Today in the Annals of the Criminal Enterprise Formerly Known as Facebook™

Literally a sketch from the 1970s movie The Groove Tube

In a move that seems to have been foretold by the 1974 sketch comedy film The Groove Tube, Facebook (Meta) decided that the appropriate response to its inundation by scammers and fraud was to sabotage the tools used by government regulators to find fraudulent advertising.

No attempt to protect the users, no attempt to protect its legitimate advertisers, just lobby to allow for business as usual. 

I'm not surprised, but I am disappointed. 

Japanese regulators last year were upset by a flood of ads for obvious scams on Facebook and Instagram. The scams ranged from fraudulent investment schemes to fake celebrity product endorsements created by artificial intelligence. 

Meta, owner of the two social media platforms, feared Japan would soon force it to verify the identity of all its advertisers, internal documents reviewed by Reuters show. The step would likely reduce fraud but also cost the company revenue. 

To head off that threat, Meta launched an enforcement blitz to reduce the volume of offending ads. But it also sought to make problematic ads less “discoverable” for Japanese regulators, the documents show.

The documents are part of an internal cache of materials from the past four years in which Meta employees assessed the fast-growing level of fraudulent advertising across its platforms worldwide. Drawn from multiple sources and authored by employees in departments including finance, legal, public policy and safety, the documents also reveal ways that Meta, to protect billions of dollars in ad revenue, has resisted efforts by governments to crack down.

………

Meta’s internal documents cast new light on the central role played by fraudulent advertising in the social media giant’s business model – and the steps the company takes to safeguard that revenue. Reuters reported in November that scam ads Meta considers “high risk” generate as much as $7 billion in revenue for the company each year. This month, the news agency found that Meta tolerates rampant fraud from advertisers in China.

If there is any justice in the world, (s[poiler, there isn't) we will see Mark Zuckerberg frog-marched out of Meta's corporate offices in handcuffs.