HRH Prince Khaled bin Alwaleed bin Talal Al Saud has accused tech giant Meta of “turning a blind eye” as fake accounts impersonating his sister, HRH Princess Reem bint Alwaleed, openly defraud Gulf residents on Facebook and Instagram.
Dozens of fraudulent pages, he said, are using Princess Reem’s name and image to solicit small cash “investments” – often as little as AED 100 – from vulnerable GCC citizens. Despite documented complaints, Meta has failed to acknowledge his team’s reports.
“When there is a real problem, like fraudulent bad actors taking unsuspecting people for money, out and out conning them openly, social media companies claim not to be able to manage the problem,” Prince Khaled told Arabian Business.
“I am really well versed with technology, and these companies have astounding capabilities. To state otherwise is really just taking us for a ride.”
Prince Khaled said Meta’s regional operation focuses almost entirely on sales, with little or no investment in user safety.
“The social media companies only install salespeople here in the region,” he said. “They don’t bother setting up trust and security arms because they are only concerned with profiting off of our digital interests.”
He said his communications team compiled and submitted a detailed dossier of fraudulent accounts across multiple platforms. While Snap and X responded immediately – “both doing clean sweeps” – Meta “went completely silent.”
Prince Khaled said: “And this is someone like me who has a full communications and digital team. What does a person do if they don’t have a team to deal with this? They can do nothing. They are victimised and they have no hope of getting help. Where is the commitment to the region? Where is the commitment to the people?”
He added TikTok’s response was also initially inadequate – “they sent us an information page and did nothing else” – though its policy team later took action after what he described as “a lot of back and forth.”
Prince Khaled calls for tighter controls
Prince Khaled has now called on regulators in Saudi Arabia and the UAE to investigate the platforms’ handling of impersonation and fraud, saying their “take-take-take” relationship with the Gulf must end.
He said: “They make extraordinary sums here, but when it comes to protecting our citizens, they hide behind excuses. It’s time for accountability.”
Meta reported profits of $62.36 billion in 2024.
Former Meta Head of Policy for MENA Ashraf Zeitoon echoed the prince’s criticism, telling Arabian Business companies like Meta “have all the resources, human, financial and technical, to address the challenge” but lack the will.
“They could easily deploy tools such as IP address blocking to prevent scammers from creating new accounts,” Zeitoon said. “But their trust and safety teams in the GCC are underdeveloped, and financial fraud simply doesn’t sit on their priority list.”
Meta did not respond to a request for comment from Arabian Business.
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