Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta Platforms Inc., is interviewed on “The Circuit with Emily Chang” at Meta’s headquarters in Menlo Park, California, on Thursday, July 18, 2024.
Jason Henry | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Republican lawmakers condemned it. Meta On Thursday, lawmakers appealed what they called an inadequate response to concerns about illegal drug advertising on Facebook and Instagram.
Michigan Rep. Tim Wahlberg called Meta’s letter to a bipartisan group of lawmakers on Monday “unacceptable,” claiming the company failed to answer specific questions politicians posed to CEO Mark Zuckerberg in August.
Recent meta-centric questions report The Wall Street Journal and Non-profit The Tech Transparency Project (TTP) found that Facebook and Instagram ads were proliferating, directing users to third-party services where they could buy prescription drugs and recreational drugs like cocaine. The lawmakers set out a list of 15 questions that would help them understand the prevalence of illegal drug ads on Meta apps, how many views and interactions the ads received, how many minors engaged with the ads, and what actions Meta took against responsible groups.
“Meta’s response not only ignores most of the questions raised in our letter, it also fails to acknowledge that these illegal drug ads were sanctioned and monetized by Meta and allowed to run on its platform,” Walberg said in a statement. “This is unacceptable. Meta must be held accountable for its negligence and the resulting impact on its users, especially children and young people.”
Meta declined to comment.
Rachel Lieber, Meta’s vice president of global legal strategy, said in a letter to lawmakers that the company shares their concerns “about the public safety and health threats posed by the opioid epidemic.”
“We know this problem affects many Americans, often with tragic consequences, which is why cracking down on online drug trafficking is bigger than any single platform,” Lieber said in a letter obtained by CNBC. “At Meta, we are committed to playing a critical role in the solution.”
In the letter, River explained that Meta’s policy “prohibits the sale of illegal drugs on the app,” and that the company uses a variety of measures and resources “to detect and remove drug-related content that violates our policies.”
“Meta has repeatedly evaded direct questions from members of Congress, the press, and the public about the hundreds of illegal drug ads that appear on its platform,” TTP Executive Director Katie Paul said in a statement.
“Meta is trying to avoid blame and push a ‘whole-of-society’ approach,” Paul said. Meta “profits by providing paid amplification to drug-dealing sites that would not have the reach they would have without Meta’s advertising platform.”
Wahlberg’s comments come after Zuckerberg, speaking live on a podcast from San Francisco, said Meta should push back harder “when people make claims about the impact of the tech industry or our company” that are “not based on fact.”
“One of the things I look back on and regret is that I don’t think it’s true that I accepted other people’s views that we were doing something wrong or that we were responsible,” Zuckerberg said at the event Tuesday.
Read the letter Meta sent to lawmakers below.
