The lawsuit filed by Australian mining billionaire Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest against Meta has been dismissed by the District Court of Western Australia. Forrest accused Meta of allowing scam crypto ads featuring his image to circulate on its platforms, which led to losses for innocent people. The case was dismissed due to insufficient evidence, according to prosecutors.
Forrest, the chairman of Fortescue Metals and the second richest person in Australia, filed criminal charges against Meta in February 2022, alleging the company profited from the illegal ads and failed to remove them. He had to receive approval from the Australian attorney general to file the suit under Commonwealth Criminal Code Anti-Money Laundering sections.
In November 2019, Forrest sent an open letter to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, demanding the removal of fraudulent ads and the prevention of misuse of his image. Meta pleaded not guilty to the charges in December 2023.
The suit’s dismissal was confirmed by a spokesperson for the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions, who cited a lack of evidence but did not provide additional details. Forrest expressed disappointment in a statement provided to The Guardian:
“It shows that Facebook is beyond the laws of Australia, that hardworking Australians are not protected, and that scams will continue to run rampant with no recourse for those who are duped by increasingly sophisticated technology on social media platforms that take no responsibility.”
Meta stated it does not want scams on its platforms and will continue to work to prevent them.
Forrest filed a civil suit against Meta in a California court in June 2022, accusing the company of aiding scammers in creating deceptive ads. Meta filed a motion to dismiss the case in January.
Despite Forrest’s actions, scams using his image have continued to appear on Facebook, including deep-fake images discovered by Cybertrace in February. In a related development, Alphabet, the parent company of Google, filed a lawsuit in April against two individuals in China for allegedly being behind scam apps downloaded from the platform over 100,000 times.