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A bipartisan group of 19 lawmakers has raised serious concerns about Meta’s ongoing promotion of illicit drug ads on its platforms.
What’s the deal: Over the past year, Meta has faced significant criticism for Instagram ads promoting the sale of illicit drugs, including pharmaceuticals and psychedelics like DMT. These ads often reference illegal drugs in their titles, descriptions, photos, and even account names. Despite Meta’s claims of using AI to moderate content, these ads continue to appear, raising concerns about the effectiveness of the platform’s content monitoring.
Independent Investigations: An investigation by The Wall Street Journal, along with findings from the Tech Transparency Project, revealed that Meta’s platforms, including Instagram and Facebook, have been hosting and profiting from ads promoting the sale of illicit drugs. The investigation uncovered over 450 such ads in recent months, despite Meta’s claims of using AI to detect and remove this content.
What lawmakers are saying: In a letter signed by a bipartisan group of lawmakers, they wrote, “On March 16, 2024, the Wall Street Journal reported that US federal prosecutors have been investigating Meta for facilitating the sale of illicit drugs. Instead of quickly addressing the issue and fully removing the illicit content,” [Meta continues to run] “ads on Facebook and Instagram that steer users to online marketplaces for illegal drug.” They continued, “Meta appears to have continued to shirk its social responsibility and defy its own community guidelines. Protecting users online, especially children and teenagers, is one of our top priorities. We are continuously concerned that Meta is not up to the task and this dereliction of duty needs to be addressed.”
Meta responds: In a statement, Meta said, “Drug dealers are criminals who work across platforms and communities, which is why we work with law enforcement to help combat this activity. Our systems are designed to proactively detect and enforce against violating content, and we reject hundreds of thousands of ads for violating our drug policies. We continue to invest resources and further improve our enforcement on this kind of content. Our hearts go out to those suffering from the tragic consequences of this epidemic — it requires all of us to work together to stop it.”
