Rhode Island sues Meta

On October 22 local time, the U.S. state of Rhode Island filed a lawsuit against Meta in state court, accusing the company of taking a permissive attitude toward the flood of scam advertisements on its social media platforms Facebook, Instagram, and messaging app WhatsApp. The lawsuit was submitted by the Rhode Island Attorney General, alleging that Meta illegally profited by participating in the creation of scam advertisements. This is the first scam-related lawsuit brought by a U.S. state against Meta; previously, Santa Clara County, California, filed a similar lawsuit in May. Rhode Island's complaint cited Meta internal documents disclosed last year. According to these documents, Meta shows users approximately 15 billion "high-risk" scam advertisements every day, and about 10% of its 2024 revenue came from fraudulent e-commerce, questionable health products, and other prohibited marketing activities. The lawsuit seeks civil penalties for each alleged violation of Rhode Island law by Meta, demands refunds to consumers for their losses, disgorgement of its illegal gains, and asks the court to order Meta to rectify scam advertisements on its platforms rather than profit from them. Meta said it will defend itself in court, calling the lawsuit "baseless" and noting that the company regularly cooperates with law enforcement to combat scam networks.