Andrew Forrest unbowed despite Facebook court setback
Andrew Forrest says he will fight on against Facebook’s allowance of fraudulent advertising, on behalf of ‘ordinary mums and dads’, despite WA prosecutors discontinuing court action.
Andrew Forrest has vowed to push on with his legal pursuit of Facebook owner Meta Platforms, after commonwealth prosecutors decided not to pursue money-laundering charges against the social media giant.
Dr Forrest had exercised rarely used legal powers to press criminal charges against Meta after growing frustrated by what he saw as the company’s lack of action towards fraudulent advertising featuring the likenesses of the iron ore magnate and other prominent Australians on its platforms.
But prosecutors on Friday morning told the District Court of Western Australia that they had decided to discontinue all charges after receiving a brief of evidence in the case late last year.
In a statement, Dr Forrest, the chairman of mining giant Fortescue Metals Group, said the decision was a tragedy for those who had lost their life savings through Facebook scams.
“It shows that Facebook is beyond the laws of Australia, that hardworking Australians are not protected, and that scams will continue to run rampant with no recourse for those who are duped by increasingly sophisticated technology on social media platforms that take no responsibility,” he said.
The billionaire said he would consider other legal avenues to pursue Facebook in Australia, while also intensifying efforts to convince legislators to improve laws governing social media.
“In this case, the Australian legal system was incapable of holding Meta to account for flagrant conduct that causes significant harm to Australian citizens,” he said.
“I will campaign for urgent law reform in Australia so effective action can be taken against foreign-owned social media platforms such as Facebook. Politicians must take responsibility on behalf of ordinary mums and dads. And it must happen immediately.”
In court for Friday’s decision was a woman who said she had lost $670,000 through a Facebook scam advertisement featuring Dr Forrest’s likeness.
Speaking outside the court the woman – who did not want to be named – slammed Facebook and its founder Mark Zuckerberg over their inaction on fraudulent advertising.
“Shame on them, shame on him,” she said.
“You can’t make money on someone else’s tragedy.”
She noted estimates that the amount of money lost by Australians to scams each year had grown from $800 million at the time she fell victim to more than $3 billion today.
“It’s very disheartening, the way things have happened in the courtroom today. It shows that Australia is very far behind today in tackling these issues,” she said.
“These scams are on the rise, it’s an exponential trajectory that we are on and unless the codes and legislation and things change, we will keep losing money.”
The District Court setback came as lawyers for Dr Forrest appeared in a Californian court, where the magnate is running a separate civil action against Meta. That matter was adjourned.
Facebook had previously argued that it should not be prosecuted in Australia because it did not operate in this jurisdiction.
Meta has about 11.5 million users in Australia and collects between $4.7bn and $5.1bn in Australian advertising revenue each year.
“Meta hides behind the lie that it does not do business in Australia, hiding behind a US entity,” Dr Forrest said.
“Foreign companies must be made to abide by Australian law.”
Meta was contacted for comment.
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