Facebook and Instagram advertising for cocaine and other illegal narcotics, including some containing the lethal fentanyl, are still being promoted by Meta despite a federal inquiry. Even after federal prosecutors in Virginia started investigating, Meta’s ad marketplace continued to make money from these commercials.
As part of his efforts to fight drug addiction, Meta’s president of global affairs, Nick Clegg, joined the Alliance to Prevent Drug Harms on March 15, 2024. But that same day, Meta broke its own rules by running advertising for narcotics, including oxycodone, tramadol, and Percocet, in addition to cocaine and ecstasy tablets.
Instagram and Facebook had more than four hundred fifty drug ads, according to research by the Tech Transparency Project (TTP). Advertising encrypted messaging programs such as Telegram or Meta’s WhatsApp frequently contained images of prescription medication bottles, stacks of pills and powders, or even blocks of cocaine, and they directed users to contact vendors.
Dealers evade Meta’s regulations and the AI sensors that monitor the platform by using images of narcotics rather than descriptions. One advertisement included a powdered form of the word “DMT,” referring to the hallucinogen N, N-Dimethyltryptamine. Most of the time, when people click on these advertisements, they are sent to third-party websites or Telegram chat streams for dealers. Users use terms like “TD” or “touchdown” to certify delivery.
These advertisements do double duty: they bring in money for Meta while also adding to the death toll.
Fentanyl was responsible for the overdose death of 15-year-old Elijah Ott, who had purchased narcotics on Instagram last October. Mikayla Brown, his mother, said the accounts that Ott had contacted were still operational for months after his death.
Instagram has been held responsible for these tragic events by parents, including some who spoke out against Mark Zuckerberg during Senate hearings.
“My child does not get to live because of this app,” Mikayla Brown has said.
