(San Francisco) U.S. lawmakers on Thursday called Meta (Facebook, Instagram) to account over ads for illegal drugs on the group’s social media, accusing it of contributing to the opioid crisis in the United States.
In a letter signed by about 20 Democratic and Republican congressmen, and published online, they express their “deep concerns regarding recent reports of advertisements for illicit drugs on your platforms.”
They cite recent articles from the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) and investigations by the NGO Tech Transparency Project showed that such announcements were common.
“Meta approved advertisements throughout 2024 that were clearly designed to sell drugs, including “boxes of OxyContin.” […] “, the elected officials emphasize.
Overprescription of the painkiller OxyContin is widely credited with sparking the opioid crisis that killed more than 700,000 people in the United States between 1999 and 2022.
Members of Congress believe that Meta is “not up to the task.”
“What is particularly serious,” they continue, “is that this is not user-generated content on the dark web. [parties cachées de l’internet] or on private pages, but from advertisements approved and monetized by Meta”.
They conclude with a series of 15 questions about the problem.
Meta confirmed to AFP that he had received the letter and said he planned to respond.
“Our systems are designed to proactively detect content that violates the law, and we reject hundreds of thousands of ads that violate our drug regulations,” a spokesperson for the group said.
In their letter, the elected officials address CEO Mark Zuckerberg directly and remind him that he apologized to the parents of victims of the excesses of the networks, including “exploitation, harassment and online drugs,” during a hearing in Congress in early 2024.
PHOTO DAVID ZALUBOWSKI, ASSOCIATED PRESS ARCHIVES
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta
Yet, they insist, every time they have tried to establish better protections, particularly around privacy, “we have encountered friction and opposition from Meta.”
The company’s success is largely based on personalization algorithms, which target users with content and ads they’re likely to enjoy. Meta earned more than $13 billion in profits in the second quarter of this year.
“If this personalization you provide pushes ads for illegal drugs to vulnerable Americans, it is difficult for us to believe that you are not complicit in the trafficking,” the lawmakers said.