Polish billionaire Rafal Brzoska is fighting to hold Meta Platforms Inc. accountable for spreading fake images and fraudulent advertising through the company’s social networking apps.
Brzoska, who was nicknamed the “Locker King” as founder and CEO of the parcel locker company InPost SA, won a interim injunction Meta was temporarily banned from publishing fake ads featuring his and his wife’s image in Poland last week.
But he said the three-month ban by Poland’s data protection authority had not prevented new fake images from surfacing of him and his wife, Omena Mensah, a local TV celebrity. Brzoska is now waiting for the Irish Data Protection Commission, which oversees Facebook’s European headquarters in Dublin, to impose a similar ban. And he is considering legal action.
“It will be a long fight and I want to find out how much revenue is generated from ads using deepfakes for fraudulent purposes,” Brzoska said in an interview, adding that he wants to convince other well-known Poles to take action to strengthen the case and put pressure on Meta to better distinguish fakes from legitimate content.
Meta is under increasing pressure around the world to stop the spread of scams that use generative artificial intelligence and the likenesses of famous people to lure victims. A US judge ruled this year that Australian billionaire Andrew Forrest can sue the parent company of Facebook and Instagram for using his image to fraudulently promote cryptocurrency products, despite legal protections in place that protect social media companies from liability for user content.
A Meta spokesperson said the company removes false content when it is found and is currently evaluating the Polish regulator’s decision.
Brzoska described the ban as a first move of its kind in the European Union, based on the bloc’s privacy rules. The businessman said the fake ads, which sometimes contain false information about the couple, could negatively impact his family’s charity activities.
“I’m currently spending a lot of time debunking deepfakes,” he said. “Someone should be held accountable for spreading criminal activity.”
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