Social media giant Facebook/Meta has been significantly involved in the crypto-verse. Aside from its crypto-centric initiative, Libra, the social media platform has been chastised by many for its fraudulent crypto ads. Australian billionaire, Andrew Forrest fell prey to such ads and decided to sue the platform. Following this lawsuit, Facebook responded by rejecting Forrest’s accusations.
Earlier this month, the Aussie billionaire filed a lawsuit against Facebook for criminal recklessness. Ads with images of the billionaire were reportedly all over the social media platform. The complaint claimed that Meta did not pay heed to fake crypto advertisements causing Australians to lose money.
As a result, after several attempts to voice his concerns to Facebook, Forrest decided to take the legal route. He wanted the firm to take responsibility for its actions and asserted its terms of services to protect it from liability.
Facebook, however, blatantly rejected this and pointed out the fact that Forrest entailed an official Facebook. This means that the billionaire had agreed to the social media giant’s terms and conditions. Therefore, he couldn’t claim that the company was liable.
The latest court filing by Facebook read,
“Specifically, section 4.3 of the TOS makes clear that Facebook is ‘provided ‘as is’’, that Facebook ‘make[s] no guarantees that [the platform] always will be safe, secure, or error-free’, and that Facebook ‘do[es] not control or direct what people and others do or say’ and ‘[is] not responsible for their actions or conduct (whether online or offline) or any content they share (including offensive, inappropriate, obscene, unlawful, and other objectionable content)’.”
Facebook’s scammy crypto ads featuring Forrest
Forrest wasn’t the only one to be dragged into such a scam. Over the years, assailants have targeted a number of celebrities. The advertisement featuring these celebrities frequently directs interested viewers to a link that purports to be a cryptocurrency investment scheme.
Forrest accused Facebook of various things in his lawsuit. This included the firm’s failure to remove the advertisements, which resulted in a violation of federal money laundering regulations. According to Forrest’s court petition, the social media platform was intimately involved in establishing and implementing a system that exposes its users to illegal content.
Furthermore, the social media firm was awaiting Forrest’s response which is due on Tuesday. This will be followed by Facebook’s answer in March, followed by a hearing in April.