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With the rise in the number of fraudsters and scammers in Meta, a number of companies have grown cautious about advertising on it. One such company happens to be London-based Starling Bank which is backed by the likes of Goldman-Sachs.
Key Points
- Anne Boden, CEO of Starling Bank Ltd., has a direct message for Meta Platforms Inc. for the new year: If you want us to advertise with you again, get rid of the scammers.
- Starling, a London-based company backed by Goldman Sachs Group Inc., has stopped advertising on Facebook and Instagram because Meta isn’t doing enough to deter criminals from taking use of their platforms, Boden said in her most recent annual letter.
- According to a bank spokesman, Starling’s advertising boycott of Meta began in mid-December. Goldman Sachs and other investors pumped more than $400 million into the bank last year, making it a “unicorn” valued at more than $1 billion.
Starling’s Fears about the Meta Digital Space
In her latest annual letter, the chief executive officer of Starling Bank, Anne Boden wrote that Starling Bank has ceased advertising on Facebook and Instagram amid the rising amount of scammers on those platforms. She goes on to say Meta is not doing enough to stop scammers from using its platforms.
After achieving unicorn status last year, Starling started its advertising boycott in mid-December.
Social media platforms have been the primary source of the digital-only bank’s advertising and it had been spending hundreds of thousands of pounds a month to advertise on Meta’s platforms. That spending saw a nosedive in the past 12 months and now the decision to completely stop all advertising on those platforms was made.
Using Google’s decision to stop any advertising based on financial services without prior authorization by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority, as an example, Boden says she is pushing other big tech companies to suppress fraudsters.
Steps Being Taken
Last month, TechUK, the trade association that represents major companies like Meta, Twitter, and Microsoft said these aforementioned companies are committed to putting in defenses against scammers and fraudsters from advertising with them.
Meta is expected to roll out a new system with regards to this sometime this year.
Conclusion
The battle against fraudulent services has raged on for a long time, but with these measures being taken by giants like Meta, an end seems near. The idea of a safe digital space with the provision of only correct information does not seem so far-fetched anymore.
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