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Facebook sued by Aussie mining magnate over scam ads

Eliza Sayon Feb 7, 2022

2 min read

Facebook is being sued by mining magnate Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest for breaching anti-money laundering laws and failing to stop clickbait advertising scams that use the Aussie businessman’s image.

The giant social media platform seems to be facing criminal charges globally as the ACCC is also investigating “misleading” ads which purport to show public figures endorsing scams.

“While Mr Forrest’s proceedings concern similar advertisements to those that the ACCC is investigating, the ACCC’s investigation is separate and concerns different questions of law,” Chair Rod Sims said.

Mr Forrest launched his private legal case after repeated requests for Facebook to remove and prevent the images of him and other well-known Australians promoting cryptocurrency schemes from spreading online.

Three charges have been brought under the Commonwealth Criminal Code in the Western Australian Magistrates Court, the Fortescue Metals chair’s home state, with the consent of Attorney-General Michaelia Cash.

Under these charges, it’s been alleged that Facebook was criminally reckless in taking insufficient steps to stop criminals from using the platform to defraud innocent users and failing to put controls or a corporate culture that would prevent this.

Mr Forrest stated that he wants social media companies to use their vast resources to protect vulnerable people targeted by the scams.

“Social media is part of our lives like newspapers, like publications, like roads, like hospitals,” he said.

“But we all are responsible. Everything I just named has deep legal responsibilities except many players in social media. The time has come to call that to account.”

Mr Forrest has also launched civil proceedings against Facebook in California, while the ACCC continues to look at whether Meta’s conduct raises concerns under Australian Consumer Law.

The watchdog wants the tech giant to do more to detect, prevent and remove false or misleading advertisements.

While the company declined to comment on Mr Forrest’s Australian court action, they stated that they did not want ads on the social media platform that sought to scam or mislead people.

“We take a multifaceted approach to stop these ads,” it said.

“We work not just to detect and reject the ads themselves, but also block advertisers from our services and, in some cases, take court action to enforce our policies.”

With AAP

Eliza Sayon

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Eliza is a content producer and editor at Public Spectrum. She is an experienced writer on topics related to the government and to the public, as well as stories that uplift and improve the community.