Facebook ordered by Dutch court to take down fake Bitcoin ads

With the growing popularity of cryptocurrencies and Bitcoin, scams pertaining to the same have also been on a surge. Pictures of celebrities touting investments related to Bitcoin have time and again surfaced all over the internet. John de Mol, a Dutch television producer, is the latest to fall prey to such fake advertisements.

Advertisements of the celebrity promoting Bitcoin-related investments were found to be appearing on Facebook. Soon after the Dutch media tycoon came across the same, he urged Facebook to take it down. The social media giant, however, did not respond to recurring requests

A Dutch court has now ordered Facebook to take down the fake advertisements, ruling that if it fails to do so, the social media platform would have to pay a fine of 1.1. million Euros. Additionally, the Dutch media tycoon had also called out Facebook for allegedly handing over his personal information to the scammers in question.

Since Facebook has policies regarding the publication of advertisements on its platform, the court ruled,

“Facebook’s arguments that it is just a neutral funnel for information and therefore cannot be obligated to act, is not acceptable.
The company plays too active a role with respect to advertisements, which form its primary business model to argue that.”

The social media platform has now, reportedly taken down the fake advertisements in question.

This isn’t the first such case, however. Previously, pictures of the Founder of MoneySavingExpert.com, Martin Lewis, were used in over 100 Facebook ads to promote a similar Bitcoin scam.

Even prominent Hollywood actress, Kate Winslet, wasn’t immune to such a scam, with Winslet’s image and fake quotes attributed to her being used to promote a Ponzi coin, Bitcoin Code. Winslet went on to respond to the scam via legal means.