A Dutch billionaire, John de Mol, has recently sued Facebook over fraudulent bitcoin ads that showed him next to quotes about how much money he purportedly made investing in BTC with a company that was swindling users.
Reuters reported that De Mol’s lawyer has claimed the businessman, who created the reality show ‘Big Brother’ and is one of the brains behind the Endemol entertainment studio, is suing Facebook over damages to his client’s reputation, and over Facebook’s inability to stop the ads from appearing altogether.
De Mol’s lawyers wants Facebook to automatically block ads featuring him and cryptocurrencies. His lawyer further claimed consumers sent a total of €1.7 million (around $1.9 million) to the scammers, before Facebook reacted to complaints and removed the ads from its platform.
De Mol also wants to get the names of those behind the fraudulent bitcoin ads, so he can hand them over to authorities. Jacqueline Schapp, one of his lawyers, argued that Facebook’s system of reacting to users reporting problems isn’t good enough.
He said: “I don’t know what reality Facebook lives in, but that doesn’t work.”
Facebook’s lawyer, Jens van den Brink, revealed the company couldn’t be forced to monitor every ad that goes through it all the time. He also said that it’s “technically impossible” to block ads with De Mol’s name on it, as he is not the only person with such a name.