Meta's Ad Empire Under Fire: $16B Revenue Question

Two powerful US senators are demanding the FTC and SEC investigate Meta over a bombshell discovery—internal docs suggest Facebook and Instagram are quietly profiting from scam ads to the tune of $16 billion annually.

Here’s what got them fired up:

The Numbers That Don’t Lie

• Meta pulls roughly $3.5 billion every 6 months from “higher risk” scam-adjacent ads
• About 1/3 of all US scams involve Meta platforms
• Americans hemorrhaged $158 billion to scams last year—Meta’s take? Significant
• The kicker: roughly 10% of Meta’s 2024 revenue potentially traced to illicit advertising

The Ad Library Receipts Senators Hawley and Blumenthal didn’t just complain—they pulled Meta’s own public ad library and found it crawling with:

• Fake gambling schemes
• Crypto fraud setups
• Deepfake sex services (yeah, that’s a thing now)
• Bogus federal benefits scams
• Fabricated political clips impersonating real officials

Meta’s Defense vs. The Evidence Meta claims scam reports dropped 58% in 18 months. But here’s the tension: the company slashed safety staff while pouring billions into AI. Senators argue that’s the problem—Meta optimized for growth, not security.

What’s at Stake If regulators bite, penalties could include forced profit disgorgement and mandatory oversight. The senators flagged that many scams trace back to overseas cybercrime groups exploiting Meta’s ad network.

Stock Action: META closed at $613.05 (+3.16%), unfazed… for now.

The real question: Can Meta’s AI investments undo years of a business model that quietly benefited from chaos?