Facebook Sued Over Fake Ads (theguardian.com)

shilly writes: British finance expert Martin Lewis is suing Facebook for defamation, after a year of trying to persuade the company to stop accepting scam ads featuring his name and image. Facebook insists that he report to them every time he spots a scam; he wants them to check with him before they take money for an ad featuring his name or picture, so he can tell them if it's legit or not. "Lewis said he would not profit from any damages won, which he would donate to charities combating fraud, but that he hoped the action would prompt the site to stamp out scam adverts," reports The Guardian.

Comments

Who's gonna pay for the "team"?

[140Mandak262Jamuna]

Facebook said: “We do not allow adverts which are misleading or false on Facebook and have explained to Martin Lewis that he should report any adverts that infringe his rights and they will be removed. “We are in direct contact with his team, offering to help and promptly investigating their requests, and only last week confirmed that several adverts and accounts that violated our advertising policies had been taken down.”

So Facebook serious expect everyone to maintain a "team"? And spend time and energy scouring the net?

He should just run fake ads in the name of politicians, and attach really inflammatory and outrageous statements to them. That will get their attention.

Re: Win-win

[mjwx]

It is actually better for the individual in the UK court vs an American court. The bar for libel and slander is lower in the UK. The degree in which the UK values individual reputation and the protection of such is higher in the UK than in the US. I wish the guy luck, and a special place in hell for those who continue to use his name without his permission. After warning Facebook, and having ads pulled, they should be on the look out for more fraud but as usual they will disavow and responsibility or any wrong doing.

Beyond that... The loser pays the winners court costs. This prevents the Big Guy(TM) from threatening the Little Guys(TM) into submission by using high priced lawyers... because if you've got a solid case a high priced lawyer will do it on a no win/no fee basis. There are quite a few Barristers and Queens Councils (a very highly paid lawyers in the UK) who love doing cases like this, they make a killing and look good in the process.