In a first-of-its-kind lawsuit filed against Meta (formerly Facebook), Australian iron ore magnate Andrew Forrest nicknamed ‘Twiggy’ has accused the social media giant of violating anti-money laundering laws by failing to prevent a series of scam crypto ads using his image and name, according to media reports on Thursday.
Meta has never faced criminal charges despite being under intense scrutiny by governments around the world over user data privacy.
According to ABC News, Forrest claimed that Facebook acted “criminally recklessly” by failing to remove false cryptocurrency scam advertisements featuring his image.
Forrest claimed that Facebook, now known as Meta, “failed to create controls or a corporate culture to prevent its systems from being used to commit the crime.”
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“I’m worried that innocent Australians are being conned by clickbait ads on social media. I’m committed to ensuring that social media operators do not allow criminal syndicates to use their platforms,” he said in a statement.
The charges were filed with the consent of the Commonwealth Attorney-General under Part 10 of the Commonwealth Criminal Code.
As per the report, an initial hearing in the case will be held on March 28 in the Western Australia Magistrates Court.
In September of last year, Forrest filed civil proceedings in California against the company, seeking injunctive relief and other remedies.
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A separate case was ongoing in the Superior Court of California.
“We do not want advertisements looking to scam people out of money or mislead people on Facebook — they violate our policies and are not good for our community,” a Meta spokesperson said.
“We adopt a multifaceted method to stopping these ads, working not only to detect and reject the ads themselves, but also to block advertisers from our services and, in some cases, to take court action to enforce our policies,” the company spokesperson included.
Since March 2019, Forrest has been irritated by clickbait ads, some of which claim that Forrest secretly made his $27 billion fortune through cryptocurrency trading.
He even publicly urged Meta Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg to stop the advertisements.
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