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After resolving a dispute over legal jurisdiction, mining billionaire Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest’s lawsuit against social media giant Meta is now moving forward.
Lawyers for the tech giant made their first appearance in West Australia’s Magistrates Court on Tuesday and conceded the court had jurisdiction, clearing the way for criminal proceedings over alleged clickbait advertising to go ahead.
Dr Forrest, the founder of iron ore miner Fortescue Metals Group, alleges Meta was criminally reckless in allowing bogus advertisements using his image to appear on its site.
The three charges allege Facebook did not take sufficient steps to take down the scam advertisements, which feature the billionaire and other prominent Australians.
In a separate civil case launched in March, the ACCC alleges the scams cost one user more than $650,000.
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Meta previously contested the court’s power to hear the matter.
Simon Clarke, representing Dr Forrest, said outside the court it was a milestone day as it was the first time Meta had conceded jurisdiction in Australia.
“Usually, they subject you to a bit of a battle for two or three years,” he said.
The brief hearing mostly centred on an application about the parallel Federal Court proceedings brought by the consumer watchdog.
Magistrate Brionie Ayling set a committal hearing for Dr Forrest’s case on November 4.
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In bringing the charges in February, Dr Forrest said he’d made repeated requests to Facebook to take down the advertisements, alleging the ads first appeared in March 2019 and have appeared as recently as this year.
Dr Forrest also launched civil proceedings against Facebook in California last September.
If the WA case reaches trial, it will pass over to the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions.
While Meta could face fines, Mr Clarke said a conviction would also serve as a warning to all social media platforms.
“It would cause (Meta) to reflect on the way they’re running their platform,” he said.
With AAP. (Content has been tweaked for length and style.)
Jaw de Guzman is the content producer for Comms Room, a knowledge platform and website aimed at assisting the communications industry and its professionals.
