The billionaire suing Facebook to remove his face from AI scams

livemint.com:

Every day, around the clock, a small group of cybersecurity professionals scours Facebook, looking for the face of their boss, an Australian billionaire who is determined to take the social-media giant to court. Like American financiers such as Bill Ackman, Andrew Forrest says he has spent years trying to get Facebook-parent Meta Platforms to do more to stop scam advertisements that use his likeness to promote fraudulent investment schemes. Yet unlike other Meta adversaries, the mining executive has pledged to spend vast sums on his legal campaign.

His U.S. federal lawsuit against Meta alleges that the company’s artificial intelligence-powered ad systems help create and amplify the false ads. It is one of the first cases in years that appears on track to break through broad immunity protections afforded to technology companies that host user-generated content.

Last month, a federal judge rejected Meta’s efforts to dismiss the suit. The company has appealed. The protections have withstood numerous court challenges in recent years, and legal experts say the case is one of the first where AI has played a role in litigation related to the 1996 law, often referred to as Section 230.

Forrest has said he doesn’t care what it costs and promises to see the fight to its conclusion, believing that Meta must be forced to do more to police its platform. “I cannot believe a board of directors of any company would knowingly allow innocent, vulnerable people to lose their life savings to enhance their own corporate profits," Forrest said. Meta didn’t respond to requests for comment.