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

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.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

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."

Facebook says it is "continuing to investigate the allegations and will take any further necessary action." Read the full report at BuzzFeed News.