IMPORTANT NOTE! If you have been scammed after seeing an ad on one of Meta’s platforms, please contact the law firm listed at the end of this article!

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There is a gargantuan crisis brewing in Silicon Valley. Until now, no one else, for whatever reason, has been willing to acknowledge this crisis of epic proportions. As a publicly traded corporation listed on the New York Stock Exchange, Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ: META) has a BIG problem:

What to do when at least ten percent (10%) of its operating revenue or income stream is questionable, tainted, and obtained through fraud? According to Reuters, Meta has done almost nothing. They have simply rolled in the dough, bolstering their seminal venture into AI.

Meta needs this ill-gotten cash flow as competition into AI has gotten beyond competitive, and very costly. In fact, knowing that accepting dirty money was suspect, Meta went so far as to charge the “scammiest scammers” a premium to remain on its platforms, permitting the running of pervasive predatory and fraudulent publishing schemes – among countless other ones (investment scams, illegal casinos, banned medical products – you name it).  Its platforms are showing Meta’s users 15 billion fraudulent ads a day!  Simply stated, Meta both needed and wanted the dirty dough.

Dirty dough has been flowing into Meta Platforms, Inc.’s balance sheet for years and this fact has been finally brought to light by both Reuters and The Guardian, two venerated, global journalistic powerhouses. It’s about time!

DIRTY DEEDS

If you have a vision in your mind of Scarface, with money counters gyrating around the clock, tabulating drug money, you won’t even come close to the amount of cash involved in Meta’s continuing mendacity, avarice, and complicity in crime. As much as 16 BILLION dollars has flowed into Meta’s coffers unquestioned – until now. That amount is for calendar year 2024 alone!

“Meta internally projected late last year that it would earn about 10% of its overall annual revenue – or $16 billion – from running advertising for scams and banned goods, internal company documents show.” – Reuters

Notwithstanding indifference from the FBI, various State Bureaus of Consumer Protection, and Meta itself, the curtain has been pulled back, and the elephant has finally been acknowledged. True to form, Meta is carefully crafting its mea culpa, and vigorously downplaying its role in ongoing Internet criminal fraud. With 2024 revenue at $164.5 BILLION, a twenty-two (22%) increase over the prior calendar year, why would they do otherwise? If you think I use the word mendacity lightly, I don’t.

“Meta has internally acknowledged that regulatory fines for scam ads are certain, and anticipates penalties of up to $1 billion, according to one internal document.” – Reuters

That means they were willing to keep letting their users get scammed, knowing they would still keep billions in profits from the operation. What we don’t know is if Meta anticipated not only getting sued by the U.S. government, but also getting sued by governments in other countries whose residents were affected as well.

One need only look to Meta’s most recent annual 10-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to see that which Meta is hiding in plain sight. The obligatory filing, which includes detailed information about the company’s financial condition, results of operations, business strategy, and future outlook makes no reference to Meta’s active participation in massive fraud. Fraud proceeds are conspicuously absent from its Risk Factors and Legal Proceedings sections of its 10-K.  The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals’ recent ruling against Meta in Calise v. Meta Platforms, Inc. isn’t even mentioned.

The ruling in Calise is significant as the Ninth Circuit effectively – and properly – stripped Meta of immunity afforded under the federal Communications Decency Act.  The emperor of Silicon Valley has no clothes. The court ruled that Meta failed to protect its users from fraudulent advertisements in contravention of common law contract principles, and Meta’s own Terms of Service and Community Standards.

I’m certain that there is much to follow in light of the intrepid journalism of Kelly Burke with The Guardian (who interviewed Angela and I over Zoom this week), and Jeff Horwitz with Reuters.

Having pursued (and reported!) countless fraudulent publishing ads on Facebook for over nineteen months, I must admit that Angela Hoy, the creator of WritersWeekly, and the President & CEO of Booklocker, and I feel a sense of validation and vindication. Somebody is finally listening!

Meta’s conduct screams complicity, and is nothing short of aiding and abetting a concerted and massive criminal enterprise that has crippled the publishing services industry (among others), to say nothing of how much financial and emotional damage Meta has allowed scammers to inflict on their own legitimate users.

That said, the immunity afforded under the Communications Decency Act does not apply by virtue of its express language.   The Act provides, in pertinent part:

(e) Effect on other laws

(1) No effect on criminal law

Nothing in this section shall be construed to impair the enforcement of section 223 or 231 of this title, chapter 71 (relating to obscenity) or 110 (relating to sexual exploitation of children) of title 18, or any other Federal criminal statute.

[Emphasis Added]

LEGISLATIVE INTENT

Recognizing the growth of the Internet as a critical component of the U.S. economy, Congress granted immunity to online platforms, like Facebook and Instagram, in order to protect them from the legal risks associated with the hosting of third-party content. Ostensibly, Congress wanted to encourage free speech and expression without fear of legal consequences and costly, onerous litigation.

The Communications Decency Act, however, never contemplated the protection of online platforms who actively aid and abet nefarious criminal enterprises. Actively aiding and abetting criminal fraud is not only a violation of federal law, it falls outside the ambit or broad immunity extended under the Communications Decency Act.

Meta has a huge problem, and it isn’t going away any time soon.

IMPORTANT NOTE!

If you have been a victim after seeing an ad on Meta’s websites, you should immediately contact this law firm:

Adam M. Apton
LEVI & KORSINSKY LLP
388 Market Street, Suite 1300
San Francisco, CA 94111
Telephone: 415-373-1671
Email: aapton@zlk.com

Mark S. Reich
Courtney E. Maccarone
LEVI & KORSINSKY, LLP
33 Whitehall, 17th Floor
New York, NY 10004
Telephone: 212-363-7500
Email: mreich@zlk.com
Email: cmaccarone@zlk.com

More to follow as this Silicon Valley crisis unfolds.

REPORT PUBLISHING FRAUD

AuthorFraud@fbi.gov

JenniferNewstead@meta.com

LegalInvestigations@meta.com

criminaldivision@doj.gov

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JAMES M. WALSH, ESQ. is a former Navy JAGC officer and a recipient of the American Bar Association’s coveted LAMP Award for excellence in military legal assistance practice. A rolling stone, J.M. has globetrotted most of his adult life. After the military, J.M. pursued commercial real estate development, leasing, and asset management. He resides in Catania, Sicily. He spent almost twenty years in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s Luzerne, Erie & Lackawanna Counties. His handiwork as an editor and author is interspersed throughout this novel. Leo A. Murray fondly refers to J.M. as his collaborative, literary ‘Coach’ or ‘Lieutenant.’ Agnes claims that he has gypsy in his heart and rabbit in his feet.

James’ thriller, Maximum Impact, written with co-author Leo Murray, was published by Abuzz Press.

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