Manipulated ads promote discontinued Meta cryptocurrency

Meta as soon as pursued the creation of a digital foreign money referred to as Libra, however posts on Fb and Instagram promoting funding alternatives with an app of the identical identify are usually not reliable. The corporate offered its cryptocurrency mission in 2022, and the advertisements seem like dubbed with fabricated audio.

“Libra is a one-of-a-kind program that makes use of AI to function on the inventory alternate,” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg seems to say in a clip posted to Fb on November 12, 2023.

The advert options pictures of stacked Canadian {dollars} and lauds the supposed advantages of an funding app referred to as Libra. The put up encourages customers to share their private info to take part in this system.

Screenshot of a Fb put up taken December 13, 2023

Screenshot of a Fb put up taken December 13, 2023

 

The Facebook page that revealed the video was created November 6 and bears the identical identify because the supposed funding app.

A keyword search of Meta’s Ad Library reveals scores of similar lively and inactive ads on Instagram and Fb. Most of the pages behind the promotions additionally launched throughout the previous two months.

Screenshot of the Meta Advert Library taken December 13, 2023

The advertisements hyperlink to websites that solicit private info and don’t seem like linked to Meta.

A reverse image search reveals most of the Zuckerberg cameos come from a 2021 video asserting the launch of Meta because the umbrella firm for Fb, Instagram, WhatsApp and different manufacturers (archived here). The 2-year-old clip doesn’t point out Libra or funding apps.

Screenshot of a Fb put up taken December 13, 2023, with components highlighted by AFP

Screenshot of a YouTube video taken December 13, 2023, with components highlighted by AFP

 

Meta’s insurance policies prohibit the use of public figures in a misleading nature in an effort to attempt to rip-off folks out of cash, and posts in violation might be eliminated.

Libra mission discontinued

Fb announced its Libra cryptocurrency in 2019. The corporate developed the expertise after which entrusted management of the mission, whose identify changed to Diem in 2020, to an impartial entity based mostly in Geneva.

After pushback from world finance officers, the Fb-backed Diem Affiliation sold the expertise to Silvergate Capital Company in January 2022. Silvergate folded one 12 months later.

There have been reports of a brand new Meta digital foreign money identified internally as “Zuck Bucks,” however the thought had not been publicly introduced as of December 14.

AFP has beforehand fact-checked faux advertisements selling funding apps to Canadians utilizing the likenesses of public figures resembling Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and common news anchors.

Learn extra of AFP’s reporting on misinformation in Canada here.

December 14, 2023 Paragraph 8 was up to date so as to add Meta's coverage on the misleading use of public figures.