CNMV tightens the grip on Silicon Valley's big tech companies. Two months after sanctioning Twitter International, the parent company of X, in what was the stock market supervisor's first sanctioning process for non-compliance with the rules regarding the advertising of financial scams on a social network; the organization has opened an investigation into Meta, the parent company of platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, for the same reason.
The process is in its early stages, as EL MUNDO has learned from business sources. At the moment, the institution, now presided over by Carlos San Basilio, has issued a request for information to the company led by Mark Zuckerberg, after detecting ads on its platforms from investment entities or crypto assets that are either already on the Commission's 'grey list' or have not yet been authorized by it.
Official sources from CNMV state that, as a stock market supervisor, the organization sends information requests "daily" whenever they see ads from these types of unauthorized entities, clarifying that this does not necessarily imply the opening of sanctioning processes like the one launched in the case of the platform led by Elon Musk and that such actions depend, among other factors, on the response and measures taken by the companies. However, the tech giant that owns Facebook has already hired the law firm Uría Menéndez as legal advisor in the supervisor's investigation.
CNMV's warning to Meta comes at a time of changes in the content control mechanisms applied by the company, in line with the approach of Silicon Valley giants to Donald Trump after his electoral victory. Almost all big tech leaders have already shown support for the US president, including those who distanced themselves from the Republican leader in 2016.
For Zuckerberg, this alignment with Trump's political drift has led to Meta's withdrawal from the company's Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion program, but more significantly for CNMV's scope of action, it also resulted in the recent decision by Meta's CEO to initially eliminate fact-checkers in the US from its platforms. Moving forward, the company will adopt a model of "community notes" similar to what Musk introduced at X to "embrace freedom of expression", as announced by Zuckerberg himself in a video on his social media.
Too Good to Be True
Financial scams are entities that offer investment services without authorization from CNMV or the Bank of Spain. Some have been directly included in the supervisor's blacklist, while others have simply not yet been analyzed by it. CNMV has been warning for years about the risk of trusting these unofficial entities.
"They are dangerous because in most cases, the apparent provision of such services is just a cover to appropriate the capital of their victims, making them believe they are making a high-profit investment. It is important to understand that the high returns they offer are usually too good to be true: they are just bait to get less informed or more trusting investors to hand over their savings," warns the stock market supervisor in a technical guide.
For the social network controlled by Elon Musk, CNMV announced the sanctioning process on December 26, a year after issuing the first warning about the firm Quantum AI, which impersonated famous personalities and media outlets claiming to have made millions with their services. The supervisor repeatedly warned X and asked them to remove the content from that entity, unsuccessfully, leading to a sanctioning process against the platform for "a very serious ongoing infringement" of the Securities Markets Law.
The latest amendment to this regulatory framework, from 2023, aimed to enhance control over unaccredited entities that have found a way to deceive retail investors and other profiles vulnerable to such frauds through technology. Since its approval, internet search engines, social networks, and media outlets are required to gather information to ensure that advertisers of financial services have CNMV's approval before promoting them. The new law has given the supervisor more leverage to rein in Silicon Valley giants... and has already shown its willingness to use it.