A group of United States Senate-based democrats have reportedly asked Mark Zuckerberg, CEO, Meta, to provide data on the social media company’s policies on cryptocurrency frauds, as reported by Cointelegraph.
According to Cointelegraph, as per a report from Washington Post, senators Robert Mendez, Sherrod Brown, Elizabeth Warren, Dianne Feinstein, Bernie Sanders, Cory Booker, among others, made a statement on Zuckberg for actions his company may take to detect cryptocurrency-based scams, to coordinate with law enforcement and assist victims in frauds. Currently, Meta oversees operations of Facebook, WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram.
“Based on recent reports of scams on other social media platforms and apps, we are concerned that Meta provides a breeding ground for cryptocurrency fraud that causes significant harm to consumers,” the group of senators reportedly said.
On the basis of information by Cointelegraph, the lawmakers referred a Federal Trade Commission report, which labelled social media and cryptocurrency as capable of causing frauds. Reportedly, the commission stated that around half of the one billion dollars worth of cryptocurrency-related scams happened in 2021, the maximum of which focused on investments, grew from social media platforms.
“Nearly four out of every ten dollars reported lost to a fraud originating on social media was lost in crypto, far more than any other payment method. The top platforms identified in these reports were Instagram (32%), Facebook (26%), WhatsApp (9%) and Telegram (7%),” the report mentioned.
Moreover, Cointelegraph noted that the democratic senators called on Meta to provide warnings in languages, other than English, for potential scammers. Meta spokesperson Andy Stone reportedly stated that social media platform used resources for prevention of scams. The US Federal Bureau of Investigation also targeted cryptocurrency scams by warning the public about applications using the same logos and identification of information for legitimate companies. Users have been victimised by scammers on the platforms of Twitter and YouTube through usage of hacked accounts, copycat websites, fake cryptocurrency projects and airdrops, among others.
(With insights from Cointelegraph)
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