An Australian mining magnate has accused the social media giant of failing to prevent scam ads using his name and image.
Last week, Meta was hit with criminal charges for the first time ever.
Australian billionaire Andrew Forrest filed a lawsuit in the Magistrates Court of Western Australia, saying he was taking action over a cryptocurrency scam that used his identity.
His case alleges that the social media company failed to prevent the publishing of fraudulent ads on Facebook that used his name and image to promote the scam, and breached Australia’s anti-money laundering laws for facilitating the spread of a crypto con.
Facebook was “criminally reckless”, Forrest alleged in a statement, because it did not take “sufficient steps to stop criminals from using its social media platform to send scam advertisements to defraud Australian users”.
The case will be heard from 28 March and, if successful, Facebook could face fines or be forced to change its advertising policies.
Who is Andrew Forrest?
Forrest is one of Australia’s richest men and chair of iron ore giant Fortescue Metals Group. He started that business 10 years after founding his first mining company, Anaconda Nickel (now Minara Resources).
Scam ads using his image to seemingly promote investment plans first appeared on Facebook in 2019.
At the time, Forrest called out Facebook for facilitating cryptocurrency scams that fraudulently used his identity, and warned…
