Facebook's “celebrity impersonation advertisement”, lawsuit for damages against Meta in Japan… What about South Korea? : Economy : Hankyoreh japan

Four victims file suit for 23 million yen in damages
“Damage due to meta not managing advertisements properly”
A number of well-known executives and presenters have been victimized in South Korea.

Advertisement impersonating celebrity Hong Jin-kyung displayed on Facebook operated by Meta = Captured from Facebook // Hankyoreh Newspaper

Victims have filed a lawsuit in Japan over the issue of “celebrity impersonation ads'' on Facebook and other sites. The lawsuit is against Meta, the company that operates Facebook and Instagram. Last month in South Korea, victims including actor Kim Mi Kyung, entertainer Song Eun Hee, and presenter Yoo Jae Suk established the “Society for Solving Celebrity Impersonation Online Phishing Crimes'' and held a press conference. Given the seriousness of the situation, the filing of this lawsuit in Japan is expected to have an impact.

Kyodo News and other Japanese media reported on the 26th that four men and women living in Kobe and Tokyo have filed a lawsuit against Meta's Japanese subsidiary, demanding approximately 23 million yen in damages. Recently, there has been a rampage in Japan of fraudulent crimes that use the names and photos of famous people, such as the founders of famous apparel sales companies and the founders of community sites, to recommend investments. The situation is similar to what is unfolding in South Korea.

The suitors claim they were harmed by Meta's failure to properly manage its advertising. Despite the fact that many users may be exposed to financial damage due to fraudulent advertisements on SNS, Meta neglects its obligation to investigate and confirm the truthfulness of advertisement content, and only receives advertising fee revenue. It means that you are getting . Such criticism continued to be raised by famous Korean victims such as former Hanwha Investment & Securities CEO Ju Jin-hyun.

NHK cited a statement from the defense team in this case and explained, “This is believed to be the first trial in Japan to hold the operator accountable for this issue.'' According to the Japanese National Police Agency, last year there were 2,271 cases of misleading advertisements using celebrities on SNS, and the amount of damages amounted to 27.79 billion yen.

Reporter Lim Ji-sung (Contact japan@hani.co.kr)