Meta slowest to remove scam content, says City watchdog

FCA says Instagram and Facebook owner takes up to six weeks to act on warnings about finfluencer posts

The owner of Instagram and Facebook is the slowest social media company to take down content posted by finfluencers and fraudsters running financial scams, taking up to six weeks to respond to requests from the City watchdog.

Lucy Castledine, director of consumer investments at the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), said that while the regulator has “reasonable powers” when identifying scammers, the takedown requests it sends to big tech companies are voluntary.

“The response [from the major social media firms] in terms of actioning takedown requests is pretty much 100%,” she told the Treasury select committee investigating the practices of “finfluencers” – celebrities who use their social media platforms to promote financial products.

“However, the amount of time to action them can be significant. The time it takes varies by platform,” she added.

Castledine cited the example of the “week of action” against finfluencers undertaken by the FCA last October, during which 20 influencers were interviewed under caution by the FCA, and 38 alerts were issued against social media accounts operated by influencers that may contain unlawful promotions.

“Meta took six weeks to act on those requests from the date the warning was issued and the takedown request was submitted,” she said. “Other platforms were more responsive.”

Dame Meg Hillier, chair of the Treasury select committee, confirmed for the record that Castledine nodded in agreement when asked if she felt the big tech companies could do better.

“We know algorithms are driving content to consumers,” Castledine said. “We are talking about some of the biggest tech platforms in the world here. I’d like to see them using that tech to identify [scam content]. At the moment they are being very reactive.”

The FCA said it received 25,000 reports of “unauthorised business” relating to online scams last year, and a growing trend among younger 19- to 40-year-olds looking for a “quick way to make money” being scammed.

Castledine said that one major problem was that the FCA could only issue takedown notices one account at a time, while scammers engage in “lifeboating” – creating multiple, similar email accounts so they can reappear online almost immediately.

“We need [big tech] to be more proactive,” she said. “We can’t have that content popping up 12 hours later. They need to be more reactive or we will be in continual whack-a-mole process. I think they could do a lot more.”

So far, no influencers have been prosecuted but seven reality TV stars – including former Love Island contestants and cast members from The Only Way is Essex – are facing trial in 2027 for promoting an unauthorised foreign exchange trading scheme on Instagram.

Meta has been contacted for comment.