Meta's ad platform hosted billions in Chinese fraud ads to protect revenue
Reuters reported that Meta received approximately $30 billion in 2024 Chinese advertising revenue, of which $30 billion came from fraudulent and prohibited content. Meta disbanded its anti-fraud team after CEO Mark Zuckerberg ordered it suspended in late 2024, allowing fraud advertisements to rebound. American senators have called for SEC and FTC investigation.
What happened
Meta received at least $30 billion in 2024 advertising revenue from Chinese sources, of which approximately $30 billion (19% of Chinese ads) came from fraudulent, illegal gambling, and sexually explicit advertisements, according to internal documents obtained by Reuters.
Meta established a dedicated team in 2024 to reduce fraud from Chinese advertisements, which successfully lowered the proportion of problematic Chinese ads from 19% to 9%. CEO Mark Zuckerberg ordered the team to suspend work in late 2024, after which Meta disbanded the team and removed restrictions on new Chinese advertising agencies, allowing the proportion of fraudulent ads to rebound to 16% within months.
Meta's advertising system operated through 11 'top-tier' Chinese agencies that recruited advertisers, who then sublet accounts to secondary and tertiary agents, creating intermediary networks where optimization experts studied Meta's moderation gaps. Reuters testing found accounts could be opened for $30 in cryptocurrency through second-tier agents and successfully deploy investment scam advertisements.
Reported impact
Victims of the fraud advertisements are distributed globally, including Taiwanese consumers who purchased counterfeit health products, and American and Canadian investors who lost their life savings. One fraud case involving WhatsApp groups and false stock investment schemes involved $214 million.
The fraudulent advertisements reportedly accounted for 25% of all fraud and prohibited content across Meta's platforms globally.
Index analysis
Meta internal documents from 2024 show the company calculated that Chinese advertisements constituted approximately 25% of fraudulent and prohibited content across its global platform, yet proceeded without enforcement changes that would endanger revenue.
Internal documents state Meta chose to 'permanently tolerate' high violation rates from Chinese advertisers, pursuing only 'maintenance of global harm ratio' rather than 'same standards' across markets. A May 2025 sample review found 800 Chinese accounts deployed $28 million in prohibited advertisements in one month, with 75% from 'protected' top-tier agency accounts; Meta's response to employee questioning of why major clients were not punished was 'revenue impact too large.'
Governance controls
Meta's internal structure included a 'whitelist' mechanism allowing top-tier agencies' advertisements to remain in circulation during secondary human review even after system flagging for violations, and Meta-certified 'Badged Partners' ('trusted experts') publicly claimed to offer '80% lower ban risk,' providing direct assistance to fraudulent advertisers.
Meta spokesperson Andy Stone stated the anti-fraud team was temporary and Zuckerberg ordered the platform to 'double down on combating global fraud,' but internal documents showed Meta explicitly chose permanent tolerance of Chinese advertiser violations rather than equal enforcement across markets.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.