Facebook Faces Class Action Lawsuit Over False ‘Like’ Ads

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Facebook Inc. has been hit with yet another class action lawsuit, this time over allegations that the social network falsely promotes advertisers’ pages as having been “liked” by users without the users’ knowledge or consent. In some cases, users allegedly were portrayed as having “liked” or endorsed a product or service when they had not actually clicked on the “Like” button in support of the business.

Plaintiff Anthony DiTirro filed the Facebook “Like” class action lawsuit on Thursday, seeking to represent a class of Facebook users whose profile was “intentionally manipulated” to give the impression that they liked, used or endorsed a product or company that advertises on Facebook without providing consent to use their likeness or private data in the promotion.

The “Like” button allows users of the social network to express their enjoyment of content posted on Facebook, including other users’ statuses, comments and photos. Facebook users also have the ability to use the “Like” button to endorse companies’ advertisements, products and services. By clicking the “Like” button, users can advertise their support or endorsement of the company or product to all of their Facebook friends. The class action lawsuit suggests that the “Like” button provides “a gigantic source of advertising.”

The class action lawsuit cites an article that indicates the Facebook “Like” button “is seen more than 22 billion times per day and is embedded in over 7.5 million websites.”

DiTirro claims that he carefully read the terms of service and other information provided by Facebook about the dissemination and use of personal information posted on the social network. He says that after reading this information, he understood that he would own and control his personal information and content. According to the class action lawsuit, DiTirro understood that Facebook would only use information that the users actually posted, and would limit that information based on the users’ privacy and application settings.

DiTirro argues in his class action lawsuit that a reasonable consumer would understand based on Facebook’s stated mission and policies that the social network “would not disseminate false, incorrect, or untruthful information, and specifically would not falsely attribute sponsorship, endorsement, preference, or approval in the form of ‘Likes’ to them when they had not in fact ‘Liked’ a product, service, or company.”

According to the Facebook “Like” class action lawsuit, one of DiTirro’s Facebook friends informed him that he was featured on Facebook as “liking” USA Today newspaper in a sponsored advertisement. DiTorro alleges that he never clicked the “Like” button on USA Today’s Facebook page or website. He alleges Facebook knowingly used his likeness to advertise that he endorsed USA Today without his consent.

This Facebook “Like” lawsuit is just one in a long list of class action lawsuits against the social network. In fact, a federal judge approved a $20 million class action settlement involving similar allegations that Facebook used the names and likenesses of its subscribers in “Sponsored Story” advertisements that indicate the user “likes” the advertiser. Under the terms of the Sponsored Stories settlement, Facebook agreed to take the feature off the social networking site and give users more control over how their content is shared.

On Dec. 31, 2013, a Facebook user filed a class action lawsuit alleging that the contents of private messages sent through Facebook were used to create targeted advertisements. In November, Facebook sought to dismiss a class action lawsuit accusing the social network of using the names and pictures of underage children in advertisements without prior consent.

DiTirro is represented by Anthony J. Orshansky and Justin Kachadoorian of CounselOne PC.

The Facebook “Like” Class Action Lawsuit is Anthony DiTirro v. Facebook Inc., Case No. 5:14-cv-00132, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.