In a recent revelation, it has emerged that Meta platforms tolerated a large volume of fraudulent Chinese advertisements run on Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp to safeguard millions of dollars in revenue. While China has banned Meta platforms domestically, Chinese companies freely advertise to foreign customers. These advertisements generated $18 billion in revenue for Meta in 2024 and accounted for over 10% of its global income.
A Reuters report dated 15th December, cited Meta’s internal documents to say that nearly 19% of that revenue, approximately $3 billion, came from scam ads, illegal gambling, pornography and other prohibited content.
The document prepared by Meta’s finance, lobbying, engineering and safety divisions showed that the Meta executives understood the modus operandi of Chinese advertisers and the scale of abuse. Despite this, Meta remained reluctant to stop this abuse on its platforms to protect the huge revenues it was generating through the fraudulent Chinese advertisements.
Citing the Meta documents, Reuters reported, “Meta believed China was the country of origin of roughly a quarter of all ads for scams and banned products on Meta’s platforms worldwide. Victims ranged from shoppers in Taiwan who purchased bogus health supplements to investors in the United States and Canada who were swindled out of their savings. “
However, in the second half of 2024, problematic ads were cut by about half, slumping from 19% to 9% of the total advertising revenue coming from China.
