Facebook user sues Facebook, asks for N7m damages over investment scam advert
By Jude-Ken Ojinnaka
A Facebook User in Nigeria, Imaobong Uye, has instituted a legal action before a Lagos High Court, Lagos division, asking the court to compel Facebook Nigeria Operations Limited and its parent company Meta Platforms Inc to pay her N7 million as damages for the loss of her life savings due to a scheme advertised on the Facebook.
In her statement of claim dated May 12, 2022, filed through her counsel, Ms Uye alleged that sometime in 2020, Facebook hosted an advert about a purported investment scheme run by a certain firm, Jamalife Investment.
The claimant averred that she was induced by the advert to invest in the scheme with all her life savings.
According to her, the scheme, unknown to her, was fraudulent and an investment scam, adding that she lost all her money to it.
The claimant averred that she would neither have invested in it nor lost her money if Meta Platforms Inc had performed due diligence and vetted the advert before agreeing to host it.
Ms Uye argued that the defendants had a duty of care to ensure that fraudulent adverts are not posted on their Facebook platform, contending that they breached that duty of care, which led to her being defrauded.
She averred that the fraudulent scheme would not have been successful if the defendants had complied with the Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria’s Code of Practice, which requires prior vetting of adverts before they are exposed to the general public.
Consequently, the claimant sought eight reliefs amongst which are:
“A declaration that Meta Platforms Inc and Facebook Nigeria Operations Limited have a duty of care in the provision of social media and social networking services to the claimant but failed to fulfil the duty of care
“An Order restraining the defendants from operating in Nigeria pending update of their Terms of Service, Advertising and Enforcement policies and all other necessary policies towards ensuring compliance with the duty of care owed to the Claimant.
“An order restraining the defendants from operating in Nigeria pending their compliance with the Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria’s Code of Practice.
“N5million in general damages and N2million as cost of legal representation.”
No date has been fixed for hearing of the suit.
