Mark Zuckerberg built Meta into a social media empire by promising to connect people.
But internal documents just exposed what he's really been doing.
And one order from Mark Zuckerberg just cost Americans 50 billion dollars.
Meta's $3 billion secret from China
Meta made more than $3 billion in 2024 from Chinese advertisers pushing illegal gambling, pornography, and investment scams targeting Americans and other foreign consumers.¹
That's 19% of Meta's $18 billion in Chinese ad revenue – money flowing from a country that bans its own citizens from using Facebook and Instagram.²
China accounted for 25% of all scam ads across Meta's global platforms.³
Meta's own staff labeled China as the company's top "Scam Exporting Nation."⁴
Federal prosecutors in Illinois announced in March 2025 that the FBI seized $214 million from a Chinese stock scheme that used Meta ads to funnel victims into WhatsApp groups run by people posing as investment advisors.⁵
Seven people from Taiwan and Malaysia were charged in that case alone.
But Meta's problems with Chinese scam ads go far beyond one massive fraud ring.
Zuckerberg shut down the team that was fixing the problem
Meta formed a dedicated anti-fraud team in 2024 after employees pushed for "significant investment to reduce growing harm."⁶
They slashed problematic Chinese ads from 19% to 9% of China revenue in the second half of 2024.⁷
The success proved short-lived.
After what internal documents describe as an "Integrity Strategy pivot and follow-up from Zuck," Meta disbanded the unit, lifted a freeze on new Chinese ad agencies, and shelved anti-scam measures that testing showed would work.⁸
Within months, banned ads rebounded to 16% of China revenue.⁹
"The levels that you're talking about are not defensible," former Meta integrity chief Rob Leathern told Reuters.¹⁰
"I don't know how anyone could think this is okay."
Meta's own safety staff estimated the company's platforms were involved in one-third of all successful U.S. scams.¹¹
That puts Meta's role in American consumer losses at more than $50 billion.¹²
The business calculation behind billions in fraud
Meta earns $7 billion a year from scam ads it classifies as "high risk."¹³
Internal documents projected 10% of Meta's annual revenue – about $16 billion – would come from scam ads, illegal gambling, and banned products.¹⁴
The company made a conscious choice about how much fraud to tolerate.
When enforcement staff proposed shutting down fraudulent accounts, they sought assurance that growth teams would not object "given the revenue impact."¹⁵
Meta set "revenue guardrails" blocking anti-fraud teams from actions costing more than 0.15% of total revenue.¹⁶
Asked whether Meta would penalize high-spending Chinese partners running scams, the answer was "No," citing "high revenue impact."¹⁷
A February 2025 document shows Meta decided to tolerate elevated misconduct from China permanently.¹⁸
The goal wasn't to eliminate Chinese scams.
It was to "maintain the % of global harm" from China at current levels.¹⁹
Meta hired London-based consultancy Propellerfish to investigate why China generated so much fraudulent advertising.
The firm's conclusion: "Meta's own behaviour and policies" actively fostered corruption in the Chinese ad market.²⁰
Even TikTok maintains stricter standards.²¹
In late 2024, Meta reinstated 4,000 suspended Chinese ad agencies, unlocking $240 million in revenue.²²
Half came from ads violating Meta's own safety policies.²³
More than 75% of harmful ad spending came from accounts with Meta's partner protections – a "whitelisting" system that lets ads run for days awaiting review, even when they contain banned content.²⁴
The scale of Meta's Chinese fraud operation reveals something Beijing has always understood: American Big Tech companies will sacrifice their users for access to Chinese money.
Zuckerberg spent years courting China – visiting the country, studying Mandarin, meeting President Xi Jinping – trying to get Meta's platforms unblocked there.
So he found a way to profit from China anyway, even if it meant scam artists using his platforms to steal billions from Americans.
The anti-fraud team cut Chinese scam ads in half in six months.
Then Zuckerberg shut them down.
That's the tell.
This wasn't incompetence.
Meta budgeted for penalties up to $1 billion – a fraction of the $7 billion in annual revenue from high-risk ads.
Fines were cheaper than giving up the money.
U.S. Senators Josh Hawley (R-MO) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) called on federal regulators to investigate Meta and "pursue vigorous enforcement action."²⁵
They urged forcing Meta to "fully disgorge all profits from fraudulent advertisements, impose steep civil penalties, hold individual executives personally accountable, and seek binding terms to end this scourge."²⁶
Meta spokesperson Andy Stone claimed Zuckerberg's "integrity strategy pivot" meant to "instruct teams to redouble efforts to fight frauds and scams globally."²⁷
The internal documents say otherwise.
They show a company that built a team to solve the problem, then dismantled it when executives worried about revenue.
Americans lost $50 billion to scams on Meta's platforms while Zuckerberg counted his profits.
¹ Reuters, "Meta tolerates rampant ad fraud from China to safeguard billions in revenue," December 15, 2025.
² Ibid.
³ Ibid.
⁴ Ibid.
⁵ Ibid.
⁶ Ibid.
⁷ Ibid.
⁸ Ibid.
⁹ Ibid.
¹⁰ Ibid.
¹¹ Ibid.
¹² Blumenthal and Hawley, "Letter to FTC and SEC," November 23, 2025.
¹³ Ibid.
¹⁴ Reuters, "Meta tolerates rampant ad fraud from China to safeguard billions in revenue," December 15, 2025.
¹⁵ Ibid.
¹⁶ Fortune, "Former Meta integrity chief says new report reveals 'disappointing' ad fraud epidemic," December 15, 2025.
¹⁷ Blumenthal and Hawley, "Letter to FTC and SEC," November 23, 2025.
¹⁸ Fortune, "Former Meta integrity chief says new report reveals 'disappointing' ad fraud epidemic," December 15, 2025.
¹⁹ Reuters, "Meta tolerates rampant ad fraud from China to safeguard billions in revenue," December 15, 2025.
²⁰ Ibid.
²¹ Ibid.
²² Boing Boing, "Meta knew Chinese ads were scams, kept money," December 15, 2025.
²³ Fortune, "Former Meta integrity chief says new report reveals 'disappointing' ad fraud epidemic," December 15, 2025.
²⁴ Ibid.
²⁵ Technology.org, "Meta Protects $3B in Chinese Scam Ad Revenue," December 15, 2025.
²⁶ Blumenthal and Hawley, "Letter to FTC and SEC," November 23, 2025.
²⁷ Ibid.
²⁸ Fortune, "Former Meta integrity chief says new report reveals 'disappointing' ad fraud epidemic," December 15, 2025.
