Today’s big topic: New »despicable« revelations about Facebook prompt both experts and politicians to speak out
What’s happening?
Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, earns 100 billion kroner annually from scam ads designed solely to deceive the tech giant’s users. Instead of stopping the scammers, Meta has slowed down its monitoring efforts and concealed the extent of the problem from politicians and regulators.
Ten percent of the company’s global revenue comes from illegal ads, such as fake investment offers or sales of illicit products. Meta itself estimates this in internal documents from 2024 and 2025, which have been leaked to Reuters. According to Meta, the documents »present a selective view that distorts Meta’s approach to fraud and scams«.
Denmark is also mentioned in the leaked documents, according to Politiken and Jyllands-Posten. In Meta’s internal risk assessment, Denmark is in the second-highest category of countries. This means that Meta considers Denmark to be a country with a significant number of scam ads. It also sees a risk that Danish politicians will attempt to regulate the company more strictly.
Why it matters!
According to Danish experts, the documents provide a shocking insight into how Meta prioritizes profit over user safety and actively undermines authorities. At Copenhagen Business School (CBS), Professor of Digital Technology Mikkel Flyverbom finds it hard to understand why a company like Meta, which so carelessly allows illegal activities, is permitted to operate in Denmark.
For example, it appears that Meta established a task force in 2024 to stop Chinese criminals. Although Meta’s platforms are illegal in China, Chinese advertisers account for a quarter of all scam ads worldwide, Meta estimates. The effort was successful and managed to halve the number of scam ads within a few months. But then CEO Mark Zuckerberg intervened directly.
According to Reuters’ documents, the China task force was »asked to pause« after a strategy change and »a follow-up from Zuck« – meaning Mark Zuckerberg. The task force was dissolved, and subsequently, revenue from Chinese scam ads rose again to a double-digit billion amount.
The leaked documents also reveal that Meta conceals the extent of the problem from authorities. According to the documents, Meta itself estimates that users are exposed to 15 billion scam ads every day.
Still curious? Read the full article here.
In other news
– Major proposal against hired criminals risks missing the mark
With a series of new initiatives, the Danish government aims to impose harsh penalties and improve the ability to prosecute the typically younger individuals who often carry out the so-called crime on demand, also known as crime as a service. Danish criminologist David Sausdal, a lecturer at Lund University in Sweden who follows the phenomenon of hired crime closely, calls for a broader focus in the justice minister’s proposal.
Read the full article here.
–Farmer Søren Madsen does not recognize politicians’ criticism of the internship program
Several parties want to shut down the internship program, which they believe is agriculture’s shortcut to cheap labor. But on a farm near Næstved, foreign interns talk about returning home with new opportunities. Søren Madsen, the owner of the farm, strongly disagrees with the politicians who believe the program is primarily a shortcut for farmers to get cheap labor.
Read the full story from the farm here.
–Maja Voigt has put Denmark on the bobsled map and allows herself to dream big
18-year-old Maja Voigt had hoped for a result somewhere in the middle of the field of 25 participants, so a top-10 position came as a huge surprise. Perhaps especially when considering her experience with bobsledding and Denmark’s general traditions in the sport. Voigt has only been pulling the two ropes that steer the sled’s runners to the right and left for four years, marking an explosive development from beginner to Olympic participant.
– Greenland’s west coast sets heat record
Greenland’s west coast has set a weather record, as the past January has been the warmest ever recorded, state DMI in a press release. In Nuuk, the warmest day reached 11.3 degrees Celsius, and the average for the month was just above freezing at 0.1 degrees Celsius. The previous warm record in Nuuk was an average of minus 1.3 degrees Celsius for the month of January. This January is therefore 1.4 degrees higher than the previous highest measurement.
New deli has opened in Carlsbergbyen
Experienced hands are behind the new deli.
&deli has opened in Carlsbergbyen and Politiken’s food critic Birgitte Kjær has paid a visit.
What kind of place is this?
A deli with experienced staff in the kitchen and behind the scenes.
Namely Kamilla Seidler, who has worked at top restaurants around the world, Rune Toft, who previously ran the restaurant Lola with her, and the coffee roastery Original Coffee, which is also in the neighborhood and has many branches elsewhere in the city.
It’s open from 10:30 AM to 7 PM every day, and you can get sandwiches, salads, a few hot dishes, or a cup of tea to go. Or use the deli as a luxury supermarket and buy olive oil, tomato passata, and pesto of a quality that costs, or bottled milk from Søtofte Gårdmejeri, for example.
How is the decor?
There is a counter running from one end of the room to the other, so you can take a ’stroll’ and look at the goods before ordering. A tip: Ask the staff to lift the lids on the day’s hot dishes so you can see and smell whether the vegetarian pasta or the stew of the day is for you.
Otherwise, continue and inspect the salads – couscous, baked eggplants, green salads, hummus, and much more – and check out the day’s selection of cakes, sandwiches, focaccia, or tarts.
What can you eat?
The selection of sandwiches (89 kr.) on good sourdough bread is tempting.
The day I visited, the choices were fennel sausage, ham, mortadella, or a vegetarian option. I went with the latter and got balanced flavors in a ciabatta bread with both baked and pickled pumpkin, roasted seeds, and basil cream. Absolutely satisfying.
Read the full review here
This newsletter features stories originally published in Danish. AI was used to shorten and translate the articles into English, after which a member of the editorial staff reviewed and refined the content.