2026-01-01 08:15:20

Here's what went down: Japanese regulators pushed Meta hard to crack down on fraudulent advertisements running across its platforms. The company's response? They removed the scam ads alright — but simultaneously made it trickier for watchdogs to actually track them down through the Ad Library.

A Reuters investigation uncovered this contradiction. While Meta appeared responsive to Japan's pressure on the surface, the real story was more complex. By deleting these ads outright instead of keeping archived records accessible to regulators, the platform essentially limited transparency tools that authorities rely on for oversight.

This move highlights a growing tension in the Web3 and crypto space: platforms balancing between regulatory compliance and maintaining the transparency mechanisms that regulators and the public need to verify their actions. When enforcement agencies can't see a clear audit trail of what happened to flagged content, it becomes harder to verify whether platforms are genuinely committed to cleaning house or just making problems disappear from view.

The Ad Library was designed to give regulators and researchers visibility into political and sensitive advertising. But if platforms can simply delete records rather than maintaining searchable archives, that transparency tool loses its bite.

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ProposalDetective

· 01-03 09:28

Meta's approach is really clever. On the surface, they delete ads to cooperate with regulations, but in reality, they wipe away all traces... Smart as they are, that's how they play it. Regulatory authorities will inevitably clash sooner or later.

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WealthCoffee

· 01-02 14:26

This is called superficiality—delete the ads and bury the evidence together? Meta's move is really clever, like grading their own exam. It's the same old trick again, is this the level of dealing with regulators... It's nice to call it compliance, but in reality, it's just hiding the dirty stuff so regulators can't see. Ad Library is practically useless now; you can delete archived records at will, so what's the point of review... This can't be done on-chain; the transparency of blockchain still has some use. By the way, Meta has really tied itself up this time; international regulators will only get tougher.

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BlockchainNewbie

· 01-01 08:45

Meta's move is brilliant—superficially cracking down on scam ads, but in reality just deleting the evidence. Regulators can't even investigate... This is what you call having your cake and eating it too.

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GweiTooHigh

· 01-01 08:31

Meta's move is really clever. On the surface, it seems like they are obediently deleting ads, but secretly they are hiding the evidence too. Very smart. --- Doing the same trick again? Deleting records is equivalent to solving the problem? Are regulators blind? --- Ad library is virtually useless. The platform can hide or delete at will. Who can check that? --- So they just moved scam ads from the front end to the back end, no problem. --- A typical case of playing word games, with a compliant shell hiding an non-compliant core. --- Web3 is already like this, and you're still expecting centralized platforms to be transparent? Laughs.

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orphaned_block

· 01-01 08:19

NGL, this is a classic sleight of hand... On the surface, they say they'll delete ads, but then they wipe away the evidence and regulators can't even investigate.

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gas_guzzler

· 01-01 08:15

Meta's move is truly brilliant; the apparent crackdown is actually just destroying evidence. --- It's the same old trick—deleting records as if nothing happened... How do regulators investigate? --- It's really "I'll do what you say" with one hand deleting, and "can't find anything" with the other covering up... I'm speechless. --- That's why I never trust the promises of these platforms; their tactics are one after another. --- Ad library is practically useless... might as well not have it. --- Impressive, Meta—putting on a show while destroying the evidence chain. I give this move a full score. --- Web3 advocates transparency, yet these CEXs and platforms are becoming more and more black boxes—ironic. --- Deleting ads = solving the problem? Genius logic... No wonder fraud ads are so rampant.

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