AGU takes action against Meta to curb scams that use government symbols and manipulated images on social media
- Rafaela Campos da Silva
- 2 days ago
- 1 min read
GOV.br - April 28, 2025
The Office of the Attorney General of the Union (AGU) filed a Public Civil Action to adopt measures to prevent the improper use of federal government symbols and brands, as well as images and videos of public authorities, in fraudulent advertisements published on the social networks Facebook and Instagram (platforms controlled by the company Meta).
The AGU also requests that the amount earned from the publication of the 1,770 advertisements be identified and that the company be ordered to allocate the amount to the Fund for the Defense of Diffuse Rights. The action was based on a study by the Laboratory for Internet and Social Network Studies of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (NetLab/UFRJ), which identified, between January 10 and 21, 1,770 advertisements with fraudulent content that promoted false information about amounts to be received by the population and other topics related to the new rules for sending transaction information via Pix to the Federal Revenue Service.
The fraudulent advertisements offered real or fictitious government programs, pretended to be pages of public and private institutions, and manipulated the image of political leaders with Artificial Intelligence (AI). The Netlab/UFRJ study found that most of the fraudulent advertisements promoted the population's alleged right to withdraw funds, promising that the money would be released upon payment of a false service fee.
