Rhode Island sues Meta, alleging it profits from scam ads and that its AI ad tools helped scammers

Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha has sued Meta. The suit alleges the company profited from scam ads on Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp and helped create some of them. The complaint was filed on October 22 in Providence County Superior Court. It says Meta violated the state's consumer protection law while telling users it was keeping them safe. Rhode Island is the first US state to bring a scams case against Meta. California's Santa Clara County filed a similar suit in May. "As alleged, Meta knowingly exposed vulnerable users to fraud and scams, and made enormous profits in doing so," Neronha said. The complaint draws on Reuters reporting last year about internal Meta documents. According to those documents, Meta estimated it showed users about 15 billion high-risk scam ads a day. Meta also projected that about 10 percent of its 2024 revenue, around $16 billion, would come from ads for scams and banned goods. The state alleges that Meta's AI advertising tools sometimes helped scammers, that it charged some suspected fraudsters higher ad prices instead of blocking them, and that it opposed rules requiring advertisers to verify their identities. "A banned advertiser can reappear in the time it takes to provide a new email address or phone number," the complaint says. One example cited in the suit is an ad that promised to reverse Alzheimer's disease in 45 days.