“What is clear is that Zuckerberg has chosen exposure over caution. The Meta AI superintelligence push is not about refinement. It is about refusing to accept second place in a race that now defines the industry.” ~ George Kamau, TechTrends

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Just as Mark Zuckerberg and Meta Platforms, Inc. have decided to double down on Artificial Intelligence (AI) as the focus and vehicle for growth moving forward, they have also chosen to stay the course and actively engage in criminal fraud on their platforms – Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. Fraud revenue is simply too lucrative! Fraud revenue fuels unprecedented spending on ballooning infrastructure budgets. “This is not spending for polish or optional upgrades. It is spending driven by fear of irrelevance.”

Meta easily absorbed an unprecedented 5 billion dollar fine imposed by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) after the Cambridge Analytica data harvesting scandal. Five billion dollars is chump change when compared to the enormous revenue stream created by aiding and abetting, and actively participating in criminal fraud vis-à-vis predatory and scam advertising revenue. According to Reuters, Meta is knowingly earning billions per year from ads from scammers, and feeding 15 BILLION scam ads to their users every day!

According to those internal documents obtained by Reuters, it appears that Meta thought it would all be worth it, assuming that their illicit revenues would far exceed any fines imposed by the United States government.

But, what Meta didn’t seem to factor in were fines from countries all over the world. Just three months ago, a Spanish court fined Meta $550M. Meta has also been sued in Kenya (£2bn) for hate speech (people were killed), has been the defendant in more than one case in the European Union (billions of dollars), a class-action case in Israel, accusing Meta of using names/photos for promotion without consent, and, just this month, an international group representing users in India, Australia, Brazil, Mexico, and South Africa filed a lawsuit calling Whatsapp’s end to end encryption a “sham.”

While I am sure those lawsuits are considered small potatoes in Meta’s eyes, the U.S. federal government is now going after them and we are certain many other governments will be following suit because of Meta’s failure to protect its users, and to even to abide by its own terms of service with those users.

From an accounting perspective, and irrespective of unprecedented fines, Meta’s active participation in criminal fraud “pencils” at the end of the day. Its balance sheet revenue stream grows in spite of eye-popping governmental sanctions and settlements.

That is why complete forfeiture or disgorgement of their criminal revenue stream is the only remedy that will stem its systematic fraud, and garner the attention of Meta’s Board of Directors. Meta is completely incapable of policing itself.

FAKE SCAM RECOVERY SCHEMES

Fraud revenue streams come from advertising illicit products, crypto schemes, publishing and other service scams, fake law firms, online casinos, romance scams, etc. There has even been a surge in scam recovery firms (also run by scammers!) chomping at the bit to fleece victims of Facebook fraud a SECOND TIME. Unscrupulous? You bet! But, almost without exception, these pernicious predators are all paying Meta to scam unwitting victims. And, Meta KNOWS IT. Worse, when you click to report a scam on Facebook, almost 100% of the time, Facebook doesn’t remove the scammer’s profile.

Moreover, these predatory recovery schemes even go so far as to cloak themselves with an affiliation with the Treasury Department and FBI. IC3, the FBI’s premier online cybercrime reporting center, has been denigrated and tarnished as cyber criminals have simply used IC3 as a deceptive trap to ensnare Internet victims of fraud.

Personally, I can assure you that the Internet – particularly Facebook – is NOT the forum of choice for attorney advertisements. It just isn’t. These fake “recovery firms” are NOT law offices.

Note: Reels, a popular Facebook feature, is completely overrun with recovery firm scams.  Many of the predators, like the ones on Facebook Reels, claim affiliation with IC3 and the FBI, and purport to be recovery experts, and/or licensed attorneys. I could not find a single Facebook Ad or Facebook Reel for a scam victims’ recovery firm that was legitimate.

In Mark Zuckerberg’s own words, Facebook isn’t about connecting friends and family anymore.

Facebook has become a publicly traded Racketeering Influenced Corrupt Organization (RICO) that has put profits, illicitly funded growth, and its venture into AI above integrity, children’s mental and physical health, safety, and its own Terms of Service and Community Standards that, ostensibly, contractually guarantee user protection from fraud. Meta’s little-known Oversight Board has been a disastrous failure.

Meta’s previous Chief Legal Officer, Jennifer Newstead, hails from Harvard and Yale. She oversaw all global legal matters including, but not limited to, corporate governance. Angela Hoy at WritersWeekly and I sent her numerous emails about active criminals running ads on Facebook. She never responded to even one email and many of the scammers are still on Facebook. Jennifer Newstead abdicated her legal and fiduciary responsibility to Meta Platform’s, Inc.’s loyal users, and shareholders alike.

NOTE: Jennifer Newstead very recently left Meta to work for Apple. We aren’t surprised…

Generally, I loathe government intervention, but nothing short of the full force of law enforcement (FTC, SEC, FBI), and complete disgorgement of all illicit revenue earned by Meta will come close to achieving reparations for the trail of carnage that has become a constituent part of Meta’s playbook in its avaricious quest for tech dominance and profits.  Federal regulatory agencies and law enforcement have sat on the sidelines for far too long.

Leaders like Senator Marsha Blackburn, Senator Richard Blumenthal, and Senator Josh Hawley remain steadfast in their resolute quest to revamp the broad immunity afforded to internet platforms, but Section 230 immunity does NOT apply to Meta’s flagrant violations of existing Federal criminal law. It never did. That fact has been lost in this reprehensible melee.

Sarah Wynn-Williams was right, “It didn’t have to be this way.”

With all his monetary wealth, Mark Zuckerberg is morally bankrupt.

 RELATED

• Meta Partnered with China to Scam Americans, and Even to Target Our Children – by James M. Walsh, Esq.
• META GAG ORDER – Serial Exploitation of Children & CCP Connections! – by James M. Walsh, Esq.
• DID THEY HEAR OUR PODCAST?? – Senators Call for Investigation into Facebook’s BILLION DOLLAR Ad Fraud! – by James M. Walsh, Esq.
• Lawyer Representing 4,400 Clients is Going After Meta and Other Social Media Platforms on Behalf of Children and Their Families – by James M. Walsh, Esq.
• DIRTY DEEDS! Trouble Brewing at Meta for Massive Facebook Ad Fraud! – by James M. Walsh, Esq.
• OPEN AND OBVIOUS DANGER! Gmail Email Scammers are Targeting MILLIONS of Authors! By James M. Walsh, Esq.

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