AGU seeks legal action against Meta to curb social media scams that use government symbols, manipulated images

Brazil’s Attorney General's Office (Advocacia-Geral da União/AGU) has filed a public civil lawsuit to stop the improper use of federal government symbols, brands, and the images and videos of public officials in fraudulent advertisements on Facebook and Instagram — both owned by the company Meta.

At least 1,770 deceptive ads intended to financially defraud users of these platforms have been identified. The posts unlawfully used official symbols and images of authorities. The lawsuit was filed against Facebook Brasil, which is responsible for advertising on Meta’s platforms in Brazil.

The AGU argues that the platforms' ad verification systems are ineffective, despite provisions outlined in their terms and conditions. It requests that the company be held liable for collective moral damages for violating consumer protection laws related to misleading advertising. Any compensation awarded would be allocated to the Fund for the Defense of Diffuse Rights (Fundo de Defesa dos Direitos Difusos).

The AGU also asks that the revenue generated from the 1,770 advertisements be identified and ordered to be deposited into the same fund. The legal action is based on a study by the Internet and Social Media Studies Laboratory at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (NetLab/UFRJ), which identified 1,770 fraudulent ads published between January 10 and 21. These ads contained false claims about payments allegedly due to the population and other misinformation related to new rules for reporting Pix transactions to the Federal Revenue Service (Receita Federal).

The fraudulent ads promoted real or fictitious government programs, impersonated pages of public and private institutions, and used Artificial Intelligence (AI) to manipulate the image of political leaders. A study by Netlab/UFRJ found that most of the ads falsely claimed that people had the right to withdraw funds, promising the release of money upon payment of a bogus service fee.

The lawsuit highlights that similar ads were still active in early April. According to one excerpt, “the advertisers improperly exploited public policies aimed at financial inclusion to scam Brazilian citizens by boosting ads on Meta's platforms.”

In the lawsuit, the AGU argues that the vast majority of advertisements using official symbols involved blatant and easily detectable fraud that should have been flagged if the company had conducted a more thorough review. Several ads, for instance, listed fictitious individuals or government programs as advertisers and used graphic designs clearly different from official government materials. “As we can see, regarding the use of official symbols, these are not sophisticated schemes carried out through subtle or hidden means that would be difficult to detect. On the contrary, had the defendant exercised even minimal diligence in an activity that generates substantial revenue, such advertisements would never have been published,” the AGU states in an excerpt from the lawsuit.

IMAGES AND VIDEOS — Regarding the improper use of images and videos of public figures in advertisements — including content manipulated by artificial intelligence — the AGU argues that it is technically feasible to adopt additional detection and prevention measures, as the defendant company has publicly acknowledged, citing steps already being implemented in the European Union, the United Kingdom, and South Korea. “The ad verification policy on the defendant’s platforms is completely ineffective, either due to limited verification or because classification is left to the advertiser’s discretion. Furthermore, there is no doubt that the misleading advertisements in question were sponsored or boosted, as all were retrieved from the ‘Meta Ad Library’,” states an excerpt from the lawsuit.

The National Prosecutor's Office of the Union for the Defense of Democracy (Procuradoria Nacional da União de Defesa da Democracia/PNDD) works in response to requests from the Social Communications Secretariat of the Presidency of the Republic (Secretaria de Comunicação Social da Presidência da República /SECOM-PR) and the Ministry of Finance (Ministério da Fazenda).