Once again, Facebook is under heavy criticism, this time from over 50 groups who accuse the giant company regarding their ad policy. Those up in arms against Facebook accuse it of carrying out or allowing factually wrong ads suggesting that there are potential negative effects of Truvada PrEP.
The bone of contention is a couple of ads that are run by law firms with social accounts on Facebook containing unfounded information about Truvada, a drug used to preventing HIV infections, despite clinical tests showing Truvada to be highly effective.
There are claims these ads are intended to recruit bisexual and gay men in addition to convincing its users to join lawsuits against Gilead Sciences, the drug maker. Even though several groups such as GLAAD have pushed the social media giant to pull these ads down, all their efforts have been futile.
Nevertheless, Facebook has come out with guns blazing arguing that the ads do not in any way violate the ad policies of its platform, and that they haven’t been rated as false by third-party groups. According to a Facebook representative, the company would examine ways to improve, but as of now, there’s nothing wrong with the ads.
But groups such as GLAAD, the Trevor Project, and Human rights campaign don’t want to hear anything from Facebook arguing that the ads are scaring away at-risk HIV persons from using a drug that could potentially block HIV infections. They demand Facebook to immediately remove the ads.
