A bipartisan group of 19 US legislators despatched a letter to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to precise issues that the social media large is failing to stop unlawful drug adverts from operating on Fb and Instagram.
The members of Congress — together with US Reps. Tim Walberg (R-Mich.), Kathy Castor (D-Fla.), Gus Bilirakis (R-Fla.) and Lori Trahan (D-Mass.) — referenced latest experiences by the Wall Road Journal and the nonprofit Tech Transparency Challenge that uncovered a slew of specific drug adverts throughout Meta apps.
The adverts transferred Meta customers to third-party platforms promoting prescription drugs, cocaine and different medicine.
“At a listening to earlier than the US Senate Committee on the Judiciary in January 2024, you personally apologized to the dad and mom of youngsters who’ve died following their publicity to exploitation, harassment, and medicines on-line,” the Thursday letter stated.
“Regardless of this and your organization’s personal Neighborhood Requirements, Meta accepted adverts all through 2024 that displayed apparent drug gross sales.”
A Meta spokesperson directed The Submit to a press release given to the Journal two weeks in the past.
“Our methods are designed to proactively detect and implement towards violating content material, and we reject lots of of hundreds of adverts for violating our drug insurance policies,” Meta stated within the assertion. “We proceed to speculate assets and additional enhance our enforcement on this type of content material.”
The legislators stated the drug adverts weren’t buried in the dead of night net, however accepted and monetized by Meta on Instagram, Fb, Messenger and WhatsApp.
Among the unlawful adverts had been promoted by social media pages with apparent names, like one referred to as “Ecstasy Meds,” the letter stated.
Whereas researchers had been simply capable of finding a rating of unlawful drug adverts, Meta by some means missed them, the legislators stated.
The letter included a listing of 15 questions associated to the drug adverts and requested Zuckerberg to reply by Sept. 6.
Meta confirmed to The Submit that it obtained the letter and plans to reply.
In March, the Journal reported that US federal prosecutors had been investigating Meta for drug adverts discovered on its platforms. In July, the Journal and the Tech Transparency Challenge discovered that Meta was still allowing illicit drug ads on its platforms.
The legislators stated they fear about kids’s security, since so many younger People use Meta platforms.
“In 2022, a median of twenty-two minors, ages 14 to 18, died within the US every week from drug overdoses,” the letter stated. “Fentanyl is usually present in counterfeit oxycodone, benzodiazepines, and different prescription drugs — all of which have been discovered in your platforms, together with in commercials.”
The legislators stated they’ve tried to ascertain knowledge privateness and safety protections for American customers on Meta platforms however have “been met with friction” from Meta that such protections would disrupt its personalization options.
“If this personalization you’re offering is pushing commercials of illicit medicine to weak People, then it’s tough for us to imagine that you’re not complicit within the trafficking of illicit medicine,” the letter stated.
