Nov 05, 2024 06:00:00

Deceptive political ads are exploding on Instagram and Facebook

ProPublica and other US news outlets have published a report alleging an increase in deceptive ads posing as celebrities and government organizations on Instagram and Facebook, both owned by Meta. The deceptive ads have been viewed hundreds of millions of times by users, and Meta has been criticized for failing to crack down on harmful content.

Deceptive Political Ads Thrived on Facebook, IG in Run-Up to Election — ProPublica

https://www.propublica.org/article/facebook-instagram-meta-deceptive-political-ads-election

According to an investigation by ProPublica and the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia Journalism School, Meta has eight networks that serve deceptive ads in English and Spanish on its platform, and at the time of the investigation, they had placed more than 160,000 election and social issue ads on more than 340 Facebook pages.

Some of these scammers were hijacking accounts to deliver ads to unrelated users' pages, raising concerns that users who viewed these ads would be directed to a form requesting personal information and their phone numbers would be stolen. These ads were shown approximately 900 million times across Facebook and Instagram.

'Meta generates more than $115 billion in annual advertising revenue, but its failure to consistently block these scams highlights how one of the world's largest platforms is failing to deliver on its promise to protect users from fraud,' ProPublica and others said.

Meta has

a policy on advertising , but the networks ProPublica investigated blatantly used tactics that Meta banned, such as using fake audio or video posing as public figures involved in national politics or promoting misleading claims about government programs to solicit personal information.

For example, an ad claiming that 'Illinois now allows residents under age 89 to purchase up to $35,000 in funeral insurance to cover all end-of-life expenses!' used the governor and state seal of Illinois without permission.

The investigation found that while Meta was successful in removing some ads, it failed to remove all similar ads, and failed to close accounts that had posted violating ads, allowing new ads to be posted instead.

Jeff Allen, a former data scientist at Meta and chief research officer at the Integrity Institute, a nonprofit for trust and safety experts, said, 'Meta's policing is very shaky and inconsistent, and doesn't really solve the underlying problem.' He said that the system that allows one Facebook page to connect to multiple ad accounts and user profiles has been abused for eight years, but has not been improved at all. 'There are many loopholes in the system, but Facebook's only countermeasure is to play whack-a-mole,' he said, calling for a fundamental solution.

Deceptive advertising is also a problem in Japan, with Meta's Japanese subsidiary and others facing lawsuits there.

Meta faces 435 million yen lawsuit over investment fraud ads in Japan - GIGAZINE