Facebook has been put on the hot seat again following the release of an open letter from non-governmental media monitoring group GLAAD addressed to CEO Mark Zuckerberg, wherein the organization questioned several ads that allegedly mislead people about TRUVADA PrEP.
In the open letter published on GLAAD's official website, the organization noted that Facebook allowed "factually inaccurate advertisements which suggest negative health effects of Truvada PrEP."
According to the group, which was backed by over 50 other organizations that advocate for the LGBTQ community, the series of ads in question were misleading people on how the said HIV-prevention drug really affected people.
GLADD demanded that both Facebook and Instagram "immediately" take down the said advertisements as these are forms of misinformation. The organization also called on Zuckerberg to review the social network's existing ad policies.
Several law firms run the ads on the social media platform. In the advertisements, the law firms claim through their posts that the drug has harmful effects on the human body. The firms also call on Facebook users to join their cause in dragging TRUVADA maker, Gilead Sciences, to court.
In a statement to Business Insider, a representative of Facebook argued that the ads in question did not breach any policies under the ads segment. Third-party checkers also reportedly did not rate the ads as "false."
The representative further noted that Facebook will look into "ways to improve" the platform. However, this is not the first time the company's ad policies were questioned and brought into public scrutiny.
The company already faced widespread backlash over its decision to not fact-check ads released by politicians running for election. The latest development in the issue came Tuesday, after multiple outlets revealed that thousands of political ads have been removed from the public archive.
According to the Financial Times, the removal of thousands of political ads came less than two days before the general election in the United Kingdom. The event is a crucial time in history as it could make or break the upcoming Brexit.
A spokesperson for the company said they were "aware" that users were having trouble accessing the archived ads in the platform's library, but that the platform is working on a solution.
Some users and industry analysts raised concerns about Facebook's pledge towards transparency during global elections due to the latest incident. It remains to be seen whether the archived ads will be restored or not.
FT previously reportedly that campaign groups not connected to any British political party have spent roughly £500,000 on Facebook ads.
