(NewsNation) — U.S. Senators Josh Hawley, R-Mo., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., are calling on the Federal Trade Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate revenue from Facebook and Instagram ads that promote scams and banned goods.
Earlier this month, Reuters reported internal documents from late 2024 stated Meta expected to earn about 10% of its revenue that year, about $16 billion, from illicit advertising. One document noted Meta earns $3.5 billion in revenue from “higher risk” scam ads every six months. Other documents stated that Meta’s anti-fraud rules didn’t appear to apply to many ads that regulators and the company’s own staff believed “violated the spirit” of its rules against scam advertising.
In response to the Reuters report, Meta said it had reduced user reports of scams by 58% over the last eighteen months.
“The FTC and SEC should immediately open investigations and, if the reporting is accurate, pursue vigorous enforcement action where appropriate” to force Meta to disgorge profits, pay penalties and agree to cease running such advertisements, Hawley and Blumenthal wrote in a letter to the federal agencies.
Hawley, a Republican from Missouri, and Blumenthal, a Democrat from Connecticut, expressed skepticism about Meta’s efforts to combat illicit advertising. They pointed to the company’s “ad library,” a publicly accessible database of advertising that appears on Meta’s social-media platforms.
“Even a short review of Meta’s Ad Library at the time of this letter shows clearly identifiable advertisements for illicit gambling, payment scams, crypto scams, AI deepfake sex services, and fake offers of federal benefits,” they wrote.
Meta, in a statement to NewsNation, said Blumenthal and Hawley made “exaggerated” and “wrong” claims in their letter.
“This letter makes claims that are exaggerated and wrong. We aggressively fight fraud and scams because people on our platforms don’t want this content, legitimate advertisers don’t want it and we don’t want it either,” the statement from a company spokesperson read.
Reuters contributed to this report.