Meta made scam ads harder to find instead of removing them

4 months ago

Meta worked to make scam ads harder to find rather than fully cracking down on them.
Internal documents show Meta feared Japanese regulators would require costly universal advertiser verification, estimated at $2 billion.
Meta made scam ads less discoverable to regulators, investigators, and journalists to avoid scrutiny.
The tactic was added to a 'general global playbook' used in markets like the U.S., Europe, India, Australia, Brazil, and Thailand.
Meta internally projected 10% of 2024 revenue would come from scam ads, later calling the estimate overly broad.
The scam ad revenue rate was reportedly double in China compared to other markets.

Hasty Briefsbeta