Rule on Impersonation of Government and Businesses

recounting reputational harms legitimate businesses suffer due to brand impersonation). Government entities also suffer both financial and reputational harm from being impersonated, as entities must divert resources to alert the public and implement consumer education, enforcement, and other measures to combat the impersonation. See, e.g., Fed. Trade Comm'n, FTC Data Show People Reported Losing $3.5 Billion to Imposter Scams in 2025, supra note 1 (recounting various FTC consumer education and enforcement efforts in response to impersonation scams, including FTC impersonations); Fed. Trade Comm'n, Federal Trade Commission Warns of Scammers Pretending to be Agency Staff (Mar. 19, 2024), https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2024/03/federal-trade-commission-warns-scammers-pretending-be-agency-staff (alerting consumers about FTC impersonation scams). Government entities may also suffer financial harm to the extent impersonation scams divert money that consumers owe to government entities. \45\ See supra notes 22-24 and accompanying text discussing negative externalities of Platform ad-optimization tools and services. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recognizing the prevalence of these pernicious impersonation scams throughout the economy, the Commission promulgated the Government and Business Impersonation Rule to curb such c