Meta argues Section 230 bars fake investment ad impersonation claims – Courthouse News

SAN FRANCISCO (CN) — Meta told a federal judge Thursday it is immune from claims brought by financial professionals who say the tech giant helped facilitate an investment scam that unlawfully used their names and likenesses to promote Chinese penny stocks. Meta attorney Sonal Mehta of WilmerHale argued Meta is exempt under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act — which shields online businesses and social media platforms from liability for content posted by third parties — because scammers, and not Meta, created the content that contained impersonations of the plaintiffs. “What they are alleging is the likenesses and impersonation happened in the WhatsApp chats once the people were already in those chatrooms,” she said. “They admit Meta did not create that content. Just looking at allegations of the amended complaint, they admit Meta did not contribute to core illegality.” The class of financial professionals say their names, images, voices and personas were used in a pump-and-dump scheme orchestrated through Meta-owned WhatsApp. They say scammers used advertising tools, including generative AI tools, offered by Meta to create fraudulent ads for WhatsApp scam groups. They say users who clicked on the ads were added to WhatsApp groups, where the scammers, posing
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