Facebook is the world’s most popular social media site, so it is also the platform of choice for pig slaughter scams and unauthorized use of celebrity identities. Australian authorities are aware of the many celebrity identity scams in their country that have caused hundreds of millions of dollars in losses. Therefore, starting in 2025, companies wishing to advertise financial-based services on Meta are required to verify their identity first using a company registration license.
This license will then be verified by the Australian Securities Investments Commission. If celebrity ambassadors are used for advertising, identity verification and authorization documents will also be required. The new system will come into effect from February 2025 and is expected to prevent incidents of Australian Prime Ministers and celebrities being used to commit online fraud using Meta’s platform.
This will make Australia the third country after the UK and Taiwan to require identity verification before financial product advertising can be done. With the same problem also occurring in Malaysia, it may be time for local authorities to issue a similar directive to Meta in Malaysia.