Meta may face second Taiwan fine for ad disclosure failures

Meta Platforms, Inc. may face a fine in Taiwan this week for allegedly failing to disclose information about individuals funding advertisements on its platforms.

This could mark the second penalty under Taiwan’s Fraud Crime Hazard Prevention Act.

According to Deputy minister of the Ministry of Digital Affairs (MODA) Lin Yi-jing, the ministry recently received 23 new cases from the Ministry of the Interior concerning incomplete advertisement disclosures on Meta’s platforms.

It is unclear whether these cases involve Facebook or Instagram.

MODA officials said that Meta did not provide complete information about who paid for the advertisements and who benefited from them.

A decision regarding the penalty may be made as soon as this week, according to an unnamed MODA official speaking to local media.

If the fine is imposed, it would follow a NT$1 million (US$33,381) penalty issued in May for similar violations.

🔗 Source: Focus Taiwan

🧠 Food for thought

1️⃣ Taiwan’s ad disclosure crackdown reflects a global shift toward platform accountability

Taiwan’s actions against Meta represent a growing global trend where regulators are holding platforms directly responsible for ad content, rather than just pursuing individual bad actors.

The NT$1 million (US$33,381) fine issued to Meta in May was Taiwan’s first enforcement under its anti-fraud act, establishing a precedent that platforms must verify who funds advertisements 1.

Similar regulatory approaches are evident worldwide, from the UK’s £500,000 Facebook fine related to Cambridge Analytica to GDPR enforcement actions that can reach €20 million or 4% of global turnover 2.

The penalties in Taiwan can escalate from NT$200,000 to NT$5 million for continued non-compliance, demonstrating an intentional regulatory framework designed to ensure platforms take verification seriously 1.

This shift toward platform accountability appears driven by the recognition that self-regulation has proven insufficient to protect users from fraudulent content in digital advertising.