"I Buy This Stock These Days" Celebrity Impersonation Scam Abroad... "What Is Meta Doing?"

Recently, illegal investment advertisements impersonating celebrities have been rampant. Although domestic and international social networking service (SNS) platform companies have taken measures, Meta has been criticized for neglecting the issue. Since such crimes are rampant not only in Korea but also overseas, there is a growing call for rapid improvement in legal measures.

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On the 4th, Danish TV show hosts Divya Das and Kim Bildsøe Lassen revealed that they discovered impersonators using their identities on Meta, the parent company of Facebook, and immediately reported it to the police. They learned through friends' contacts that their images were used in fraudulent crimes and were very shocked.

The company that used Das and Lassen's images for promotion posted link advertisements in the text as if they were encouraging investments. These ads appear as news articles and often promote fake investment advice, leading people to click links that connect to fake investment companies encouraging them to invest money.

Das said, "It seems to be becoming increasingly illegal," and criticized Meta's passive response to impersonation crimes, saying, "The worst offender is Meta. It seems they are taking no action. Meta is confident it can reduce such advertisements."

The Danish independent fact-checking site Tjeklt reported that over the past six years, images of 49 Danish celebrities have been used in crimes. Marie Bjerre, Denmark's Minister for Digital Government and Gender Equality, sharply criticized, saying, "Active response from Meta is necessary to resolve this issue," and "Celebrity impersonation crimes are serious illegal acts." Tjeklt has demanded EU legislation requiring platform companies to be responsible for reporting cases of celebrity impersonation crimes.

Meanwhile, as illegal advertisements impersonating celebrities have surged recently on platforms like YouTube, Google decided to permanently suspend the advertiser accounts without prior warning. This move by Google is the first among major platform companies. However, Meta claims that completely removing misinformation from the internet is impossible and asserts that its team is making comprehensive efforts to tackle fraudulent advertisements as much as possible. Nevertheless, Meta has not taken proactive measures like Google, leading to increased criticism.

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