Meta is changing its enforcement approach on China

Meta faced a grim truth last year when it found that Chinese advertisers were pumping Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp with harmful ads that targeted users across the world.

Typically, China does not allow its own citizens to use these platforms, but Beijing lets Chinese companies market to foreign audiences, which turned the country into a major cash source for Meta, pushing its 2024 ad revenue from the country past $18 billion.

According to Reuters, around 19% of that money came from ads tied to scams, illegal gambling, porn, and banned products.

Documents allegedly showed staff warning leaders about the scale of abuse, with one from April 2024 saying, “We need to make significant investment to reduce growing harm.”

The documents also said China was behind a quarter of all scam ads on Meta platforms, with victims ranging from Taiwan shoppers buying fake supplements to U.S. and Canadian investors losing savings to fraud schemes.

Meta is changing its enforcement approach on China

Meta created a new anti-fraud team in 2024 to deal with the mess, as staff cut the share of banned China ads from 19% to 9% in the second half of the year. That move did not last.

After what internal files described as “follow-up from Zuck,” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg told teams to pause the crackdown. The company then disbanded the China task force, lifted a freeze on approving new Chinese ad agencies and shelved several enforcement steps that tests had shown would work.

Consultants from Propellerfish also told Meta its own policies were helping scammers. Still, within months, new Chinese agencies were back flooding the system.

By mid-2025, banned ads hit 16% of China’s revenue again. Former Meta integrity chief Rob Leathern said, “The levels that you’re talking about are not defensible. I don’t know how anyone could think this is okay.”

Spokesperson Andy Stone told Reuters that the fraud team was always temporary and that Zuckerberg ordered teams to “redouble efforts” worldwide. Stone said Meta’s automated tools blocked or removed 46 million China-submitted ads over 18 months and that Meta had cut ties with some Chinese partners and lowered commissions for others who pushed too many violations.

He added, “Scams are spiking across the internet, driven by persistent criminals and sophisticated, organized crime syndicates constantly evolving their schemes to evade detection.”

Chinese ad networks drive global scams on Meta

Reuters says that Meta expected $16 billion of its 2024 revenue to come from scam and banned ads. Two U.S. senators later asked regulators to investigate. Inside the company, China was labeled the top “Scam Exporting Nation.” Staff even noted that global scam rates drop during China’s “Golden Week” holiday.

U.S. prosecutors in Illinois said in March 2025 that the FBI seized $214 million from a Chinese stock scheme that used Meta ads to funnel victims into WhatsApp groups run by people “posing as U.S.-based investment advisors.” Seven people from Taiwan and Malaysia were charged.

A big part of the problem is Meta’s China reseller network: 11 top-tier agencies that recruit smaller agencies, creating layers of intermediaries.

A Propellerfish report claims that there is widespread fake accounts, identity-masking tools, AI-generated documents, and “ad optimization specialists” funded by informal lenders. The report said China’s government does not intervene “when violations target overseas audiences,” meaning fraudsters face “little or no risk.”

Meta’s enforcement was described as weaker than TikTok and Google. Internal files said Meta would not aim for full parity with global standards but would instead maintain its current level of “global harm” from China.

For under $30, paid in crypto, they bought access to accounts from second-tier agencies linked to top partners like GatherOne and Cheetah Mobile. They then placed get-rich-quick investment ads, which ran with no resistance and drew dozens of responses. After questions, Meta removed its public directory of “Badged Partners.”

Internal data said China ad revenue more than doubled from $7.4 billion in 2022 to $18.4 billion in 2024. By late 2024, half of the $240 million coming from newly verified Chinese resellers violated rules. Staff built dashboards and resumed a moratorium on new verifications.

Meta also found that more than half of ads run by Beijing Tengze Technology broke its rules. Instead of cutting the company, Meta charged it more. Chinese records later showed Tengze shut down, and its listed address did not exist. Its owner, Lin Zedun, also controls Shenzhen Fugaoda, which had vanished from its office after missed rent but later posted job ads for people with experience selling “small black goods” in Europe and America.

In early 2025, Meta adjusted commissions for Chinese agencies based on ad quality. But behavior did not change. A May 2025 review showed 800 accounts generated $28 million in violating ads in one month. More than 75% of spending came from accounts backed by partner protections. One worker asked whether Meta planned to penalize high-spending partners. Another answered no because “the revenue impact is too high.”

Staff proposed shutting down a small group of accounts responsible for $2.8 million in harmful ads each month.

Before doing so, they asked if growth teams would object “given the revenue impact.” The internal document ended with a blunt line: “It’s likely the revenue will return.”

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