Internal documents from Meta reveal that about 10% of its total sales in 2024, approximately $16 billion, could come from advertisements linked to fraudulent schemes and prohibited products. This was reported by Reuters.
Such advertisements included promotional materials for fake investment projects, illegal online casinos, and the sale of banned medical products. The documents reviewed by Reuters reflect Meta's attempts to assess the scale of fraudulent advertising on its platforms.
Meta's total revenue for 2024 is expected to exceed $164.5 billion. Last week, the company announced a 26% increase in its third-quarter revenue, reaching $51.24 billion. Additionally, Meta raised the lower end of its projected expenses by $2 billion due to significant investments in artificial intelligence.
Reuters also cited data from a December 2024 document indicating annual revenues of $7 billion from so-called “high-risk” fraudulent ads that are clearly misleading. It is estimated that around 15 billion such ads were shown to users daily.
While some documents indicated Meta's intent to reduce the number of fraudulent ads, others expressed concern about the potential impact of a sudden removal on financial performance.
A Meta spokesperson stated that the company is “aggressively” combating fraudulent advertising. He noted that the estimate of 10% of revenue was “approximate and overly broad,” and further analysis showed that a significant portion of ads did not violate policies. He also emphasized that the leaked documents only represent part of the company's work in assessing the issue, not all the measures being taken to address it.