ACCC warns Meta woeful in handling scams

Social media heavyweight Meta has been branded the worst in Australia for dealing with scams on its platforms by the ACCC boss.

Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb. Picture: Aaron Francis

The boss of the competition regulator has taken a swing at social media giant Meta over its handling of scams, warning the tech giant was the worst tech giant to deal with when trying to stamp out financial crime.

Speaking ahead of the launch of its new enforcement priorities, Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb warned Meta showed the need for a mandatory codes of conduct.

The ACCC has been lobbying for new mandatory codes of conduct for banks, telcos, and tech giants, as the regulator moves to squeeze scammers.

Ms Cass-Gottlieb said social media platforms were required to take down scams as “quickly as possible”, but noted some failed to respond “sufficiently prompt”.

But she said the regulator wanted platforms to set up a mandatory internal dispute resolution process “so that when consumers raise concerns about losses” from scams they could reach someone.

“There needs to be actually somebody to answer them, rather than no one taking complaints and concerns and also there be binding external dispute resolutions so that consumers can get redress,” she said.

“We do want the code to take account that if a company does business in Australia that they need to be accessible for Australian customers within Australia.”

Ms Cass-Gottlieb said it was “hard to quantify” just how much worse Meta was to its rivals in dealing with scams, noting the regulator was still slugging it out in the courts with the social media giant after launching action two years ago over its failure to take down fake celebrity endorsement ads.

“We do not see rapid take-down of fake celebrity ads on the Meta properties,” she said.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Picture: AFP

The ACCC chair’s comments come as Meta, owner of platforms including Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram, moved to scrap its deals that see it pay news platforms for the use of their content.

The $1.9 trillion tech giant announced on Friday last week it would not negotiate new news deals with Australian media companies putting in jeopardy almost $250m flowing to media platforms.

Meta said users of its platforms were not consuming news content and it would “deprecate” Facebook News in the United States and Australia, after already dumping the platform in the UK, France, and Germany last year.

This comes despite the legislation of the News Media Bargaining Code, which could compel Meta to negotiate with media platforms.

Ms Cass-Gottlieb said the ACCC was now conducting information gathering for an assessment of Meta’s moves after an instruction from the assistant treasurer Stephen Jones.

But the ACCC chair said the regulator did not have a view, noting its staff would “very carefully obtain, as rapidly as we can, the information we need and then will provide that advice”.

“Our advice master all always be independent and robust,” she said.

But Ms Cass-Gottlieb noted that a 2019 review found “an unequal bargaining power” between Meta and media groups in Australia, a requisite for designation under the News Media Bargaining Code.

Ms Cass-Gottlieb said the ACCC was still to make an assessment of whether it would require Meta to hand over documents or information to its review.