Fresh scrutiny has emerged around Meta’s advertising practices after new details surfaced from internal company records.
Meta, the company led by Mark Zuckerberg and owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, is facing renewed controversy following claims that it profited heavily from fraudulent advertising. A recent report by a global news agency, citing internal documents, alleged that Meta allowed large volumes of scam related ads to run across its platforms worldwide.
The report stated that Chinese companies generated more than $18 billion in annual ad revenue for Meta last year, accounting for over 10 percent of the company’s global revenue. From this total, Meta reportedly earned more than $3 billion from scam ads, illegal gambling, pornography and other prohibited content.
The internal records were described as previously unreported material created over the past 4 years by teams across Meta’s engineering, finance, lobbying and safety divisions. The documents suggested that the company was hesitant to implement fixes that could negatively affect ad revenue.
Although Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp are banned in China, Chinese companies are permitted by Beijing to advertise to international audiences. According to the documents reviewed, nearly 25 percent of all scam and banned product ads on Meta platforms originated from China.
“We need to make a significant investment to reduce growing harm”, Meta staff reportedly told the head of safety operations during a presentation last year. Following this warning, Meta formed a dedicated team to monitor scam ads linked to China. This effort reportedly reduced revenue from such ads from 19 percent to 9 percent.
However, a document dated late 2024 claimed that Mark Zuckerberg asked the team focused on China related fraud to pause its work. The report said the team was later disbanded and a restriction preventing Chinese ad agencies from advertising on Meta platforms was lifted. Within months, revenue from fraudulent ads reportedly rose again to 16 percent of Meta’s total advertising income.
Responding to the claims, Meta spokesperson Andy Stone told the news agency that the team targeting Chinese ad fraud was always intended to be temporary. He said Zuckerberg did not order the team to be shut down, but asked them to “redouble efforts to reduce them all across the globe, including in China.”
Meta also said it removed 46 million ads submitted by Chinese businesses over the past 18 months and stopped working with certain ad agencies. However, the company did not address questions related to the internal documents. Another internal record reportedly described China as Meta’s top “Scam Exporting Nation” and the largest source of fraud across Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.
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