By Aisha Dow
Social media giant Meta has promised to introduce tighter rules on advertisers to tackle scam ads targeting Australians on Facebook and Instagram.
Meta has faced mounting pressure to improve its advertiser verification after an investigation by this masthead revealed the tech titan was accepting money to push ads promoting notorious scams to tens of thousands of Australians.
Will Easton, the managing director of Meta Australia and New Zealand.Credit: Louie Douvis
Most of the advertisers behind the scam ads were clearly not legitimate investment companies, such as a page listed as a women’s clothing shop in Ukraine. Many were pages with only a handful of likes. Some of the ads featured manipulated videos of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
On Monday, Meta announced new rules for advertisers promoting financial products or services to Australians, including a requirement forcing advertisers of investment schemes to provide credentials.
Advertisers will have to verify which company the ad is for, who is paying for it and who the beneficiary is. This information will be available to social media users seeing the ad.
The advertiser will also have to provide their Australian financial services licence number, if they are required by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission to have one, or provide a government-issued ID or business documents, Meta said.
Those selling insurance products, mortgages, loans, investment products and opportunities and credit cards to Australians are among those who will face the new verification rules.
“Meta recognises the devastating impact that finance and investment scams can have on Australian consumers,” said Will Easton, managing director of Meta Australia and New Zealand
“The introduction of financial advertiser verification is an important additional step towards protecting people in Australia from these sophisticated scammers, who try to impersonate legitimate financial institutions and advertisers.”
Meta is one of the targets of proposed federal government laws set to put banks, telcos and digital platforms on the hook for compensation to victims if they do not meet the obligations of new mandatory scam codes.
Financial Services Minister Stephen Jones and advocates have already repeatedly called for Meta to act ahead of the promised law changes by significantly improving its advertiser verification.
After this masthead’s investigations, Jones also asked his department and office to probe whether Meta was breaching existing laws, including its criminal and civil obligations.
“It’s not good enough that they don’t have a system which enables blatantly criminal material to be removed,” Jones said.
On Monday, a spokesperson for Jones said the announcement from Meta was welcome but more was needed.
“Social media platforms facilitate the most scam activity across the economy,” the spokesperson said. “The government’s Scams Prevention Framework will lift obligations to protect consumers from scammers across the entire economy, with penalties for businesses that don’t meet the standard.”
Meta has said it will start rolling out the verification changes over the next month. The rollout is to be completed in February next year.
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