A US judge has ruled that Meta failed to preserve key evidence in relation to an ongoing legal battle with Australian billionaire Andrew ‘Twiggy’ Forrest over scam ads.
Forrest is suing Meta over fraudulent adverts hosted on its platforms that use his likeness without permission.
His legal team said the adverts, which show him endorsing fraudulent cryptocurrency and other investment products on Facebook, have impacted thousands.
Meta says that the adverts were not its doing and it is therefore not liable.
Twiggy’s lawyer asked the US judge not to allow Meta to hide behind Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, a US law first conceived in the 90s, which shield internet firms from being accountable for content posted by users on their platforms.
The hearing also looked into whether Meta had wrongly ditched evidence, forfeiting its ability to take shelter behind the act.
On Tuesday, the judge found Meta had “spoliated evidence” and failed to take reasonable steps to preserve electronically stored information that should have been kept in anticipation of litigation, including the final scam ads that were shown to victims.
The ruling said in this case Meta should have preserved any data relevant to the case.
The ruling said if the jury found at trial that Meta acted with the intent to deprive Forrest of the information, they should also assume the evidence in question was unfavourable to Meta.
The ruling was welcomed by Forrest, who described it as “a glimmer of hope”.
“Meta’s conduct in this litigation so far has been evasive, duplicitous and deeply revealing,” he said. “It exposes a corporate culture that disregards proper and fair process with little restraint.”
Forrest also said the Court’s sanctions “send a clear message”.
“Meta cannot destroy or lose evidence and then use that missing evidence as a shield. The penalties for these wrongdoings must fall on Meta, not on the victims of scam advertising.”
The court said Forrest was entitled to fees or costs incurred due to the ruling, and that he and Meta must meet to discuss the financial details.
“Fighting scams is one of our top priorities,” a Meta spokesperson told B&T.
“In 2025 alone, we removed more than 159 million scam ads, took down 10.9 million accounts linked to criminal scam centres, and user reports of scam ads dropped by more than 35 per cent. Scams are an industry-wide problem that requires collaboration across digital platforms, banks, telcos and law enforcement to combat effectively.”
