Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta Platforms Inc., during an interview on “The Circuit with Emily Chang” at Meta’s headquarters in Menlo Park, California, USA, on Thursday, July 18, 2024.
Jason Henry | Bloomberg | Getty Images
A bipartisan group of federal lawmakers sent After CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote a letter Thursday expressing concern that the company is failing to prevent illegal drug ads from appearing on its platform.
Members of Parliament recently reported exhibitions from the Wall Street Journal and the nonprofit Tech Transparency Project, which uncovered a flood of ads on Facebook and Instagram directing users to third-party services where they could buy prescription pills, cocaine, and other recreational drugs.
“On March 16, 2024, the Wall Street Journal reported that U.S. federal prosecutors were investigating Meta for facilitating the sale of illegal drugs,” the lawmakers wrote. Instead of quickly addressing the issue and removing the illegal content entirely, on July 31, 2024, the Wall Street Journal reported again that Meta was “running ads on Facebook and Instagram that direct users to online shopping for illegal drugs.”
Most troubling, they wrote, is that Meta continues to run ads despite the company facing an investigation by US federal prosecutors “for facilitating the sale of illegal drugs.”
The 19 authors of the letter include Reps. Tim Walberg (R-Mich.), Gus Bilirakis (R-Fla.), Kathy Castor (D-Fla.) and Lori Trahan (D-Mass.). They noted that the ads were “approved and monetized by Meta” and were not hidden on the dark web or private social media pages. Media and investigators could easily find the ads, which contained “blatant references to illegal drugs,” while Meta’s internal processes apparently missed them, according to the letter.
“We have repeatedly heard from Meta that users come to your platforms because they like the personalization and experiences you provide, and you use sensitive personal information to drive that personalization through content and ads,” the lawmakers wrote. “We in Congress have, on many occasions, worked to create data privacy and security protections for Americans, but in each case we’ve faced friction and opposition from Meta with claims that we would drastically disrupt that personalization you provide.”
They sent Zuckerberg a list of 15 questions intended to reveal more details about how parent Facebook is dealing with the problem and asked him to respond by September 6.
Meta confirmed receipt of the letter and said he plans to respond. The company shared with CNBC the following statement it gave the Journal when it published the original story:
“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 infringing content, and we reject hundreds of thousands of ads for violating drug policies we continue to invest resources and further improve enforcement of this type of content.
