Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ:META) was aware of fraudulent practices by its Chinese advertisers but failed to take meaningful action, allowing the company to continue generating billions of dollars in ad revenue, according to a report.

Zuckerberg’s Role In Chinese Scam-Ads Prevention

Meta’s Chinese advertisers were found to be defrauding users of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp globally, and despite being aware of this, the company did not take substantial steps to address the issue, a Reuters special report detailed on Monday.

According to the publication, internal Meta documents from the past four years show the company was aware of widespread abuse on its platforms, especially originating from China. In 2024, about 19% of its $18 billion in annual revenue from China came from ads linked to scams, illegal gambling, and pornography.

Instead, Meta attempted to address the issue by creating an anti-fraud team, which managed to reduce problematic ads by half in the ...