"Meta projected last year that it would earn about 10 per cent of its overall annual revenue - $US16 billion ($24.6 billion) - from running advertising for scams and banned goods, internal company documents show. Users of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp were exposed to fraudulent e-commerce and investment schemes, illegal online casinos and the sale of banned medical products. On average, one December 2024 document notes, the company showed its platforms' users an estimated 15 billion "higher risk" scam advertisements every day."
"Much of the fraud came from marketers acting suspiciously enough to be flagged by Meta's internal warning systems. Financial advertisers on Facebook and Instagram will be required to reveal who is paying for the ads and who benefits from them. But the company only bans advertisers if its automated systems predict the marketers are at least 95 per cent certain to be committing fraud, the documents show."
Meta projected it would earn about 10.1% of 2024 revenue—approximately $US16 billion—from advertising tied to scams and banned goods. Users of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp were exposed to fraudulent e-commerce and investment schemes, illegal online casinos and banned medical products. For at least three years, the company failed to identify and stop a large volume of scam ads shown to billions of people. One December 2024 estimate indicated about 15 billion "higher risk" scam advertisements were shown daily across the platforms. Meta estimated roughly $US7 billion in annualised revenue from this scam-ad category. Automated systems only ban advertisers at 95% fraud certainty; lower certainty can trigger higher ad rates as penalties.
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