Fortescue Metals boss Andrew Forrest has launched criminal proceedings against Facebook claiming the social media giant failed to stop clickbait advertising scams using his image.
The action alleges the tech giant breached federal anti-money laundering laws and is being taken in the Magistrates Court of Western Australia.
It is the first time Facebook has faced criminal charges globally, Dr Forrest says.
The scam ads use the mining magnate's image to promote cryptocurrency schemes and have appeared on the platform since 2019.
Dr Forrest has made repeated requests asking Facebook to prevent the use of his image, including an open letter to founder Mark Zuckerberg in November 2019.
"I'm doing this because I'm concerned about innocent Australians being scammed through clickbait advertising on social media," he said in a statement on Thursday.
"I'm committed to ensuring that social media operators don't allow their sites to be used by criminal syndicates.
"This action is being taken on behalf of those everyday Australians - mums and dads, grans and grandads - who work all their lives to gather their savings and to ensure those savings aren't swindled away by scammers. I'm acting here for Australians, but this is happening all over the world."
The criminal charges have been brought under the Commonwealth Criminal Code with the consent of the Attorney-General Michaelia Cash, he said.
"I want social media companies to use much more of their vast resources and billions of dollars in annual revenue to protect vulnerable people - the people who are targeted and fall victim to these horrible scams with their hard-earned savings," he said.
"Social media is part of our lives, but it's in the public interest for more to be done to ensure fraud on social media platforms is eliminated or significantly reduced."
An initial hearing in the WA Magistrates Court will be held on March 28.
The civil case has also been filed against Facebook in California.
