Poland says Meta is not doing enough to protect people from fake adverts and online scams, and now wants the European Union to hit the company with a €250 million fine. Officials say repeated warnings have not stopped the problem.
Now, a European government is putting a specific price tag on that inaction. Poland has formally asked the European Commission to slap Meta with a €250 million fine, accusing the company of deliberately ignoring fraudulent advertisements.
The numbers behind the demand are stark. Poland’s national cybersecurity team, CERT Polska, ran a controlled test. They identified 122 ads they classified as outright fraudulent and reported them directly to Meta.
The response was underwhelming.
In 106 of those cases nearly 87% Meta decided not to remove the ads. Only 10 were taken down. Six reports received no response at all.
Polish digital affairs minister Krzysztof Gawkowski did not mince words at a press conference on Thursday.
“We have hard evidence that the platform isn’t acting in the best interests of users, but rather in its own self-interest, which allows it to monetize deceptive advertising,” Gawkowski said.
He made it clear that the era of gentle warnings is over. “The time has passed for us to say ‘improve yourselves’, they say ‘we are improving’, but citizens still don’t feel it. Now the time has come for penalties.”
Meta, for its part, pushed back. In a statement, the company blamed the sheer persistence of bad actors. “Scammers are persistent criminals who use increasingly sophisticated tactics,” the statement read, adding that Meta continues to invest heavily in technology and law enforcement partnerships to stop them.
But the legal ground in Poland is already shifting against that defense. Earlier this year, a Warsaw appellate court ruled that Meta is indeed responsible for the adverts it hosts. This rejected the company’s long-standing argument that it is merely a neutral host for user actions, following a high-profile lawsuit by a Polish billionaire over fake ads using his face.
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Gawkowski plans to take this fight to the upcoming G20 summit, hoping to build a united European front.
A €250 million fine would be a heavy blow. But the real question is whether it will actually change how the algorithms prioritize engagement over safety. For now, the ads might still be running, and the users are still waiting.
Promise Idoko is a tech analyst and writer at Moderncrux, specializing in artificial intelligence, fintech, and emerging technologies. Based in Nigeria, he is dedicated to delivering insightful and accessible coverage of complex technological developments. His work explores the impact of innovation on businesses, industries, and societies, with a particular focus on Africa’s evolving technology landscape and its connection to global trends.
