<p dir="ltr">It seems like Meta just can’t lose. The Facebook parent company <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2025/11/18/tech/meta-antitrust-suit-decision-not-monopoly">won a huge victory in court </a>this week. The federal government was claiming Meta was too massive after acquiring Instagram and WhatsApp, and wanted to force the company to spin off those platforms. But a federal judge disagreed.</p>
<p dir="ltr">And that means, Meta will continue to make a ton of money from scam ads on those platforms. </p>
<p dir="ltr">Reuters reporter <a href="https://www.reuters.com/authors/jeff-horwitz/">Jeff Horwitz</a> received leaked documents<strong id="docs-internal-guid-5fe6b5f8-7fff-9112-96f6-71b6a3891bc7"> </strong>from inside Meta where employees estimated that last year <a href="https://www.reuters.com/investigations/meta-is-earning-fortune-deluge-fraudulent-ads-documents-show-2025-11-06/">its platforms served up 15 billion scam ad impressions</a> every day, totalling about $16 billion. That’s ten percent of the company’s total 2024 revenue. It’s a major part of their business.</p>
<p dir="ltr">And if you want to sue Meta for serving you ads that lead to your credit card or identity getting stolen, it’s going to be really tough – because of Section 230, the law that prevents companies from getting sued for the content posted on their sites. </p>
<p dir="ltr">Brian talks to Jeff about what he discovered in this latest leak: how these scam ads make Meta billions, one “queasy-making” fix Meta has come up with, and how Section 230 provides not just a shield, but a lack of incentive for the company to change its ways.</p>
<p dir="ltr">“Question Everything” is a production of <a href="http://www.kcrw.org">KCRW</a> and <a href="http://www.placementtheory.com">Placement Theory</a>. Don’t forget to sign up for our <a href="http://questioneverything.substack.com">newsletter</a>. And please help support our show by visiting our sponsor, the notetaking and personal assistant device <a href="http://plaud.ai">Plaud.ai</a>, and using the offer code QUESTION.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Guests:</p>
<p dir="ltr">Jeff Horwitz, Reuters reporter and the author of “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Broken-Code-Facebook-Harmful-Secrets/dp/B0BW4WDNCT/ref=sr_1_1?adgrpid=1330411452902112&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.gdCB6BDJww9rdPq9f0mc-bRseCEioYnO6hC02YQ9GqwzTWYsnURGaAjcPllZXadXUKfqd5rTS4MkxxiWKRuYOCkTJV2v5uvUuqZGj9_JWnkQ6XARA9UUGUnX4Q9bkY6n74LfPKDlr2kNiQLlXmNChrhQB5_iGpGsDNgM-yvv3lX2ws2RpSxZY8VdQRWQ8eAT1ILUZjWt3p2knEmluduvsAkZ84l_3zXGPlXsyYtonxU.-P0cIpVyEcPDjgu88zIhTAolSmWqiIWMVK9d_bFaiUU&dib_tag=se&hvadid=83150976378930&hvbmt=be&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=51636&hvnetw=o&hvqmt=e&hvtargid=kwd-83151755318168%3Aloc-190&hydadcr=22531_13494420&keywords=jeff+horwitz&mcid=43a8d96db76831b590832974c939d042&msclkid=1a0fb08724c31ad98d78d990aa32940c&qid=1763151605&sr=8-1">Broken Code: Inside Facebook and the Fight to Expose Its Harmful Secrets</a>.”</p>
