OSAKA: Thirty people in Japan complaining of fraud damage on Tuesday filed lawsuits against U.S. technology giant Meta Platforms Inc., formerly Facebook Inc., and its Japanese arm for failing to block fake social media ads on investment using the names and images of celebrities.

In the suits filed with five district courts, located in the three eastern Japan cities of Saitama, Chiba and Yokohama and the two western cities of Osaka and Kobe, the plaintiffs are demanding the payment of a total of about 435 million yen in damages from the Meta side.

They claim that they were lured into investment through fake ads posted on Meta’s Facebook and Instagram social media platforms and fell victim to fraud. The maximum amount of money remitted by the victims exceeded 100 million yen.

“Although the Meta side says that it is difficult to delete questionable ads, we want to show that leaving fake ads intact is illegal,”Yasumichi Kokufu, who heads a team of lawyers for the plaintiffs, told a press conference after filing a lawsuit with Osaka District Court.

The plaintiffs argue that Meta bears responsibility for having left these ads unattended.

Fake ads using the names and images of prominent people, such as Japanese entrepreneurs Yusaku Maezawa and Takafumi Horie, started to appear on Meta’s platforms around early 2023. Maezawa and others began to demand in mid-2023 or earlier that Meta delete the fraudulent ads and make sure that such ads are not posted on its platforms.

In April this year, four individuals in Japan filed a similar damages lawsuit with Kobe District Court against Meta and the Japanese arm.

The team of lawyers is offering consultation services for victims, eyeing the possibility of filing damages lawsuits against Meta with more district courts.

JIJI Press