Hosking takes fake ad complaint direct to Facebook NZ boss

Newstalk ZB broadcaster Mike Hosking has taken his concerns about fake ads to Facebook's New Zealand boss.

On air this morning, Hosking told listeners he called Spencer Bailey, the head of Facebook in the local market, to find out what the company was doing about removing fake ads.

Hosking said he was told by Bailey that Facebook did not want fake ads and that the company was concerned that people were being tricked by these scams.

Hosking said he asked Bailey to appear on his show, but the Facebook boss told him this was unlikely.

"Heaven forbid you should have to defend your own business on a radio show," was Hosking's response to the unwillingness of Bailey to appear.

Less than a month after featuring in numerous fake news reports, Hosking told his listeners that he has now been the subject of a common bitcoin scam that uses images of high-profile New Zealanders to convince unsuspecting social media users to invest in questionable online schemes.

Other individuals to have featured in such schemes include richlister Graeme Hart, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and former All Blacks captain Richie McCaw.

After having the scam sent to him by people he knew, Hosking sought to have it removed from Facebook.

This process proved particularly frustrating for the broadcaster, given his only course of action was to report the fake ads to Facebook.

"The only way to get them down is by reporting them ... which is such a stupid pathetic excuse," Hosking said.

"It's like me on this show, playing any old ad I want, saying literally anything, legal or illegal, whatever you like and then saying the only way you can get those ads off the programme is if you ring us up and let us know. Because that's the way we run things. Is Facebook saying that with a straight face?

Hosking also drew attention to the fact that Facebook often earns money from these ads.

"Facebook's standard line is that we don't want fake ads on our platform. They may not want them, but they take them. They take the money and run them. And they will keep running them until you ring up and complain."

Following his conversations with Bailey, Hosking received an email from Facebook's communications team in Australia confirming that all the offending posts and their associated pages had been removed.