Nearly 100 organizations in the U.S. and abroad have signed on to an open letter to Meta—the social media behemoth behind Facebook, Instagram and Threads—condemning the company for its censorship of marijuana- and drug-related content, which can limit users’ access to health, policy reform and educational materials.
„Accounts committed to public education, legal and policy advocacy, research dissemination, and harm reduction services—including those of licensed healthcare professionals, nonprofits, and legal businesses—have been routinely shadowbanned, deplatformed, or had their posts removed with little explanation or recourse, despite operating in full compliance with local laws,” says the letter that was sent on Monday.
Students for Sensible Drug Policy, the group that led this letter added: „This suppression does not just represent an inconvenience; it is also a form digital marginalization.”
NORML and Harm Reduction International are among the dozens other groups who have signed this statement. They come from the U.S.A., Europe and Latin America.
The suppression of scientific, health, legal and policy debates is not neutral; it does harm.
The petition will be open to the public as of Monday for anyone who wants to sign it.
Kat Murti said that SSDP executive director had been notified of the many organizations she works with for their efforts to promote get-out-the vote campaigns, events and policy panels, as well as information on preventing overdoses from opioids.
SSDP has also repeatedly faced challenges with its own social media accounts, Murti said, „greatly limiting our ability to reach our audience and hobbling our efforts to reduce harmful drug use and promote necessary policy change.”
At the beginning of this year, Meta announced that it was revising its content moderation policies and „getting rid of a number of restrictions…on topics…that are the subject of frequent political discourse and debate.” This was a part of Meta’s shift away from intense moderation on controversial topics such as immigration and gender.
The company didn’t immediately change its practices around marijuana—continuing to block search results on its platform for terms such as „marijuana” and „cannabis” and instead displaying a notice encouraging users to report „the sale of drugs.”
The letter states that, while the company may have updated this practice quietly, Meta still targets topics like cannabis, harm reduction, and psychedelics in an overzealous and disproportionate manner.
It urges Meta, in a letter entitled „Critical Conversations Impacting Our Community’s Health and Wellbeing”, to undertake five specific reforms.
- Put an end to shadow bans, discriminatory restrictions and other forms of oppression Get a discount on cannabis, psychedelics and harm reduction accounts when operating in compliance with legal guidelines.
- Create clear, consistent, and transparent content policies It is important to distinguish between the promotion of illicit substances and drug education or advocacy.
- Adopt a specific appeals and accountability procedure for drugs-related offences You can find out more about it here. Included in this group are community leaders and subject matter experts.
- Talk regularly with cannabis, psychedelics, and harm reduction You can better understand what we do and help us create guidelines that are fair for the content moderators.
The letter concluded that „Censorship is not neutrality, it’s harm,” noting how scientific evidence has grown for cannabis and other psychedelic treatments. As the legal and cultural landscapes surrounding these issues change, your policies must also evolve.
SSDP’s Murti noted that, although the group alerted Meta of the obstacles caused by their censorship a little over a month ago, it „continues to see our members being denied access to digital advertising and online fundraising tools.”
She said that groups were also „denied” the chance to „livestream panels or other events”, and posts on science, public policy and health „were artificially restricted in their reach.” Meta has in some cases also deleted accounts.
Meta filters are often criticized by critics for being too broad. Many platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter, have strict policies regarding the sale or distribution of controlled substances.
SSDP stated in a Monday press release that, „public health information on drug-checking and life-saving naloxone is supported by research and education. Yet Meta’s moderate policies do not distinguish between legal content and illegal content intended to educate and help communities.”
Meta did not say when they made the change in search filters, and the company hasn’t said if there will be any other updates. Meta and Facebook did not reply to the emails that MEDCAN24 sent them on Friday.
Morgan Fox, the political director of NORML said that he hoped last week that this issue was resolved for good.
„I hope these apparent changes are permanent and pervasive, and not just a temporary fix with limited scope—which we have seen in the past,” he wrote in an email to MEDCAN24. Without structural changes in content moderation, and without a system to address instances of inappropriate and systematic censorship, educators and advocates will have to be vigilant to make sure that users on social media platforms can access information.
The legal cannabis industry is grappling with this issue for a long time. Fox stated in a Monday email that he had started the petition in 2018 for the National Cannabis Industry Association.
It looked as if the issue was resolved, but it wasn’t permanent.
The company’s flagged posts have limited the visibility of his accounts and „killed” his reach. Brian „Box Brown”, a cartoonist who specializes in cannabis content, has complained about Meta before.
He said, „I was dumbfounded.” „My comic that is TOO wonky in terms of policy gets flagged by the authorities for drug sales.”
Brown stated in an email about Meta’s new search functionality that Meta has changed the way it handles his content as well as other’s.
He said, „It is strange.” I’m still not sure exactly what happened. *Something* has changed. It’s not suppressed like it used to be. „But at the same, it’s kinda like that.”
He continued that „in contrast to recent months I’m no longer getting daily warnings, but certain posts seem to still get throttled.” He also noted that „a bunch” of influencers and hashmakers, as well as other accounts had moved on to different platforms since Meta nuked their accounts.
„It’s kind of a mixed bag,” he said, adding that he’s going stop censoring his own content—which he’d begun doing to avoid being flagged by the company’s algorithms—and see what happens going forward.
Ahead of this past holiday season, vape device manufacturer Puffco similarly complained about Instagram and parent company Meta for what it described as an overly aggressive campaign to flag and remove cannabis-related content. In a video, the company claimed that Instagram’s enforcement of its cannabis policies by both brands and individual users effectively hinders efforts to build community amongst veterans, medical marijuana consumers and adult legal-use customers.
In the video, it said: „The World didn’t Want Us. So we Made a Safe Space for Our Community on Instagram Where We Could Just Be ourselves and Share What We Love.” Isn’t this the purpose of this space?
Social media platforms flag cannabis content regularly as a violation of their terms and conditions, even though more states have legalized adult marijuana. This practice has resulted in the suspension of social media accounts for state-regulated marijuana brands, websites that provide information and content creators.
In 2018, concerns arose that Facebook was „shadowbanning” marijuana pages, including those of state cannabis regulatory agencies, by blocking them from search results. An internal presentation at the company the next year noted that it was considering loosening cannabis restrictions, but many have continued to run into problems
In July 2023, Meta announced that it had updated its cannabis advertising policy to permit the promotion of some non-ingestible CBD products and also loosen restrictions on hemp ads. Meta said that businesses can begin to promote the sale of CBD after receiving written approval and providing the CBD is certified through the company Legitscript. Advertisements could also not be directed at people younger than 18.
Meta stated that „we want people to learn and discover new services and products on our technology,” Meta added. It added, however, that advertisers will be banned from running advertisements that promote THC or cannabis products that contain psychoactive ingredients.
Earlier that year, Meta faced criticism over a feature of its microblogging app, Threads, for prompting users with a „get help” message about federal substance misuse resources if they searched for „marijuana,” various psychedelics and other controlled substances. Alcohol and tobacco searches are exempted from this prompt. It appears that the feature is no longer in use.
Twitter (now known as X) had a practice similar to this in 2020. As part of a SAMHSA partnership, Twitter warned users against „marijuana searches”. Search restrictions were not applied to alcohol and tobacco. But in late 2022, after being acquired by Elon Musk, Twitter suspended that practice.
Also, Twitter since updated its cannabis advertising policy, aiming to give cannabis businesses that are „certified advertisers” the ability to feature „packaged” cannabis products in the ad creative that’s promoted on the social media site.
Google, for its part, updated its policy in January 2023, making it so companies can promote Food and Drug Administration- (FDA) approved drugs containing CBD, as well as topical CBD products with no more than 0.3 percent THC.
Video game streaming company Twitch, meanwhile, updated its branding policy for streamers, prohibiting promotions of marijuana businesses and products while explicitly allowing alcohol partnerships. Twitch had previously clarified rules in a way that was inclusive of cannabis—exempting marijuana-related references from the list of banned usernames, just as it does for alcohol and tobacco.
In an update to Apple’s iPhone software that was instituted in 2022, users were given an option to track medications and learn about possible drug interactions with other substances—including marijuana.
In 2021, Apple ended its policy of restricting cannabis companies from conducting business on its App store. Eaze, a marijuana delivery company, announced that customers could now shop for and purchase products via its iPhone application.
In contrast to Apple, Google’s Android app hub updated its policy in 2019 to explicitly prohibit programs that connect users with cannabis, no matter whether it is legal in the jurisdiction where the user lives.
In 2022, New York marijuana regulators asked the social media app TikTok to end its ban on advertising that involves the word „cannabis” as they worked to promote public education on the state’s move to legalize.
Please read the complete SSDP Sign-on Letter to Meta.
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