Deepfake political scam ads surge on Meta platforms | The Express Tribune
Key Takeaways
- Scammers are top political ad spenders on Meta platforms, using deepfake videos of politicians like Donald Trump.
- A watchdog group (TTP) identified 63 scam advertisers who collectively spent $49 million promoting fake government benefits.
- These deceptive ads primarily targeted seniors with offers for fake stimulus checks, spending cards, and healthcare payments.
- TTP criticized Meta for lax content moderation, allowing scammers to exploit AI advancements despite policies prohibiting such ads.
- Although Meta removed the violating ads, nearly half of the identified scam advertisers remained active on the platforms recently.
The nonprofit Tech Transparency Project (TTP) uncovered that scammers are major political ad spenders on Meta's platforms, utilizing sophisticated deepfake videos of American politicians, including former President Donald Trump, to push fraudulent government benefit advertisements. These 63 identified scam advertisers collectively spent $49 million across Facebook and Instagram, frequently targeting older users with fake offers for stimulus checks, spending cards, and healthcare payments. TTP argues that these findings expose how scammers leverage advancements in AI, public uncertainty regarding social safety nets, and insufficient content moderation by Meta. Despite Meta's stated policies against deceptive advertising and investments in prevention, the group asserts the company permits this harmful activity to persist. While Meta claims to continually invest in technical defenses against evolving scam tactics, TTP noted that all 63 advertisers had their political ads removed within the last year for policy violations, yet almost 50% of them were still active as of the report date.
