“But it doesn’t, it overrides democracy all over the world. This law means that these tech companies can publish the actions of criminals on their platform because they’re getting money for it and turning the other way.”
Forrest said Facebook’s cuts to its security moderation coupled with the rise in AI technology meant his business success was being falsely attributed to get-rich-quick schemes and not “hard work”.
Forrest used the video as a call to action for the courts, arguing it was crucial Facebook knew it was accountable not just to the American law, but to Australia’s, too.
And he called on the social media companies to use their deep pockets to safeguard their users, particularly when it came to content designed to swindle those most vulnerable.
“Retirees all over Australia, many of whom haven’t even been to America, are having this law imported into their backyard and making them vulnerable to losing all their hard-earned savings,” he said.
“I call on all social media companies to use your vast resources to not just make yourselves bigger and richer and wider and fatter, but to protect vulnerable people from your platforms being used by criminal syndicates to steal from innocent people all over the world who have worked their lives for their savings only to see them stolen by criminals powered by platforms like Facebook.
“Social media is part of our lives, so it’s in the public interest that we keep it, but not for fraud to be perpetrated on those social media platforms, for criminals to knowingly — with Facebook’s knowledge — use those platforms yet not do their power to eliminate it.”
The scathing attack also comes just hours before a District Court hearing in his Perth-based criminal lawsuit, where the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions is set to decide whether to present an indictment or dismiss the billionaire’s Australian case against Meta Platforms Inc.
Facebook’s parent company has pleaded not guilty to three counts of recklessly dealing with proceeds of crime to the value of $1000 or more.
The charges stem from allegations levelled in 2022 that Meta breached Australian anti-money laundering laws by failing to stop the publication of scam ads using his image.
Forrest claims three scam ads appeared on the social media platform in 2019 falsely claiming to promote cryptocurrency investment schemes, which resulted in three people being defrauded.
The case, brought under the federal criminal code, also alleges Facebook failed to create controls or a corporate culture to prevent its systems being used to commit crime.
Forrest is one of several prominent business people to be featured in fake advertisements, which have also utilised the images of fellow mining magnate Gina Rinehart and Australian businessman Dick Smith.
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