Spaudos centras
Spaudos centras
Vilnius, 2026 03 05– Debunk.org today published its 2025 Annual Report as a Trusted Flagger under the EU Digital Services Act (DSA), documenting the industrial scale of scam and illegal advertising activity across the European Union.
Between April and December 2025, 26,255 Facebook pages identified and reported by Debunk.org were responsible for approximately 5.9 million advertisements linked to fraud, illegal gambling, impersonation of public authorities, and related deceptive practices. These pages were subsequently removed following Trusted Flagger reports.
According to Meta’s publicly available Ads Library transparency data, the removed advertisements generated an aggregated estimated reach of approximately 2.34 billion across EU Member States.
Reach figures reflect platform-reported estimates of unique accounts reached per advertisement. Because the figure is aggregated across millions of ads, individual users may be counted multiple times. The total number of actual ad impressions delivered is likely higher, while the number of unique individuals reached is lower.
“The data shows an industrial-scale fraud infrastructure operating through digital advertising systems,” said Viktoras Daukšas, head of Debunk.org. “We are dealing with financial scams, illegal gambling, identity impersonation, and other schemes designed to steal savings from EU citizens. The DSA trusted flagger mechanism allows platforms to be notified about illegal content, but the final decision on whether to remove it is made by the platforms themselves.”
In 2025, Debunk.org submitted 1,476 formal reports covering 26,255 Facebook pages promoting illegal content. The overall removal rate following submission was 99.8%.
The average response time to reach a platform decision was 75.4 hours.
The high removal rate indicates that the vast majority of cases concerned clearly illegal commercial activity – including financial fraud, impersonation of law enforcement, unlicensed gambling operations, and deceptive medical product schemes.
2,839,613 advertisements removed
8,735 Facebook pages removed
Ads reached more than 22 million users
Fake “Dr.” personas promoting unverified and potentially harmful medical products
50,426 advertisements removed
1,139 pages removed
Approximately 460 domains involved
Estimated reach of 52.7 million users
Campaigns impersonated Interpol, Europol, the FBI, ECB and national police forces to extract advance “fees” from previous scam victims
2,227,041 advertisements removed
12,160 pages removed
Estimated reach exceeding 340 million users
Ads promoted unlicensed gambling operations using deepfakes and fabricated news-style content
91,610 advertisements removed
3,799 pages removed
Promoted unrealistic daily returns through fraudulent “AI trading” and staking platforms
Debunk.org was appointed as a Trusted Flagger under Article 22 of the DSA in March 2025. Trusted Flaggers are mandated to report illegal content – including fraud, impersonation and prohibited goods – and publish annual transparency reports.
This report concerns criminal or illegal commercial activity and systemic misuse of advertising tools. It does not concern lawful political speech or opinion.
The findings are consistent with internal Meta documents previously reported by Reuters, which described the scale of scam-related advertising exposure on the platform. Debunk.org does not have access to Meta’s internal financial data. However, the volume and coordination of illegal campaigns observed through DSA reporting mechanisms indicate a structural challenge rather than isolated incidents.
Debunk.org, a disinformation analysis center based in Lithuania, is an independent technology organization and NGO that researches disinformation, foreign information manipulation and interference (FIMI), and runs media literacy education programs in 22 countries. In cooperation with civil society organizations and public institutions, Debunk.org conducts monitoring and analysis during elections across Europe, as well as in Africa, Latin America, and Asia.
Debunk.org launched online training programs for FIMI analysts and specialists, providing advanced tools and methodologies for work in this field through the Debunk.org Academy (https://academy.debunk.org/).
Debunk.org’s analyses have been repeatedly cited by major international media outlets, including The Economist, Deutsche Welle, The Times, Der Spiegel, The Financial Times, and others.
The full 2025 Trusted Flagger Annual Report is available here:
https://www.debunk.org/debunk-org-trusted-flagger-2025-report
