to break it up, it’s more ‘we’re going to take the actions. That we can under the existing law to change the conduct so that it is acceptable to Australian consumers and Australian businesses,”
