Mining magnate Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest has launched a criminal case against the social media giant Facebook, alleging it breached anti-money laundering laws by failing to stop criminals using fake advertisements featuring celebrities, including himself, to scam Australians.
Dr Forrest, the billionaire chairman of iron ore giant Fortescue Metals, publicly appealed to Facebook founder and boss Mark Zuckerberg in 2019 to stop the ads that promoted cryptocurrency scams. Facebook recently adopted the name Meta for its corporate parent.
Andrew Forrest, one of the country’s most prominent businessman, is taking on a social media giant.Credit:Edwina Pickles
While scam ads that promise users a chance to get rich quick with crypto-assets such as Bitcoin are already banned on Facebook, they have long proliferated on the platform.
A spokesman for Meta declined to comment on Dr Forrest’s legal action but emphasised that scam ads were banned on Facebook. “We take a multifaceted approach to stop these ads, we work not just to detect and reject the ads themselves but also block advertisers from our services and, in some cases, take court action to enforce our policies,” the spokesman said. “We’re committed to keeping these people off our platform.”
Dr Forrest’s lawsuit, which was seen in summary form by The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, claims that Facebook failed to have proper systems or a culture to prevent its site being used to perpetrate the scams that defrauded web users.
It is the first time Facebook has faced a criminal charge anywhere in the world, Dr Forrest’s camp believe, and his case uses a rarely-deployed provision in federal law that permits private citizens to bring criminal actions with the assent of the Attorney-General.
Loading
“This action is being taken on behalf of those everyday Australians – mums and dads, grans and grandads – who work all their lives to gather their savings and to ensure those savings aren’t swindled away by scammers,” Dr Forrest said in a statement. “I’m acting here for Australians, but this is happening all over the world.”
In addition to three charges against Facebook in Australia, which will have an initial hearing in the WA Magistrates Court on March 28, Dr Forrest has filed a separate civil lawsuit in California.