"Meta earns billions of dollars every year from running online advertising for scams and banned goods across Facebook, Instagram and other platforms, new documents have revealed. The tech giant internally projected late last year that it would earn about 10 per cent of its overall annual revenue - or $16 billion - through fraudulent e-commerce and investment schemes, illegal online casinos, and the sale of banned medical products, Reuters reported."
"On average, one December 2024 document notes, the company shows its platforms' users an estimated 15 billion "higher risk" scam advertisements - those that show clear signs of being fraudulent - every day. Meta earns about $7 billion in annualized revenue from this category of scam ads each year, another late 2024 document states."
"Much of the fraud came from marketers acting suspiciously enough to be flagged by Meta's internal warning systems. 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. If the company is less certain - but still believes the advertiser is a likely scammer - Meta charges higher ad rates as a penalty, according to the documents."
Internal company records show Meta projected roughly 10% of annual revenue, about $16 billion, could come from fraudulent e-commerce, investment schemes, illegal online casinos, and banned medical products. The records indicate a persistent failure over multiple years to identify and stop a large volume of scam and illegal-product ads that reach billions of users across Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. A December 2024 estimate put about 15 billion "higher risk" scam ads shown daily, generating roughly $7 billion annualized. Automated systems flag suspicious marketers but only ban advertisers at very high certainty; lower certainty triggers higher ad rates as a penalty. Ad personalization increases exposure for users who click scam ads.
Read at The Independent
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