Sean Lyons: Netsafe Chief Online Safety Officer on the organisation's bid to encourage Meta to launch more anti-scam measures

Netsafe say it's encouraging tech giant Meta to prevent scams in the country.

Across the ditch, social media companies are detecting and preventing such behaviour.

No such protections currently apply in New Zealand - but tech giant Meta is working to introduce defences against finance and celebrity based scam ads.

Netsafe Chief Online Safety Officer Sean Lyons says Meta still needs to be pushed to do more to shut down scams.

"We should definitely be pushing them to do more so that we're not put in harm's way while we're using their platforms."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Meta says it wants to bring anti scam measures to
New Zealand, but it might be a while until they're
actually in place. In Australia, social media companies have had
to take reasonable steps to detect and prevent scam attempts,
and our government is now considering introducing similar rules. So
to talk about this, I'm joined by a chief online
safety officer at knit Safe, Sean Lyons. Hello, Sean, Hello,

(00:22):
how are you doing all right? What do they think
you're doing?

Speaker 2 (00:25):
So they're talking about and mirroring the same sort of
controls that they have over in Australia over here. They
originally said that wasn't wasn't possible, and I think they're
still saying it might be some time. But they're talking
about instituting some defense around ads that that claimed to
be you know, get rich of quick fem of finance
based ad, making sure that those anyone who advertised in

(00:48):
that way is registered with our FMA over here, but
basically clamping down on the advert that some of us
are seeing on social media. They are leading us down
a very unfortunate path.

Speaker 1 (00:58):
Yeah. So one the other day it was Mike Hosking
telling me to invest money and I thought, no, he's
neven getting give away those sorts of secrets. Tech giants
and banks are at loggerheads over who should be responsible
for online scams. Does this show that Meta actually thinks
they do have a responsibility to stop them?

Speaker 2 (01:15):
Well, I mean, I think what it is that is
a pretty star cognition that they think they can have
an impact and that that means that they must be
looking at these things. So it is encouraging that they
are looking in that direction. It is encouraging that they're
talking about trying to clamp down on those, you know,
the celebrity based scam adverts that people are seeing. So
whether or not they think they're the entire solution and
that they're probably not, but if it's on their platforms,

(01:37):
we should definitely be pushing them to do more so
that we are not put in hard way whilst we're
using their platform for whatever it is that we might
choose to be doing. So.

Speaker 1 (01:45):
Australia got these protections because they actually applied pressure with
a code of conduct. Do we need to apply some
regulatory pressure as well? Well?

Speaker 2 (01:54):
I mean, I think a code of conduct certainly seems
to be working in as being the kind of the
basis it ties all this together over there, and I
think we are talking in this country and mister Baileys
has talked recently about the code of conduct here. I
think it can work. I think the important thing for
us is that if there is a code, these things
need to be focused on the platform providers and the

(02:16):
banks and the telcos and all the people that play
a role in it. But it has to have the
people that are the victims of these scams at the
heart of it. So as long as it helps clear
up that confusion, as long as it means that when
we are scanned, if we are scammed, we know how
to take action, and we have some surety that action
can be taken, then I think it could well have
some benefit in this country too.

Speaker 1 (02:36):
Finally, why are we behind Australia.

Speaker 2 (02:39):
Again on all in this respect? That that's a question
that has to go to meta. That's about the way
that they roll things out to different markets. Maybe that's
because they have different legislation over there. There are things
where where we get to be first, and sometimes, unfortunately
in this situation, we're not. But at least we're on
that radar at least or on that path and hopefully
before too very long we'll have the same protections here

(03:01):
from New.

Speaker 1 (03:01):
Zealand, S Sean, thank you so much for good time.
Sean Lyons is the chief online safety officer at net safe.

Speaker 2 (03:07):
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