Such an appeal is prepared by the Communications Regulatory Service and the Culture Committee of the Seimas. The EC wants to inform about possible violations of the Digital Services Act committed by “Meta” without ensuring the safety of users.
On Wednesday, the disinformation analysis center Debunk.org presented to committee members a study it conducted on large-scale fraud, brand theft and the creation of fake appointments on social networks Facebook and Instagram.
According to him, when creating clones of popular Lithuanian news portals, other mass media, well-known people’s and companies’ websites and accounts on Facebook and Instagram, fraudsters present false information about sudden enrichment, call politicians and businessmen to invest in fake investment platforms. It is through them that personal and bank card data are stolen and people are robbed.
“It’s a huge reach, a huge problem, and it’s intractable,” Viktoras Daukš, head of Debunk.org and an expert in disinformation analysis, said at a Culture Committee meeting on Wednesday.
All participants of the meeting pointed out that the company “Meta”, which manages the aforementioned social networks, does not take any steps to fight against fraudsters, and usually does not respond to reports of such cases.
Metos’ non-cooperation is the biggest problem. If they cleaned everything, everything would be beautiful and there would be no complaints,” said conservative Vytautas Kernagis, a member of the Culture Committee.
Oversees the activities of a criminal group
“Debunk.org”, which has been monitoring the situation since the beginning of this year, claims to have recorded 118 portals that pretended to be mostly Lithuanian media outlets, and 124 accounts that pretended to be the media and published false advertising.
Impersonates LRT, LNK, Delfi, InfoTV, the Estonian national broadcaster, the largest Estonian newspaper, Ignitis, Swedbank, and other banks operating in Lithuania. They are invited to invest in fake investment platforms on their behalf.
According to V. Daukš, the design of the big portals is copied perfectly, it is impossible to distinguish them, their content is also stolen and manipulated.
In addition, around the middle of the year, fraudsters started using Facebook, Instagram and Messenger ads for their criminal activities: they officially buy ads that point to portal clones or stolen accounts, fake investment platforms.
For example, an advertisement about “a new economic program, how to get 1,990 euros from the state” was published on Facebook and Instagram, using the photo of Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėdas.
After clicking on such an advertisement, it takes the reader to a clone of a news portal or a well-known bank or company’s website, which contains information about the possibility of successful investment and links to fake investment platforms. Residents are robbed after filling in the requested data.
According to the research, 1,144 false advertisements were detected, and they were shown to more than 10 million people. together.
“At least half of all Facebook users in Lithuania have seen those advertisements”, pointed out V. Daukšas.
He emphasized that “Meta” receives income from the aforementioned advertisements.
“We are talking about tens of thousands of euros paid to “Metai”. So, Meta is not only profiting from this by not blocking those scammers, but also generating revenue,” said the head of Debunk.org.
“It seems that a criminal group may be behind this scheme, because we are talking about a large amount of resources. This is not the work of a single person, it is hired full call centers, programmers, marketers to promote all this. It’s all huge infrastructure,” he asserted.
According to Lina Bušinskaitė, head of the Internet Media Association, cloning of portals can pose a threat to national security.
“We all understand that when you post on clones that have audiences of hundreds of thousands, certain information can influence people in one way or another,” she said.
According to the data of the police department, about 4,000 cases were launched this year. pre-trial investigations on financial fraud in the Internet space.
Meta does not respond
The participants of the meeting of the Culture Committee emphasized that it is impossible to fight against fraudsters without the help of “Meto”. After all, only the company that manages social networks has the necessary information to catch criminals.
According to L. Bušinskaitė, the portals repeatedly asked to block clones, but there was no reaction to the requests.
V. Daukšas claimed that the Lithuanian Government has sent “Metai” at least two appeals regarding this problem, but no answers have been received either.
“It is precisely because of the scale of the fraud, which is enormous, that there is no reaction from Meta, no official answers, and there is no investigation from their side either,” he said.
Darius Buta, chief advisor of the National Crisis Management Center, informed that a meeting with “Meta” representatives is planned next week, but he admitted that he has concerns about its benefits.
“Earlier this year, Meta visited with the team when there was a scandal that they were blocking users who supported Ukraine. They came, talked, promised that they would do all kinds of training and the like, later due to form they did that to two or three of our Lithuanians influencers and now presented it to the members of the Seimas as a great job done, although we basically have the same problems we had a year ago, and the situation has not changed,” he said.
V. Daukšas confirmed that “Meta” indicates that he was invited to such training, although in fact he did not receive any invitation.
“What happened after the January meeting was huge expectations. A month ago they sent a full list of works, what they have done, from those five or six points, what they wrote, everything is a bluff. (…) They try to fool Seimas members, but we try to check that information several times”, said V. Kernagis, a member of the Culture Committee.
According to Vygantas Vaitkaus, a member of the Communications Regulatory Authority, this year the Digital Services Act entered into force in the European Union (EU), and it provides tools for solving such problems.
“That system works at the EU level. In relation to “Meto”, it started working from the end of August. All content removal duties and fines that can be imposed by the EC – up to 6%. of annual income – it is EU-wide. This is an instrument that we should use,” he said.
V. Vaitkus announced that the Communications Regulatory Authority plans to send a letter to the EC in the coming weeks about problems related to fraud in the social space.
“We have to make full use of this instrument today, which is to work with the EC.” (…) This would probably be one of the most effective ways to eliminate this situation and ensure that it does not happen again in the future,” he said.
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2024-07-28 14:15:03