How Meta Profits Off Fraud
Slate Technology
Slate
4.6 • 636 Ratings
🗓️ 16 November 2025
⏱️ 34 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The parent company of Facebook and Instagram, Meta, doesn’t (just) have a scam problem—with 10 percent of its revenue coming from scam ads, and a third of all successful scams in America using a Meta platform at some point, it’s more an interdependence with scammers.
Guest: Jeff Horwitz, tech reporter for Reuters.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | 300 sensors. |
| 0:03.0 | Over a million data points per second. |
| 0:06.0 | How does F1 update their fans with every stat in real time? |
| 0:10.0 | AWS is how. |
| 0:13.0 | From fastest laps to strategy calls, |
| 0:15.0 | AWS puts fans in the pit. |
| 0:19.0 | It's not just racing, it's data-driven innovation at 200 miles per hour. |
| 0:25.4 | AWS is how leading businesses power next-level innovation. |
| 0:35.0 | If you open up Facebook or Instagram and search for, let's say, Elon Musk, the odds are pretty good that you're going to be served some questionable ads. |
| 0:45.4 | In which Elon is, you know, offering investment tips or, you know, giving away Tesla is in a raffle or, you know, wants to, like, talk to you |
| 0:56.7 | person, talk to his fans one-on-one. |
| 0:59.7 | That's Jeff Horwitz, a tech reporter for Reuters. |
| 1:02.8 | And depending on your level of internet savvy, you might click on one of those ads. |
| 1:08.7 | In which case, meta-system systems will serve you more fraudulent ads |
| 1:12.1 | because you basically kind of flagged yourself as a bit of a dummy. |
| 1:18.1 | Apologies. |
| 1:19.1 | But you can see where this is going. |
| 1:21.8 | That's kind of how the system does work, right? |
| 1:24.1 | It's like, oh, who's a good market for scam ads? |
| 1:26.5 | And the answer is people who |
| 1:27.6 | previously clicked on scam ads. And the computer will figure that out. |
| 1:37.5 | Some of these ads are obviously scammy. Elon, probably not going to have a one-on-one chat with Facebook users, but there are other |
... |
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