A bipartisan group of 19 US lawmakers has written a letter to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg expressing concern about the social media giant’s failure to stop ads for illegal drugs from appearing on Facebook and Instagram.
The lawmakers, including Rep. Tim Walberg (R-Mich.), Rep. Kathy Kastor (D-Fla.), Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R-Fla.) and Rep. Lori Trahan (D-Mass.), pointed to a recent report by The Wall Street Journal and the nonprofit Tech Transparency Project that found significant amounts of explicit drug advertising across meta apps.
The ads directed Meta users to third-party platforms selling prescription drugs, cocaine and other substances.
“At a hearing before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee in January 2024, you personally apologized to the parents of children whose children died as a result of online exploitation, harassment and drug exposure,” Thursday’s letter said.
“Despite this and your community standards, Meta approved ads clearly showing the sale of drugs throughout 2024.”
A Mehta spokesman referred The Post to a statement provided to the Journal two weeks ago.
“Our systems are designed to proactively detect and take action against violating content, and we have rejected hundreds of thousands of ads that violate our drug-related policies,” Mehta said in a statement. “We will continue to devote resources to further cracking down on this type of content.”
Lawmakers said the drug ads were not buried on the dark web, but were approved and monetized by Meta on Instagram, Facebook, Messenger and WhatsApp.
Some of the illegal ads were promoted on social media pages with easy-to-understand names, such as “Ecstasy Med,” the letter said.
Researchers could easily find dozens of ads for illegal drugs, but Meta somehow missed them, lawmakers said.
The letter listed 15 questions related to pharmaceutical advertising and asked Zuckerberg to respond by September 6th.
Mehta confirmed to the Post that he had received the letter and planned to respond.
In March, The Wall Street Journal reported that federal prosecutors were investigating the company over drug ads found on the meth platform. In July, The Wall Street Journal and the Tech Transparency Project reported: Meta still allowed ads for illegal drugs On the platform.
The lawmakers said they were concerned about children’s safety because many young Americans use the Meta platform.
“In 2022, an average of 22 minors between the ages of 14 and 18 will die each week from drug overdoses in the United States,” the letter states. “Fentanyl is commonly found in counterfeit oxycodone, benzodiazepines, and other prescription drugs, all of which have been found on your platform, including in advertisements.”
The lawmakers said they had sought to establish data privacy and security protections for U.S. users on the Meta platform, but had “met resistance” from Meta, which argued that such protections would interfere with its personalization features.
“If the personalization you are offering is pushing illegal drug advertising to vulnerable Americans, it is difficult to believe that you are not contributing to illegal drug trafficking,” the letter read.
