Marshall and Bipartisan Colleagues Call on Mark Zuckerberg to Remove and Prevent Ads for Illicit Drugs on Meta Platforms

Overland Park, Kansas - U.S. Roger Marshall, M.D. led a bipartisan letter with U.S. Senators Shaheen (D-NH), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Dick Durbin (D-IL) calling on Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to take action to remove and prevent advertisements for illicit drugs on all Meta platforms.

The letter builds on Marshall and Shaheen's bipartisan Cooper Davis Act, named after a Kansas teen who tragically lost his life to fentanyl poisoning, to hold social media companies accountable for reporting to law enforcement illicit drug and opioid activities occurring on their platforms.

In part, the Senators wrote: "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 automated advertising review and content moderation to address these failures that are placing lives at risk."

According to a Wall Street Journal report from earlier this year, the Tech Transparency Project (TTP) found that Meta has run hundreds of advertisements on Facebook and Instagram that steer users to online marketplaces for illegal drugs. The Shaheen-led letter urges Zuckerberg to support the Cooper Davis Act and work as quickly as possible to prevent further harm.

The Senators continued: "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. Surely, this is not what Meta means when it states its 'mission to give people the power to build community and bring the world closer together.'"

Text of the letter can be found here.

Background onCooper Davis:

Cooper Davis - a young, thriving Johnson County teen - tragically lost his life after taking half a fake pill that contained a lethal dose of fentanyl. He was just 16 years old. Cooper and his three friends shared two blue pills they thought were Percocet purchased online. Unfortunately, the blue pills were laced with fentanyl and Cooper died from just half a pill. Following his passing, Cooper's family launched the non-profit Keepin' Clean for Coop to keep his memory alive to save lives, raise awareness, and educate students and families.

Background on the Cooper Davis Act:

In recent years, organized drug cartels have dominated fentanyl trafficking in the country, and they have set up large, sophisticated distribution networks online via social media. In investigating fentanyl-related poisoning and deaths in teenagers and young adults, law enforcement agencies have found an alarming rate of these deadly pills acquired through platforms like TikTok and Snapchat. Unfortunately, federal agencies do not have the data to intervene and prevent these illegal activities.

The Cooper Davis Act would require social media companies and other communication service providers to take on a more active role in working with federal agencies to combat the illegal sale and distribution of drugs on their platforms. This critical data will also empower state and local law enforcement to combat fake fentanyl-laced pills and prosecute those who prey on America's youth.