ISTANBUL
The US Virgin Islands has filed a lawsuit against Meta, accusing the company and its platforms Instagram and Facebook of profiting from fraudulent advertising and failing to protect children from harm, according to a statement from the territory’s Justice Department issued on Monday.
The department said the legal action aims to protect the “well-being and safety” of thousands of children using Meta’s platforms. It added that the Virgin Islands joins dozens of other US jurisdictions pursuing litigation against the company.
“With this lawsuit, the Virgin Islands not only joins 42 other state attorneys general who have taken Meta to court for its failures to protect children and to honestly disclose the risks on its platforms, but expands their efforts by seeking to hold Meta accountable for knowingly facilitating, failing to address, and richly profiting from widespread fraud on its platforms,” the statement said.
The department alleged that Meta identified scam advertisements but charged fraudsters higher fees to continue running the ads rather than removing them.
"Meta projected that 10% of its revenue in 2025, roughly $16 billion, would derive from fraudulent ads and privately acknowledged that its platforms were responsible for a third of all successful scams in the United States," the statement said, adding that the company allowed fraudsters to use its algorithms and user data to target vulnerable users, including the elderly.
Authorities also accused Meta of adopting algorithms designed to prevent teens from controlling the time they spend on social media and to foster addiction, problematic use, anxiety, depression, self-harm, and suicide.
Meta has not issued an official response to the lawsuit.
In a statement on Dec. 3, the company said it removed more than 134 million scam ads from its platforms in 2025 and supported law enforcement efforts to identify and arrest scammers.