STAFF CORRESPONDENT

Every year, Meta earns at least US $1.5 million to run over 4,000 gambling ads in Bangla on Facebook, aimed at Bangladeshi users.

This was revealed by Dismislab -- a fact-checking organisation -- in a research released yesterday.

The ads have captions in Bangla and entice users to spend money in exchange for returns. They also photoshop images of celebrities or logos of prominent Bangladeshi news organisations to feign legitimacy, the report states.

“Dismislab uncovered around 50 ads on Ad Library that showcased doctored images or videos of celebrities and media logos. Among the most popular targets was cricketer Shakib Al Hasan,” the report stated.

“The pages running the ads are shady, with no likes, followers, or posts, indicating they were opened to advertise gambling only,” said the report.

“Many of these ads have been active for months to even a year,” it added.

These pages are often run from countries like Ukraine, Germany, Vietnam, Cambodia, the Philippines, and even the US. Several have Bangladeshi admins.

“Meta’s Online Gambling and Gaming Advertising Policy mandates that advertisers seeking to promote such content must obtain written permission using

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