Meta created 'playbook' to fend off pressure to crack down on scammers, documents show

"SAN FRANCISCO, USA - 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."

"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."

"In this case, Meta's remedy hinged on its "Ad Library," a publicly searchable database where users can look up Facebook and Instagram ads using keywords. Meta built the library as a transparency tool, and the company realized Japanese regulators were searching it as a "simple test" of "Meta's effectiveness at tackling scams," one document noted. To perform better on that test, Meta staffers found a way to manage what they called the "prevalence perception" of scam ads returned by Ad Library searches, the documents show."

Japanese regulators were alarmed by a flood of scam ads on Facebook and Instagram, including fraudulent investment schemes and AI-created fake celebrity product endorsements. Meta feared Japan would require verification of all advertisers, which could reduce fraud but also cut company revenue. Meta launched an enforcement blitz to lower offending ads and implemented measures to make problematic ads less discoverable via its publicly searchable Ad Library. Meta identified top keywords and celebrity names used to find scam ads, repeatedly ran those searches and deleted ads that appeared fraudulent. Employees across finance, legal, public policy and safety worked to protect ad revenue while addressing fraud.

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