WASHINGTON – Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), a senior member and former chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, along with Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) are calling on Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to remove and prevent illicit drugs advertisements from Facebook and Instagram.  

“The United States is in the midst of a drug epidemic, with more than 100,000 Americans dying from overdoses last year, and an alarming amount of these drugs are sold online. It is crucial that everyone work to ensure these illegal drugs are found and taken off the streets. Therefore, we call on Meta to improve its human and automated advertising review and content moderation to address these failures that are placing lives at risk,” the senators wrote. 

Per a recent Wall Street Journal report, Meta ran and collected revenue from hundreds of advertisements marketing illicit drugs, including opioids, ecstasy and cocaine. 

“When presented with these disturbing findings, Meta took down some advertisements off its platforms. However, Meta’s refusal to prevent illicit drug advertisements, while accepting advertisement payments that are harming families and in clear violation of Meta’s policies, is particularly alarming,” they continued. 

The lawmakers are urging Zuckerberg to support their bipartisan Cooper Davis Act- requiring social media companies report illicit drug activities on their platforms. The Senate Judiciary Committee advanced the bill in July. 

Read the full letter HERE. 

Grassley’s Related Work:

  • Grassley in February participated in a question-and-answer session after executives from Meta, Discord, Snap Inc., TikTok and X testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
  • In addition to the Cooper Davis Act, the Senate Judiciary Committee has advanced three Grassley-backed bills to strengthen federal online safety statues, including the Project Safe Childhood Act, the EARN It Act and the STOP CSAM Act.
  • The Senate in July passed the Grassley co-backed Kids Online Safety Act to enhance tools for families to protect their children online and increase algorithmic transparency. 

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