Kazushige Nagashima: “Either Japan needs to legislate or Meta Inc. needs to clean up its game'' on fraudulent advertisements impersonating celebrities on SNS – Sponichi Sponichi Annex Entertainment

On the 19th, former professional baseball player and talent Kazushige Nagashima (57) appeared on TV Asahi's “Shinichi Hatori Morning Show'' (Monday-Friday 8:00 am). He mentioned fraudulent advertisements impersonating celebrities.

On the 16th, US IT giant Meta (formerly Facebook) released a statement calling for a society-wide approach to countering fraudulent advertising, in collaboration with industry, experts, and related organizations. Regarding this issue, there have been cases of fraud in which people use images of celebrities, including businessman Takafumi Horie and Yusaku Maezawa, founder of clothing mail order giant ZOZO, to impersonate them and solicit fictitious investments. The spread of advertisements on Facebook and other sites has become a social problem.

There has been some backlash against Meta's statement, which could be interpreted as an avoidance of responsibility on the company's part, and Maezawa posted on X (formerly Twitter) on the night of the 16th, saying, “First of all, how about an apology? Is it the fault of society as a whole?'' “What?” he said, expressing his displeasure.

Kazushige said, “With internet scams becoming so sophisticated, I don't think it's possible for those who fall victim to the scam to blame themselves.'' Kazushige said, “The responsibility of the person who made the communication is also definitely heavy.'' That's what I think. Meta is a big company and has credibility.” He then went on to share his thoughts, saying, “This will never go away unless Japan enacts legal regulations or Meta Inc. corrects itself.''

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