The Australian competition authority has filed a lawsuit against Facebook parent company Meta. The company is said to have published misleading advertisements for cryptocurrencies. The ads would have led to fraudulent sites using celebrities as testimonials.
Facebook parent company Meta has to answer in Australia for misleading cryptocurrency. The Australian Competition Authority Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) has initiated a corresponding lawsuit.
The company has therefore approved advertisements that forward to fraudulent websites with the help of celebrities as testimonials. The ads also suggested that famous Australians endorsed cryptocurrency investments on the websites, the ACCC said in one Statement.
Meta condones misleading cryptocurrency ads
According to the Australian Competition Authority, Facebook users were redirected to fraudulent pages with the help of ads that contained quotes from celebrities and recommended that users sign up. Fraudsters then urged users to deposit their money in fake cryptosystems.
The statement continued, “The allegation is that Meta knew the celebrity-backed cryptocurrency scam advertisement was being displayed on Facebook, but did not take sufficient steps to resolve the issue.”
Like the news agency Reuters reported, Meta said that any form of advertising that misleads or cheats users out of their money violates their policies. The company also uses appropriate technologies to identify and block such posts.
Hollywood stars Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman affected
The Zuckerberg group said it had been cooperating with the agency on the matter, adding: “We will review the ACCC’s recent lawsuit and intend to defend ourselves against the proceeding.”
According to the ACCC, the ads featured images of several Australian business leaders, presenters and politicians. Also, they would have contained fake quotes and links to fake websites. Australian media reports according to the celebrities, the Hollywood stars Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman are among those.
