Mark Zuckerberg's Meta Platforms is running advertisements on Facebook and Instagram that guide users to online marketplaces for illegal drugs.
According to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), the revelation comes amid the tech giant facing a federal probe over the matter in March. Despite this, the Menlo Park, California-based Meta has continued to obtain income from ads that violate its policies, which prohibit promoting the sale of illicit or recreational drugs.
A review by the WSJ discovered dozens of ads selling illegal substances like cocaine and prescription opioids – with the ads displaying photos of prescription drug bottles, lots of pills or bricks of cocaine. "Place your orders," said one of the ads the discovered in July, which also contained a photo of a razor blade, and a yellow powder arranged to spell out "DMT," a psychedelic drug. (Related: AI-generated ads and addicting psychiatric medications make for a "deadly cocktail.")
The WSJ's findings dovetailed with those from an investigation of the nonprofit Tech Transparency Project (TTP). The nonprofit found that Meta's ad library from March to June had more than 450 illicit drug ads on Facebook and Instagram.
Some of the accounts behind the ads use names that make it clear they purvey illicit drugs, with the ad for DMT being posted by an account named "DMT Vapes and Notes." Users who click the links in the ads are usually moved to private group chats on the Telegram app, which isn't under Meta. But according to TTP, there are some instances that the ads connect to private group chats on WhatsApp, Meta's encrypted messaging service.
These group chats generally display a series of posts from the dealers that contain photos of the drugs they provide, menus with costs and instructions for placing orders. A number of the private chats contain posts that state "TD" or "touchdown" to suggest a successful shipment to a customer delivered by way of a shipping service.
Meta: Ads for illegal drugs taken down, accounts behind them banned
"You don't need the dark web anymore when you can just buy a Facebook ad to sell dangerous drugs or even scam people at a scale that wouldn't have been possible through the dark web," said TTP Director Katie Paul.
While Meta utilizes artificial intelligence tools to moderate content on its platforms, these weren't enough to stem the tide of drug-related ads. The use of photos to display the contraband goods seemingly allowed the ads to bypass content moderation systems.
A Meta spokesman said the company disabled several of the drug ads spotted by the WSJ within 48 hours after they were published. All of the ads have now been removed for violating platform policies, and the users behind those ads were also banned.
"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," the Meta spokesman said. "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."
According to the spokesman, Meta is working with law enforcement against this illicit activity. He added that the company is employing insights about recent antagonistic tactics gathered from examining these ads to expand and carry out added sweeps.
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