How Meta Is Making Billions From Scam Advertising
Meta is making billions from ads they know are scams. Section 230 is one reason why it doesn’t have to stop running them.
Question Everything · Brian Reed
November 20, 202537m 27s
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Show Notes
<p dir="ltr">It seems like Meta just can’t lose. The Facebook parent company <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2025/11/18/tech/meta-antitrust-suit-decision-not-monopoly">won a huge victory in court </a>this week. The federal government was claiming Meta was too massive after acquiring Instagram and WhatsApp, and wanted to force the company to spin off those platforms. But a federal judge disagreed.</p>
<p dir="ltr">And that means, Meta will continue to make a ton of money from scam ads on those platforms. </p>
<p dir="ltr">Reuters reporter <a href="https://www.reuters.com/authors/jeff-horwitz/">Jeff Horwitz</a> received leaked documents<strong id="docs-internal-guid-5fe6b5f8-7fff-9112-96f6-71b6a3891bc7"> </strong>from inside Meta where employees estimated that last year <a href="https://www.reuters.com/investigations/meta-is-earning-fortune-deluge-fraudulent-ads-documents-show-2025-11-06/">its platforms served up 15 billion scam ad impressions</a> every day, totalling about $16 billion. That’s ten percent of the company’s total 2024 revenue. It’s a major part of their business.</p>
<p dir="ltr">And if you want to sue Meta for serving you ads that lead to your credit card or identity getting stolen, it’s going to be really tough – because of Section 230, the law that prevents companies from getting sued for the content posted on their sites. </p>
<p dir="ltr">Brian talks to Jeff about what he discovered in this latest leak: how these scam ads make Meta billions, one “queasy-making” fix Meta has come up with, and how Section 230 provides not just a shield, but a lack of incentive for the company to change its ways.</p>
<p dir="ltr">“Question Everything” is a production of <a href="http://www.kcrw.org">KCRW</a> and <a href="http://www.placementtheory.com">Placement Theory</a>. Don’t forget to sign up for our <a href="http://questioneverything.substack.com">newsletter</a>. And please help support our show by visiting our sponsor, the notetaking and personal assistant device <a href="http://plaud.ai">Plaud.ai</a>, and using the offer code QUESTION.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Guests:</p>
<p dir="ltr">Jeff Horwitz, Reuters reporter and the author of “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Broken-Code-Facebook-Harmful-Secrets/dp/B0BW4WDNCT/ref=sr_1_1?adgrpid=1330411452902112&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.gdCB6BDJww9rdPq9f0mc-bRseCEioYnO6hC02YQ9GqwzTWYsnURGaAjcPllZXadXUKfqd5rTS4MkxxiWKRuYOCkTJV2v5uvUuqZGj9_JWnkQ6XARA9UUGUnX4Q9bkY6n74LfPKDlr2kNiQLlXmNChrhQB5_iGpGsDNgM-yvv3lX2ws2RpSxZY8VdQRWQ8eAT1ILUZjWt3p2knEmluduvsAkZ84l_3zXGPlXsyYtonxU.-P0cIpVyEcPDjgu88zIhTAolSmWqiIWMVK9d_bFaiUU&dib_tag=se&hvadid=83150976378930&hvbmt=be&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=51636&hvnetw=o&hvqmt=e&hvtargid=kwd-83151755318168%3Aloc-190&hydadcr=22531_13494420&keywords=jeff+horwitz&mcid=43a8d96db76831b590832974c939d042&msclkid=1a0fb08724c31ad98d78d990aa32940c&qid=1763151605&sr=8-1">Broken Code: Inside Facebook and the Fight to Expose Its Harmful Secrets</a>.”</p>