Andrew Forrest pressures IAB Australia to penalize Meta over scam revenue
Mining billionaire Andrew Forrest has petitioned IAB Australia to consider penalizing Meta, citing internal company reports that a significant portion of its global ad revenue stems from fraudulent advertising. The petition underscores growing industry tension regarding the ethical responsibilities of platforms in mitigating scam and deepfake advertisements.
Key Takeaways
- Internal Meta projections show nearly 10% of 2024 global revenue ($164 billion total) came from ads for scams or banned goods.
- Meta reportedly charges higher 'penalty' ad rates to suspicious accounts instead of banning them unless automated systems are 95% certain of fraud.
- IAB Sweden already expelled Meta in April 2026 over similar concerns, creating a precedent for other national industry chapters.
- Andrew Forrest’s image and voice have allegedly appeared in over 230,000 fraudulent deepfake clips on Meta platforms as of May 2025.
Why It Matters
The pressure on IAB Australia shifts the fraud debate from platform moderation to industry-level accountability and the integrity of the programmatic supply chain. If industry bodies start ejecting dominant players like Meta, it complicates brand safety certifications and could lead to a fragmented self-regulatory landscape. Concretely, this exposes a conflict in Meta’s business model: charging 'penalty bids' to likely scammers turns fraud into a higher-margin revenue stream rather than a liability to be eliminated. Industry strategists should monitor whether IAB Australia follows the Swedish chapter’s lead, as a second expulsion would likely trigger wider brand safety audits and pressure on other trade organizations like the Global Alliance for Responsible Media.
Additional Context
The escalating tension between Andrew Forrest and Meta mirrors a global surge in deepfake-driven financial fraud via social media. Per the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), the Scams Prevention Framework Bill introduced in late 2024 aims to establish mandatory obligations for digital platforms to disrupt scams. This legislative push followed reports that Australian scam losses exceeded $2.18 billion in 2025, with social media acting as a primary entry point for investment fraud. This domestic pressure aligns with Forrest’s $60 million civil lawsuit in California, where his legal team is challenging Meta's Section 230 immunity by arguing the platform's AI-powered Advantage+ tools turn it into a 'co-author' of fraudulent content. International friction reached a peak in April 2026 when IAB Sweden formally expelled Meta. Per MediaPost (March 2026), the decision was driven by major Nordic publishers like Bonnier News and Schibsted, who cited Meta's failure to prevent the misuse of media brands in crypto scams. While Meta did not appeal the Swedish expulsion, it continues to maintain that its internal systems took down 159 million scam ads in 2025 before they were reported. Despite these efforts, Reuters reported in November 2025 that Meta users were still exposed to an estimated 15 billion higher-risk advertisements daily. This has attracted scrutinization from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regarding the transparency of Meta’s 'violating revenue' and its impact on auction floors for legitimate advertisers.
Read full article at afr.com
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