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Meta should face Australian billionaire Forrest's US claim over fraud Facebook crypto ads

A U.S. judge turned down Meta Platforms' quote to dismiss a suit by billionaire Australian mining mogul Andrew Forrest over scam Facebook advertisements that reveal him promoting fake cryptocurrency and other deceitful financial investments.

In a choice on Monday, U.S. District Judge Casey Pitts in San Jose, California stated Australia's second-richest individual can try to show that Meta's carelessness in permitting the advertisements breached its duty to run in a commercially affordable way.

Forrest can also try to show that his name and likeness was misappropriated by Meta, and not just by fraudsters behind the phony advertisements.

Dr. Forrest claims that Meta benefited more from advertisements that included his likeness than it would have if the advertisements had not, Pitts wrote. This suffices to effectively plead that the declared misappropriation was to Meta's benefit.

Legal representatives for Meta decreased to comment on Tuesday.

The Palo Alto, California-based company had argued that Area 230 of the federal Communications Decency Act immunized it from liability as a publisher of third-party content.

However the judge said Forrest's claims provide a factual disagreement regarding whether Meta's advertisement systems were neutral tools that anybody might use (or misuse) or whether the tools themselves contributed to the content of the ads.

Forrest stated more than 1,000 of the ads appeared on Facebook in Australia in between April and November 2023, resulting in countless dollars in losses for victims.

The 62-year-old is executive chairman of iron ore producer Fortescue Metals Group, and with his family deserves US$ 16.5 billion (AUD$ 24.8 billion), according to Forbes magazine.

In a declaration, Forrest said Pitts' decision was the first where a social media business was not able to invoke Section 230 immunity in a U.S. civil case over its advertising company.

This is an essential strategic triumph in the battle to hold Facebook responsible, he stated.

Forrest is seeking countervailing and compensatory damages.

In April, Australian district attorneys decreased to pursue criminal charges that he brought versus Meta in that country over rip-off cryptocurrency advertisements.

Forrest had actually sued under Australian laws that let people criminally prosecute foreign business upon getting district attorneys' permission.

The case is Forrest v Facebook Inc et al, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, No. 22-03699.

(source: Reuters)