Meta earned $16 billion from illegal advertising in 2024

Reuters« got accessed Meta's internal documents and found that the company earned about $16 billion in 2024 from ads that violate its own rules. That's about 10% of its total annual revenue. Of that, about $7 billion was from advertising illegal online casinos and fraudulent schemes. On the relevant forums «Meta» is called the most accessible platform for the promotion of scam projects.

The documents showed that Meta blocks advertisers only when 95% certainty of violations is reached. Until that threshold is reached, the company charges an increased fee via penalty bidding and continues to show the ad. Internal rules set the anti-fraud spending limit at 0.15% of revenue. In one case, illegal operators spent $67 million on advertising in the month before blocking.

«Meta called the 10% figure a »rough estimate« and said it will remove 134 million infringing ads in 2025. The company plans to gradually reduce the share of such ads from 10.1% in 2024 to 5.8% by 2027.