FCA: Meta Failed to Block Illegal Financial Ads

Britain's Financial Conduct Authority has found that Meta Platforms Inc. repeatedly failed to block illegal advertisements for high-risk financial products on its social media sites, including Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, during a targeted review last year. The regulator identified 1,052 such ads posted over one week in November by unauthorized advertisers promoting currency trading and complex instruments like contracts for difference, or CFDs.

More than half of the ads, 56 percent, originated from entities the FCA had previously flagged to Meta for similar violations. A follow-up review in December revealed that a small number of repeat offenders accounted for the majority of the illegal promotions, highlighting ongoing enforcement gaps. The FCA conducted the assessments to evaluate Meta's progress in curbing scam ads, which it warned last year were increasingly targeting users on social media with promises of lucrative currency trades.

Meta, the U.S.-based company serving billions of users worldwide, committed in 2022 to restricting financial services ads in Britain to those from FCA-authorized firms and updated its policies accordingly. However, the regulator stated...