The social media platform Meta, previously known as Facebook, has sparked a lot of controversy due to its misleading crypto advertising campaigns, on which Australian investigators are ready to take action.
The situation escalated just yesterday after one Australian billionaire Andrew "Twiggy" Forrest threatened Meta with legal action due to their misleading crypto ads with his name on them. Forrest is highly respected in Australia, and, by having his face alongside crypto scams, investors are likely to put their funds into these scams due to the billionaires' reputation.
It seems that Twiggy won’t be dealing with these crypto scams advertised on Meta by his lonesome. According to a local newspaper the Australian, the government will seemingly start investigating Meta's actions.
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Based on the report, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) will be leading the investigation.
Meta is currently being accused by the ACCC of disobedience to Australia’s Consumer Law by advertising misleading cryptocurrency schemes, which led to investors getting jipped.
The Australian Consumer and Competition Commission spoke on the matter, stating:
"Like Dr Forrest, we consider that Meta should be doing more to detect, prevent and remove false or misleading advertisements from the Facebook platform so that consumers are not misled and scammers are prevented from reaching potential victims."
Meanwhile, Andrew Forrest is looking to take Meta straight to court in late March, and seeks to injunct Meta, or, in other words, stop the social media platform from posting fraudulent crypto advertisement scams.
As the dispute between Meta and the Australian authorities is seemingly just catching fire, there have been previous instances where popular celebrities are being used as "bait" for crypto scammers to lure in potential investors.
These scams typically use celebrities who are related or at least somewhat adjacent to the crypto industry, for instance, Tesla’s Elon Musk or Microsoft’s Bill Gates. However, some use pictures of just widely known celebrities like Nicole Kidman to lure in investors, which what essentially happened to Andrew "Twiggy" Forrest.
