Experts call for Meta to be forced to operate from Australian base to stop scams

Experts say forcing Facebook owner Meta to operate from inside Australia would prevent it dodging responsibility for scams and other misconduct.

The federal government should force Facebook owner Meta to operate from inside Australia so that it can no longer use US law to dodge responsibility for scam ads and other misconduct on its platform, experts say.

Meta currently claims that it can only be sued over content on Facebook in the US, where a powerful law known as “Section 230” protects it from liability over posts by users.

Mining magnate Andrew Forrest is currently suing Meta in a US court over a plague of Facebook scam ads featuring him, but the tech giant claims that Section 230 means it isn’t responsible for the material.

News Corp Australia executive chairman Michael Miller also took aim at the use of the US law to avoid responsibility for toxic content in Australia in an address to the National Press Club last week.

Together with parents and experts, News Corp’sLet Them Be Kids campaign is calling on the federal government to raise the age limit to access social media to 16 to stop the scourge of social media.

Let Them Be Kids: SIGN THE PETITION

Australian Mining magnate Andrew Forrest is suing Meta in a US court over a plague of Facebook scam ads featuring him. Picture: Penny Stephens/AFP

In US Federal Court documents, Dr Forrest describes Meta’s position as “jurisdictional arbitrage”, drawing a parallel with the way the company shifts money from ad sales out of high-tax countries such as Australia to corporate tax haven Ireland.

As News Corp revealed earlier this year, Meta uses this move to slash its Australian tax bills by an estimated $262m a year.

Alice Dawkins, the executive director of technology policy research group Reset.tech Australia and a former adviser to Dr Forrest’s Minderoo Foundation, said that if Meta’s argument succeeded “that means Meta cannot be subjected to any effective Australian code, or attempted regulatory enforcement or individual litigation, that’s seeking to compel better conduct”.

“Clearly, there’s got to be an effort to bring them within the jurisdiction,” she said.

“I think one way to do that is compelling them to register and to domicile the legal entity that services Australia – the legal entity that actually runs the platform.”

Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest has been the victim of five new scam ads published on Meta’s platforms every single day. Picture: Supplied

Dr Forrest’s lawyer, Simon Clarke, said that a hearing earlier this year in the US was encouraging for his client but ordinary Australians lacked the means to pursue Meta in its home territory.

“The Australian government should really do something about on-shoring the platforms,” he said.

“It should be compulsory that the companies running them are subject to Australian law, are regulated and domiciled in the jurisdiction.”

Jason Ward, principal analyst at the Centre for International Corporate Tax Accountability and Research, said Meta’s jurisdictional arbitrage over the ads was “the flip side of the coin to its aggressive tax dodging”.

“Legal loopholes exploited by multinationals, to the detriment of everyone else, need to be shut down,” he said.

“These giant global corporations should face the same laws, regulations and enforcement as the rest of us.”

Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg at Meta headquarters in Menlo Park, California. Picture: Josh Edelson/AFP

In December, Meta settled a defamation case brought in Ireland by Janet Jackson’s former husband, Qatari billionaire Wissam al Mana, over scam ads featuring him.

It publicly apologised and pledged to do more to curb the ads.

Calls to bring Facebook onshore come after the failure of Dr Forrest’s attempt to prosecute Meta under Australian criminal law for dealing with the proceeds of crime.

The WA District Court accepted submissions from the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions that the charges should be dropped.

“Meta hides behind the lie that it does not do business in Australia, hiding behind a US entity,” Dr Forrest said after the decision.

“Foreign companies must be made to abide by Australian law.”

A spokesperson for Communications Minister Michelle Rowland didn’t directly answer when asked if the government would consider forcing Meta and other platforms to run from Australia but said there was “no higher priority than keeping Australians safe online” and Australian e-safety law was enforceable outside the country.

A Meta spokesperson also didn’t directly answer questions about the issue.

“Meta doesn’t want scams on its platforms and we will continue to work tirelessly to prevent them and protect our users,” the spokesperson said.

Originally published as Experts call for Meta to be forced to operate from Australian base to stop scams