Internal docs reveal Meta's tactics to fend off pressure to crack down on scammers, including efforts to make scam ads “not findable” for regulators and others
As regulators press Meta to crack down on rogue advertisers on Facebook and Instagram, the social media giant has drafted a “playbook” to stall them.
Reuters Jeff Horwitz
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- Meta created ‘playbook’ to fend off pressure to crack down on scammers Hacker News
Discussion
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@achimmuellers
Achim J. Müllers
on x
Meta created ‘playbook’ to fend off pressure to crack down on scammers, documents show https://www.reuters.com/... including efforts to make scam ads “not findable” when authorities search for them. Anyone surprised? #Meta #Facebook
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@raywilton4
@raywilton4
on x
Meta created ‘playbook’ to fend off pressure to crack down on scammers, documents show. Fucking insatiably greedy parasites, deliberately keeping us in harms way https://www.reuters.com/...
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@zerohedge
@zerohedge
on x
At least $7 billion in meta ad revenue is “rampant fraud” and the company has an actual playbook to cover this up from regulators https://www.reuters.com/...
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@brunojnavarro
Bruno J. Navarro
on bluesky
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.
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@sarwark.org
Nicholas Sarwark
on bluesky
Reducing your time on algorithmic social media sites in favor of an open web is also a way to reduce your exposure to scams and fraud. — www.reuters.com/investigatio...
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@andrewlevesque
Andrew Levesque
on bluesky
Of course Meta did this... www.reuters.com/investigatio...
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@romanad
Roman A.
on bluesky
For social media companies, the fight against tech regulation has nothing to do with free speech but everything to do with continuing to generate profit from the scam industry, which is stealing money from their users, without oversight or accountability. — www.reuters.com/inve…
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@caseynewton
Casey Newton
on bluesky
Another great @jeffhorwitz.bsky.social investigation into Meta, this one about the company's secret playbook for deceiving and manipulating the regulators investigating its massive scam problem www.reuters.com/investigatio... [image]
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@jbakcoleman
Joe Bak-Coleman
on bluesky
New reporting from @jeffhorwitz.bsky.social shows meta actively altering shared data to produce rose-tinted results in searches of the as library. — Can we reasonably trust the data they share with academics? — www.reuters.com/investigatio...
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@migueldeicaza
Miguel de Icaza
on bluesky
Every year or so we forget how rotten this company is, your reminder that they remain a rotten company: [embedded post]
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@worklesshard
Sam Jeffers
on bluesky
Heard rumour of this kind of “targeted scrubbing” of data a while back, plus intentional weaknesses in ad library searching. Very VW behaviour. [embedded post]
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@campuscodi.risky.biz
Catalin Cimpanu
on bluesky
I've been saying this for a while, but Meta execs need to face criminal procedures [embedded post]
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@socialmedialab.ca
@socialmedialab.ca
on bluesky
⚠️Wow... This is major! According to @jeffhorwitz.bsky.social, Meta had a policy in place to prevent scam ads from being detected by regulators. It's reminiscent of the “diesel dupe” scandal from a decade ago, when major carmakers were accused of using “cheat” software to fake …
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@jeffhorwitz
Jeff Horwitz
on bluesky
Hong Kong financial regulators pushed Meta on why it wasn't verifying the ID of financial advertisers (a very common source of scams) — Meta staffers boasted about how, through “skillful negotiation,” it redirected HK to organizing an anti-scam charter signing event requiring n…
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@jeffhorwitz
Jeff Horwitz
on bluesky
Two countries — Taiwan and Singapore — have passed laws mandating certification. Scam ad revenue dropped there — but held steady worldwide. Staffers found that Meta's systems simply targeted more dodgy ads to users elsewhere: — “revenue was redistributed.... This would go for…
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@jeffhorwitz
Jeff Horwitz
on bluesky
We got Meta's “general global playbook” for defeating advertiser verification regulations, which the company knows would reduce scams. It includes making scam ads “not findable” for regulators searching Meta's ad library through targeted scrubbing. — www.reuters.com/investigat…
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r/neoliberal
r
on reddit
Meta created ‘playbook’ to fend off pressure to crack down on scammers, documents show
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r/technology
r
on reddit
Meta created ‘playbook’ to fend off pressure to crack down on scammers, documents show