News

Article by Jesinta Burton courtesy of Sydney Morning Herald.

Australia’s richest person Gina Rinehart has conceded a legal overhaul may be the only way to prevent people from being swindled as she lashed social media giant Facebook for its inaction on scam ads including several which used her likeness.

And she has implied the social media website’s parent company Meta should be the one to reimburse some of those left high and dry.

In November, Rinehart echoed the sentiments of several prominent Australians featured in AI-generated scam advertisements in a letter penned to the company’s founder Mark Zuckerberg.

She issued a second letter co-written by Australian businessman Dick Smith reiterating her concerns in December, calling for an end to the proliferation of “malicious” scams littered across Facebook.

But in a statement to this masthead, Rinehart revealed Meta Platforms to date had failed to act — leaving its users at risk.

The Hancock Prospecting boss highlighted there was no legal mechanism by which scam victims could retrieve funds lost to the scams facilitated by the platform, and appeared to call for a legislative crackdown.

“The Meta team appears to take its time in removing scams, meaning that some innocent people have been left to think that they are legitimate after seeing them online for weeks,” Rinehart said.

“It is tragic for people to lose their savings in this way because Meta is not willing to act responsibly and in a timely manner.

“Laws may need to change to ensure that those who’ve been taken in can get their money back from Mark Zuckerberg and/or Meta.

“Mark Zuckerberg needs to be directed to stop his platforms being used by criminals to scam people.”

The letters, sighted by this masthead, lay bare the sophisticated scam adverts which place Rinehart alongside fellow mining billionaire Andrew Forrest and several of Australia’s most prominent television news presenters and their prevelance.

“Greater action is needed to stop scams and intentionally fraudulent content from being available and advertised to millions of Australians. And I assume, spread overseas as well,” Rinehart wrote.

“Despite our staff’s concerted efforts to report such content, there remains an alarming persistence of scams, and new ones increasingly emerge. Meta needs to do more.”

Meta declined to comment.

Rinehart’s comments come just weeks after the Commonwealth dropped all charges in a criminal case against the social media giant, which Forrest initially spearheaded.

Forrest launched the case in 2022, claiming the trillion-dollar company had blatantly refused to address fraudulent content on its site, including deepfake crypto scams and get-rich-quick schemes featuring his likeness.

The DPP formally took the reins in December 2023, and Meta pleaded not guilty to three counts of recklessly dealing with the proceeds of crime.

Forrest branded the DPP’s decision to abandon the pursuit a “tragedy” for the innocent victims duped by the scam and said it demonstrated Facebook was beyond the law in Australia.

Forrest has also levelled a civil action in California, where his lawyers are challenging Meta’s claim a 30-year-old publishers’ immunity law shields it from liability.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission also dragged Meta to the Federal Court, demanding an injunction and penalties over allegations it engaged in misleading or deceptive conduct by publishing scam ads featuring high-profile Australians.

Scams cost Australians $3.1 billion to scams in 2022, marking an 80 per cent increase year-on-year.