Polish billionaire Rafal Brzoska has stepped up his attempts to force Meta Platforms Inc. owner of Facebook and Instagram,  to deal with fake images and fraudulent advertisements by asking Ireland’s Data Protection Commission to impose a ban on the American technology conglomerate.

The Irish Commission oversees Facebook’s European headquarters in Dublin and Brzoska’s move follows a temporary ban on Meta from publishing fake ads using the likeness of him and his wife in Poland. The billionaire wants to pressure Meta to better differentiate fakes from legitimate content.

Brzoska earned the nickname “Locker King” as the founder and chief executive officer of parcel locker company InPost SA. He said the Polish Personal Data Protection Office’s three-month ban didn’t stop new bogus images of him and his wife Omena Mensah, a local television celebrity, from appearing online.

Brzoska  said: “It will be the long battle, and I want to find out how big are revenues from ads that use deepfakes for fraudulent purposes. I’m currently spending plenty of time unwinding deepfakes. Someone should be responsible for propagation of criminal actions. We are considering absolutely all scenarios, including a lawsuit in the United States if there is inaction in Europe.”

He said the Polish ban had been the first such move in the European Union based on the bloc’s data protection rules. Brzoska notified Meta of the problem at the beginning of July, but it failed to find a solution.

Meta is facing increasing pressure around the world to stop the proliferation of scams that use generative artificial intelligence tools and the likenesses of famous people to attract victims.

Experts are forecasting a worrying rise in incidents of deepfake cyber-crime that has already claimed one high profile victim.

The engineering group Arup, which has been involved in world-famous buildings such as the Sydney Opera House, lost Euros 22.9m ( £19.7m) in one of the world’s biggest known deepfake scams which used a hyper-realistic video generated by AI to facilitate the cyber-crime.

A US judge this year ruled that Australian billionaire Andrew Forrest could sue the Facebook and Instagram parent over the use of his image to fraudulently endorse cryptocurrency products despite a legal shield that protects social media companies from being held liable for user content.

A Meta spokesperson said the company removes false content when it is found and is assessing the Polish regulator’s decision.

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