Facebook fires employee who reportedly accepted bribes to reactivate banned ad accounts

published 10 December 2019

Facebook has fired an employee who allegedly accepted thousands of dollars in bribes to reactivate banned ad accounts, BuzzFeed News reports.

The social media company has confirmed to BuzzFeed the employee is "no longer working with Facebook," as "this behavior is absolutely prohibited under our policies."

According to the report, a Facebook employee was paid to reactivate accounts connected to the marketing firm Ads Inc., which BuzzFeed writes "was running a sophisticated Facebook scam that involved placing more than $50 million in ads that typically made false claims about celebrities," with this being "part of a scheme that tricked consumers into signing up for an expensive monthly subscription for a product that was initially marketed as a free trial," as previously revealed in a BuzzFeed investigation.

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The former Facebook employee reportedly made a deal with the former CEO of Ads Inc. whereby they would be paid $5,000 as an initial fee, as well as a possible monthly retainer of $3,000, in exchange for reactivating accounts Facebook had banned because they violated its policies. A former employee for Ads. Inc. said in the report more than one Facebook employee would do so, telling BuzzFeed, "to be honest there were a few people that would flip ads back on."

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Brendan worked as a culture writer at The Week from 2018 to 2023, covering the entertainment industry, including film reviews, television recaps, awards season, the box office, major movie franchises and Hollywood gossip. He has written about film and television for outlets including Bloody Disgusting, Showbiz Cheat Sheet, Heavy and The Celebrity Cafe.

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