Leaked docs: Meta raked in $16 billion a year from scam ads and shelved the fix

ben_j_todd · x · 2026-09-25

80,000 Hours breaks down leaked Meta internal documents revealing the company's scam ad economy:

• Scale: Ads for scams and goods Meta itself banned accounted for 10% of total revenue — about $16 billion/year — likely enabling $50 billion/year in theft from Americans alone.
• Internal suppression: An anti-fraud team's screening method halved scam prevalence from China, but the documents suggest it was shelved after Zuckerberg was briefed; the team was disbanded, the freeze on Chinese ad agencies lifted, and fraud bounced back within months.
• Regulator management: Meta built a global playbook for "managing" regulators, including altering its ad library to hide scam ads during regulator queries.
• Implication: If a social platform behaves this way over ad revenue, how much should we trust AI companies' self-regulation when the stakes are far higher?

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