A bipartisan group of lawmakers on Thursday sent a letter to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to voice concerns over the company's failure to stop ads for illicit drugs from running on its platforms, CNBC reported.
A March Wall Street Journal article said federal prosecutors were investigating whether Meta — parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp — was facilitating and profiting from the sale of illegal drugs.
The Journal published another story on July 31 reporting that the ads were still running on Facebook and Instagram. According to the article, Meta "has continued to collect revenue from ads that violate its policies, which ban promoting the sale of illicit or recreational drugs."
In addition, the Journal said a "separate analysis over recent months by an industry watchdog group found hundreds of such ads."
The letter was co-signed by 19 House lawmakers, including Reps. Tim Walberg, R-Mich.; Gus Bilirakis, R-Fla.; Kathy Castor, D-Fla.; and Lori Trahan, D-Mass. It included 15 questions on how Meta plans to address the problem, and requested a response by Sept. 6.
In response to its inquiry, CNBC said Meta sent the same statement it gave the Wall Street Journal.
"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. We continue to invest resources and further improve our enforcement on this kind of content," the statement read.
"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."