U.S. lawmakers are demanding an aggressive federal investigation into META after explosive reports allege the company profited massively from scam ads, generating as much as $16 billion in revenue from fraudulent advertising on Facebook and Instagram.
According to newly surfaced internal documents reviewed by Reuters, META’s platform may be implicated in “about a third of all U.S. scams” and connected to more than $50 billion in consumer losses last year.
Senators Push for Major Regulatory Action
In a letter to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Senators Josh Hawley and Richard Blumenthal urged regulators to “immediately open investigations and … pursue vigorous enforcement action” against META.
They argue that if the reporting is accurate, META should be required to disgorge profits, pay penalties, and halt the running of fraudulent advertisements.
Read more:
- Exclusive: US senators call for probe of scam ads on Facebook and Instagram | Reuters
- Meta is earning a fortune on a deluge of fraudulent ads, documents show | Reuters
- Meta earns billions from ads for scams, report claims | The Independent
- HotHardware report: https://hothardware.com/news/meta-faces-scrutiny-over-billions-in-scam-ad-revenue
Internal Records Suggest Scams Ads Were Allowed to Run
According to one internal Meta document, the company made $3.5 billion in just six months from what it classified as “higher-risk” scam ads.
The scale of the alleged fraud is raising alarms across Washington, with lawmakers questioning whether META is doing enough to control its sprawling ad ecosystem.
