Full Report
Rob Leathern and Rob Goldman, who both worked at Meta, are launching a new nonprofit that aims to bring transparency to an increasingly opaque, scam-filled social media ecosystem.
Analysis Summary
# Industry News: Former Meta Executives Launch Nonprofit to Combat Social Media Ad Scams
## Summary
Two former senior Meta executives, Rob Leathern and Rob Goldman, have co-founded a new nonprofit organization, CollectiveMetrics.org, dedicated to injecting transparency into the opaque social media advertising ecosystem, which is increasingly plagued by sophisticated scams involving AI and deepfakes. This effort stems from concerns that major platforms have stagnated their anti-scam investments while criminal tactics have advanced significantly, leading to substantial global financial losses.
## Key Details
- Date: Announced around November 6, 2025 (based on article date)
- Companies Involved: CollectiveMetrics.org (New organization), Meta (Former Employer)
- Category: Industry Initiative / Nonprofit Launch
## The Story
Rob Leathern (former head of Meta’s business integrity unit) and Rob Goldman (former VP of Ads) are launching CollectiveMetrics.org to objectively measure and expose the prevalence of scam advertising across major social media platforms. Their motivation is the belief that progress against evolving deception tactics—such as AI-generated deepfakes—has stalled, and platforms are not adequately transparent about their effectiveness. The initiative seeks to provide independent data and analysis, something they argue is currently impossible due to platforms' lack of data accessibility for third-party researchers. This launch comes as global scam losses are estimated to have reached $1 trillion last year, and consumer sentiment, according to their initial survey, is highly negative regarding platforms' current efforts to combat fraud.
## Business Impact
### For the Companies Involved
- **CollectiveMetrics.org:** Will establish itself as a crucial, independent voice holding platforms accountable through data, potentially influencing regulatory scrutiny and industry best practices.
### For Competitors (Meta, Google, TikTok)
- **Increased Scrutiny:** Platforms will face direct, data-driven challenges to their current fraud prevention metrics and investments.
- **Reputational Risk:** If CollectiveMetrics.org data confirms widespread scam infiltration, companies like Meta and TikTok (which received very poor consumer ratings concerning scam prevention) face direct reputational damage, potentially impacting advertiser spending confidence.
- **Pressure for Transparency:** It sets a precedent forcing all ad-supported digital platforms to open up relevant datasets to external auditors.
### For Customers (Advertisers and Users)
- **Users:** Stand to benefit from increased platform accountability, theoretically leading to safer advertising environments and reduced fraud losses.
- **Advertisers:** May gain clearer insights into the legitimacy of platforms, aiding decisions on ad spend allocation based on platform integrity.
### For the Market
- **Trust Deficit:** Highlights a significant crisis of trust in digital advertising authenticity, signaling a market need for governance and independent verification mechanisms beyond self-reporting by platforms.
- **Emergence of Trust Tech:** Could spur investment and growth in third-party verification, trust and safety technology providers, and compliance services.
## Technical Implications
The initiative relies heavily on commissioning independent data collection (surveys, analysis) to measure phenomena like deepfake ads. If successful, it will likely drive demand for sophisticated automated tools capable of scraping, analyzing, and classifying deceptive ads at scale, potentially leveraging machine learning to surface trends that internal platform methods might miss or suppress.
## Strategic Analysis
- **Market Positioning:** CollectiveMetrics.org is positioned as the objective watchdog for digital ad integrity, capitalizing on the vacuum left by perceived platform complacency.
- **Competitive Advantage:** Their advantage is rooted in the credibility of former senior industry insiders who understand the black-box nature of these ad systems, combined with the non-profit status, which implies neutrality.
- **Challenges:** The primary challenge will be gaining access to the necessary proprietary ad data from major platforms to conduct meaningful, large-scale analysis. They may rely heavily on user reports, public scraping, and third-party data partnerships initially.
## Industry Reactions
- **Analyst Opinions:** Analysts are likely to view this as a necessary, albeit potentially adversarial, intervention that addresses a known systemic vulnerability in the ad-supported internet economy.
- **Expert Commentary:** Security experts will welcome any move towards objective measurement, noting that until systemic data is public, platform claims about fraud reduction remain unverifiable.
## Future Outlook
- **Predictions:** We should anticipate a short-term defensive response from regulated platforms, followed by selective data sharing initiatives aimed at appeasing regulators or the public. The success of the nonprofit will depend on its ability to produce compelling, actionable periodic reports.
- **What to watch for:** Initial partnerships with academic institutions or other independent watchdog groups, and whether Meta/Google issue formal statements acknowledging or cooperating with the new organization's efforts.
## For Security Professionals
This development underscores that content moderation and fraud detection are moving beyond internal platform responsibilities into the public accountability sphere. Security teams within ad tech firms and platforms will need to prepare for external auditing and validation of their fraud prevention efficacy, necessitating more robust, auditable internal controls and reporting mechanisms.