Leak Alleges Meta Drew $16 Billion From ‘High‑Risk’ Ads in 2024 as Company Pushes Back

Overview

• Reuters reports that Meta documents from 2021 to 2025 counted about 15 billion high‑risk ads shown each day and estimated roughly 10% of 2024 revenue, or $16 billion, came from them.
• The materials say advertisers were banned only when automated systems hit about 95% confidence of fraud, with higher fees used at lower confidence and personalization tending to show users more of similar ads once they clicked.
• A May 2025 internal presentation estimated Meta platforms figured in one‑third of successful U.S. scams, and an April analysis said scams were easier to run on Meta than on Google.
• Internal planning projected fines up to about $1 billion and cited around $3.5 billion per half‑year from high‑risk legal ads, with a 2025 document capping enforcement actions to a projected 0.15% revenue impact.
• Meta’s Andy Stone called the estimates approximated and overly broad, pointing to a drop of more than 50% in fraud reports and 134 million ad removals in 2025, and the company said it will expand advertiser verification for ads targeting Brazil starting in December.