MPs demand answers from Meta on finfluencers complaints
An influential group of MPs has demanded that Meta outline its track record responding to requests to remove damaging content from finfluencers, after the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) named the Facebook and Instagram owner as the sector’s worst offender.
Chair of the Treasury Committee Meg Hillier issued a letter to the social media giant earlier this week after the City watchdog told her cross-party panel it had taken Meta “up to six weeks” to act on its request to remove harmful content.
Quoting from an evidence session with the FCA’s consumer investments chief in April, the note outlines concerns raised by the watchdog about how long it took the Zuckerberg-owned group to remove alerts on “individual influencers”.
“In October last year, when we issued a number of alerts on individual influencers… it took Meta up to six weeks to act from those requests from the date that a warning was issued and the takedown was requested,” the excerpt highlighted in the letter reads.
“Other platforms are more responsive,” the watchdog’s Lucy Castledine is then quoted as saying.
A month on from the hearing, the committee is now demanding Meta explain why it has taken the firm “on ocassion up to six weeks” to respond to a demand from the FCA to remove harmful content from finfluencers.
It also ordered the Magnificent Seven member to set out the total number of days in aggregate that Meta has “allowed to elapse” in which posts that the FCA requested to be taken down have remained online.
A spokeswoman for Meta claimed the incident cited in Castledine’s evidence was an “isolated incident” that meant the firm’s response to a “small number of reports” from the FCA had been delayed.
“This was rectified and all other relevant reports made by the FCA have been promptly processed,” she added.
International crackdown on finfluencers
The committee’s letter coincided with the announcement of a separate crackdown on so-called finfluencers – people who promote investments and get-rich-quick schemes on social media – by the City watchdog.
On Friday, it announced it had led an international operation on the growing problem of unregulated financial advice with nine of its international counterparts, from jurisdictions like Australia, Canada and the United Arab Emirates.
The international investigation led to the arrest of three individuals in the UK, the FCA said in a statement, while four others were hauled in for an interview.
“Our message to finfluencers is loud and clear,” said Steve Smart, the FCA’s joint executive director of enforcement and market oversight. They must act responsibly and only promote financial products where they are authorised to do so or face the consequences.”
News of the cross-border investigation itself is the latest evidence of a concerted effort from the FCA to clamp down on the proliferation of harmful financial content online.
Last year, it charged a host of high-profile reality TV stars and social media influencers for promoting an unauthorised trading scheme. Its lawyers allege that Emmanuel Nwanze and Holly Thompson used the Meta-owned Instragram account @holly_fxtrends, to promote investing in ‘contracts for difference’.