Brazil’s Attorney General’s Office (AGU) is taking decisive action against social media giant Meta, demanding the immediate removal of illegal online gambling promotions from its Facebook and Instagram platforms.
The AGU issued an extrajudicial notice to Meta after investigations into the company’s ad library uncovered hundreds of active advertisements for unauthorized gambling operators.
Under Brazilian law, any operator wishing to offer or advertise gambling services must first obtain a license and authorization from the Ministry of Finance. The operators featured in the promotions on Meta’s platforms have failed to do so, rendering their activities illegal. The AGU has given Meta a 48-hour timeframe to remove the non-compliant content.
In its official notification, the AGU expressed serious concerns about the nature of these operations, stating: “This is, therefore, a clearly illegal activity… which may also be linked to tax evasion, money laundering, crimes against consumer relations, fraud and other illegal practices.”
To help consumers, authorities have noted that all authorized gambling sites in Brazil must use a domain ending in ‘.bet.br’.
The Brazil’s AGU legal position is bolstered by a recent ruling on Article 19 of the Brazilian Civil Rights Framework for the Internet, which holds digital platforms liable for illegal content they host unless they can “prove that they acted diligently and within a reasonable time to make the content unavailable.”
This action in Brazil comes after Meta has faced similar issues in other regions. While the company reportedly failed to attend questioning in India regarding a probe into ads for illegal gambling, it took more decisive action in the Philippines by purging the pages of influencers promoting such services.
The AGU’s demand places renewed pressure on Meta to enforce local regulations within one of the world’s largest and most recently regulated online gambling markets.
