Celebrity-Clickbaits to Cross-Border Litigation: Meta v. Shenzhen Yunzheng Tech
Written by Judy Li | March 26, 2026
On February 27, 2026, Meta Platforms Inc. sued the Chinese Company Shenzhen Yunzheng Tech, alleging that the company used “celeb-baits” on Facebook and Instagram to prompt users into engaging with fraudulent schemes aimed at stealing money and personal information. Meta, the technology and social media giant that owns Facebook, Instagram, and others, while developing and integrating AI across its platforms, is also experiencing firsthand the challenges AI is bringing to its immersive digital experiences within its Metaverse goal.
In this fast-moving, social-media-fluent era, this case highlights a growing problem for many online platforms and their users: how easy it is to legitimize advertisements through meticulous strategies, especially with the assistance of AI, and the grey area of copyright infringement when exploiting images of celebrities. While the primary issue in the case is fraud and consumer deception, aspects such as misuse of Meta platforms may also give rise to secondary issues, including trademark. This legal pursuit officially marks Meta’s move from technical measures to an aggressive crackdown on deepfakes that have been disrupting its social media environment for years.
In an international context, Meta previously took action to dismantle scam centers in Nigeria and Brazil that targeted individuals engaging with legitimate investment sites and pushed advertisements for unregulated healthcare products, respectively. In Nigeria, Meta worked with the UK National Crime Agency and the Nigerian Police Force to crack down on the scam enterprise, while in Brazil, Meta also worked with authorities to combat companies using deepfakes. Both cases serve as precedents for collaboration between Meta and law enforcement agencies in another country.
Another interesting aspect to consider is the scam company's targets, as Meta’s social media platforms are banned and inaccessible on the Chinese internet. The aim of these scam companies is often not people within their own borders, but rather others, just as Shenzhen Yunzheng mainly targeted the Japanese and Americans. This raises the critical question: even if the U.S. courts give a judgment to Meta, can that decision be enforced against a Chinese company? Litigation alone might have very limited power, as in practice, U.S. court decisions rely on cooperation from foreign legal systems. This emphasizes the need for social media corporations to continue developing and investing in robust defense systems against AI scams and to strengthen the international litigation aspect of this topic.
Aside from legal actions, Meta’s “war” on platform fraud and deepfakes is supported by its development of new AI tools to detect veiling features that hide AI-generated scam content from general review systems. To fight celeb-bait scams and distinguish legitimate advertisements featuring celebrities, Meta developed a protection program for 500,000+ public figures globally whose images are repeatedly used in deepfakes, leveraging its facial recognition technology. Despite cloaking techniques for scam companies becoming more prevalent and sophisticated, Meta's protection of celebrity images has proven effective, with global user reports of celebrity bait ad drops dropping 22% in the first half of 2025. Meta’s willingness to build this large-scale defense wall underscores the need for industry attention to the issue of impersonation.
To many people, it may seem surprising that anyone would fall for these “obviously” fake celebrity advertisements. However, Gen Z, who are familiar with technology and social media, are the immediate target of these investment scams. In addition, you may find it surprising that individuals with higher education are more likely to encounter online scams and fall for these attempts. Aside from the social media giants paying close attention to this problem, we should also be aware of any form of online fraud, from small purchases that never arrive to large-scale theft of credit card information.
