American news organization ProPublica and others have published a report stating that deceptive advertisements masquerading as celebrities and government organizations are increasing on Instagram and Facebook owned by Meta. The deceptive ads have been viewed hundreds of millions of times by users, and Meta has been criticized for failing to police harmful content.
Deceptive Political Ads Thrived on Facebook, IG in Run-Up to Election — ProPublica
https://www.propublica.org/article/facebook-instagram-meta-deceptive-political-ads-election
According to an investigation conducted by ProPublica and Columbia Journalism School’s Tow Center for Digital Journalism, there were eight networks running deceptive ads in English and Spanish on the Meta platform, and more than 340 Facebook networks at the time of the investigation. It is said that more than 160,000 election and social issue advertisements are posted on the page.
Some of them hijack accounts and serve ads on pages of unrelated users, raising concerns that users who view these ads may be directed to a form requesting personal information and have their phone numbers stolen. It is said that. These ads were viewed approximately 900 million times across Facebook and Instagram.
ProPublica said, “Meta generates more than $115 billion in advertising revenue annually, but the company’s failure to consistently block these scams shows that one of the world’s largest platforms is… “This highlights how they are unable to keep their promise to protect users from fraud.”
Meta hasAdvertising policyHowever, some of the networks investigated by ProPublica are openly using the techniques banned by Meta, including simply using fake audio and video impersonating public figures involved in national politics, and others that are linked to government programs. Some of them promoted misleading claims and asked people to share personal information.
For example, an advertisement proclaiming, “Illinois now allows residents under 89 to purchase funeral expense insurance of up to $35,000 (approximately 53 million yen) to cover all end-of-life expenses!” The governor and state emblem were used without permission.
Our research shows that while Meta was successful in removing some ads, it failed to remove similar ads, failed to close accounts with violating ads, and created new ones. It is said that they are known to be allowing the posting of advertisements that are inappropriate.
“Meta’s enforcement has been extremely erratic and inconsistent,” said Jeff Allen, a former data scientist at Meta and chief research officer at the Integrity Institute, a nonprofit organization for trust and safety professionals. , it doesn’t actually solve the fundamental problem.” He said that the system that allows a single Facebook page to connect to multiple advertising accounts and user profiles has been exploited for eight years and has not been improved at all. “The only option is to play whack-a-mole,” he said, calling for fundamental solutions.
Deceptive advertising is also seen as a problem in Japan, with Meta’s Japanese subsidiary and others facing lawsuits in the country.
Meta faces 435 million yen lawsuit over Japanese investment fraud advertisement – GIGAZINE
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