Meta failed to act on nearly a dozen reports against an Australian influencer with more than 800,000 followers on Instagram promoting illegal offshore crypto-gambling, despite the regulator warning influencers they could face fines of up to $2.4m.
The account of online streamer Dinah has 820,000 followers on Instagram, and has promoted Rainbet, a self-described online crypto casino, in posts on Instagram. On her profile she describes herself as “ur Chinese gf in Australia”.
“WHY PAY RENT WHEN U CAN JUST DOUBLE IT???? (ty rainbet! link in bio – helps me out a lot)” the caption for one video last year (with more than 16,000 likes) reads.
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In the video, Dinah is shown being handed a phone with the Rainbet app running.
In another video, Dinah is in the front passenger seat of a car running the app, with the caption: “50/50 Michelin star or Maccas speedrun (thx rainbet link in bio)”.
On Tuesday morning, there was no link to Rainbet in her Instagram profile, or on the links page on her profile.
One user, who wished to remain anonymous, supplied screenshots to Guardian Australia of their reports of 10 separate posts from Dinah pushing the crypto gambling app to her followers in January.
But in most cases, Meta responded that it would take no action to limit or remove the posts.
“Our team reviewed the content. They found that it does not go against our community standards on fraud or scam,” the response said.
Meta’s reporting options did not have a specific category for promoting gambling as a report option.
In a couple of instances, Meta said it would prevent teens from seeing the video.
When Guardian Australia reported one post, it was quickly restricted from view by teens, but allowed to remain online.
A Meta spokesperson declined to comment, and the posts and account remain online as of Tuesday.
Guardian Australia attempted to contact Dinah through her management agency but did not receive a response.
The Australian Communications and Media Authority (Acma) last year said social media influencers were on notice.
“Stop promoting illegal gambling services to Australians. If you don’t, you risk facing significant penalties,” the regulator said.
“The promotion of illegal gambling services in Australia is illegal, and substantial penalties apply.”
Individuals can face fines of up to $59,400, but influencers who facilitate access to illegal online gambling services – such as by posting links – could face fines of up to $2.4m, Acma said.
A spokesperson for the regulator said that Rainbet has implemented measures to prevent Australians from accessing its services.
Since Acma began blocking illegal gambling sites in November 2019, it has blocked 1,455 illegal gambling and affiliate websites, and 220 illegal services have pulled out of Australia.
The regulator said it is aware some Australians may still be accessing the blocked sites by using a virtual private network to bypass blocks in Australia.
