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Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has denied claims that 58% of the crypto ads on the social media platform are scams, or break their rules and guidelines, stating that the data used by Australian regulators is outdated.
A spokesperson for Meta said that the ACCC’s claim that more than half of the crypto ads on Facebook are scams relies on data from 2018 and is therefore outdated. In the statement to Cointelegraph, the spokesperson also said the 2018 data are from a “limited data set” and said that other methods are the primary way users get scammed.
The spokesperson went on to say that the data likely did not paint an accurate representation of the platform today.
“The preliminary analysis referred is an allegation in the ACCC’s claim and relates to a historic internal study from 2018 of a small sample of ads. Meta is defending the ACCC’s claim and will respond to the allegation in due course.
“Scammers use every platform available to them and constantly adapt to evade enforcement. Meta doesn’t want scams on its platforms and we will continue to work tirelessly to prevent them and protect our users.” said the spokesperson.
Facebook denies the ACCC’s allegations that it does not address scam ads on a systemic level
The ACCC alleged that although Meta does often act on reports and removes scam ads after users have complained about them, Facebook is not doing enough on a systemic level to prevent or remove these ads, and as a result, Meta continues to profit from them.
However, Meta denies these allegations and claims that it has been working to prevent scam ads using manual and automated reviews, has updated its guidelines, and has opted into the Australian Online Scams Code (AOSC).
“We currently use, and continue to explore, a variety of methods, such as new machine learning techniques, to identify content and accounts that violate our policy,” the Meta spokesperson said.
According to Meta, it removed 631 million fake accounts and 436 million pieces of spam content from Facebook in the first quarter of 2024, with 99.4% of fake accounts and 98.2% of spam content being acted on before necessitating a report from a user.
Featured image credit: Tobias Dziuba/Pexels
