The company Meta, behind well-known social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, has promised to block illegal ads running in Britain. Despite the agreement, the government argues that those ads were not removed, posing a high risk for investors.
Britain’s financial regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), deeply observed Meta’s platform and noticed that the majority of the ads running were already flagged for breaking rules. These flagged ads stated high returns on currency trading, which is risky for investors who are new joiners.
During an analysis within one week in November, FCA counted over 1000 illegal financial ads that were running on Meta’s platforms. The majority of these ads were repetitive offenders, which were already notified by the company. This demonstrates that Meta does not completely prevent scams in Britain.
“Reuters also closely observed this issue. They ran a test where they designed a suspicious ad that promised high returns; as a result, those ads were running in Britain but were blocked in Australia. This clarifies that Meta’s protection policy differs from country to country and is not the same across the globe.”
Research conducted by Reset Tech also closely analyzed these ads about British banks like Barclays, HSBC, and Revolut. Furthermore, they observed that more than half of these ads were scams.
According to UK law, at the moment, they cannot impose a penalty on these paid scam ads until 2027, falling under the Online Safety Act. However, Meta has stated that it will permit only FCA-authorised advertisers to run ads. FCA is still working on the company’s systems and removing gaps.
Numerous consumer groups are emphasizing that Meta should work more on their protection policies. Barclays also states that tech firms should work more on preventing these scams while collaborating with banks. Revolut also specifies that Meta should enhance their verification processes and look at how their anti-scam actions are working.
Currently, users are concerned about their ads running on Meta and are at financial ads risk. It is recommended that users carefully check whether their financial firms are authorized before initiating investment.