Meta Mandates SEBI Verification for Investment Ads Targeting Indian Users

With an aim to crack down on fake market advisors and investment gurus, Meta Platforms will require all advertisers targeting Indian users with securities and investment-related ads to complete a verification process. This mandate will come into effect starting July 31.

Advertisers can also choose alternative verification methods like business or identity verification, in case SEBI (Securities and Exchange Board of India) registration isn’t mandatory.

These ads will display the verified details, in line with the regulator’s earlier guidance for advertisers to register with social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.

As per latest guidelines, advertisers are allowed to run ads without verification as long as the content doesn’t promote a specific financial product or service. This includes brand-focused ads by banks and insurers, financial news content, and materials aimed at financial literacy.

In addition, the verification process is not required for ads related to education, training, or skill development around loans or financial products, provided they don’t offer access to or direct links to such services. Besides India, Meta has also made this verification requirement mandatory for advertisers targeting users in Australia, Taiwan, and the UK.

Meta stated that Sebi-registered advertisers can complete the verification instantly, whereas individuals or organisations not required to register with the market regulator will undergo a process that takes around two working days. The new rule is likely to significantly affect social media influences who promote financial content.

Meta's Crackdown on Financial Scams

In May, Meta has removed clusters of scam activity totalling over 23,000 Facebook Pages and accounts that primarily targeted people in Brazil and India.

It stated that the scammers used deepfakes, among other techniques, falsely depicting popular personal finance content creators, cricket players and business figures in Brazil and India, endorsing scam investment apps and gambling websites.

The scammers redirected people to messaging apps for 'investment advice' and, in some cases, to a fake website that mimicked the Google Play store to download scam gambling apps.

Investment scams typically lure people into investing in fake or non-existent opportunities, promising quick and easy returns on assets like cryptocurrency, real estate, or shares.

It also warned about overpayment and refund requests, where fraudsters overpay for an item they've purchased online (or claim to have overpaid using a fake receipt) and request a partial refund. They later reverse the original payment (if they made one) and walk away with both sums.