The woman said she was disheartened by the DPP’s decision to abandon the pursuit, which she believed reinforced just how far behind Australia was in tackling the issue.

“Shame on them [Facebook]… you can’t make money on someone else’s tragedy,” she said.

“The Australian law doesn’t see this as a crime — the message I got when I approached the authorities was that I didn’t use my brains and I should have known it was too good to be true.

“It just goes to show Australia has a long, long way forward to address the major, major issue — which I would call an attack on Australia. The government has to do something.”

Forrest had released a video expressing concern about deepfake videos featuring his image just hours ahead of the Perth hearing, where he sought to have Meta held liable for its alleged failure to remove and prevent the ads.

And it came ahead of a second hearing in a Californian civil court, where Forrest’s lawyers are challenging the tech giant claim it is shielded from liability via a 30-year-old publishers’ immunity law buried in the Communications Decency Act.

A judge is expected to review Forrest’s evidence before ruling on whether the matter should go to trial.

“I’ve repeatedly asked Facebook to remove the thousands of scam ads featuring my image, but they continue to proliferate, with Facebook’s knowledge, on their paid advertising campaigns,” Forrest said in the video released on Friday.

“This law, this well-meaning law going back into the dark ages, well before the digital platforms even existed, actually gives full immunity for the content published on any of the company’s platforms, designed, of course, to help the internet.

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“But it doesn’t, it overrides democracy all over the world. This law means that these tech companies can publish the actions of criminals on their platform because they’re getting money for it and turning the other way.”

Forrest used the video as a call to action for the courts, arguing it was crucial Facebook knew it was accountable not just to the American law, but to Australia’s, too.

And he called on the social media companies to use their deep pockets to safeguard their users, particularly when it came to content designed to swindle those most vulnerable.