The three Commonwealth charges allege Facebook was criminally reckless by not taking sufficient steps to stop criminals from using its system to send scam advertisements to defraud Australian users. Dr Forrest added that Facebook had been asked to put an end to his profile being used, including in a 2019 open letter.

“I’m doing this because I’m concerned about innocent Australians being scammed through clickbait advertising. I’m committed to ensuring that social media operators don’t allow their sites to be used by criminal syndicates,” Dr Forrest said.

“This action is being taken on behalf of those everyday Australians – mums and dads, grans and grandads – who work all their lives to gather their savings and to ensure those savings aren’t swindled away by scammers.”

Dr Forrest will allege Facebook failed to create controls or a corporate culture to prevent its systems from being used to commit crime, referring specifically to its promotion of the scam advertisements that have appeared since March 2019.

The criminal charges will be brought under part 10 of the Commonwealth Criminal Code and have the consent of the federal Attorney-General Michaelia Cash.

“I want social media companies to use much more of their vast resources and billions of dollars in annual revenue to protect vulnerable people – the people who are targeted and fall victim to these horrible scams with hard-earned savings.

“Social media is part of our lives, but it’s in the public interest for more to be done to ensure fraud on these platforms is eliminated or significantly reduced,” he said.

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The Western Australian Magistrates Court will hold an initial hearing on 28 March, with a committal hearing likely to follow later in 2022.

The criminal proceedings will run alongside civil action Dr Forrest has launched in California seeking injunctive relief and other remedies.