'Extremely triggering': Facebook drug ads cause concern for Calgarian in recovery

A Calgary man who struggled with addiction for more than two decades is questioning why his Facebook account has been showing advertisements for drugs.

Eric Priddle has been sober for more than a year, and says he noticed more questionable Facebook ads on his feed when he started posting updates about his recovery journey.  

Priddle says ads for online pharmaceutical companies selling everything from medicinal cocaine and MDMA nasal sprays to "discreet party favours" began appearing on his Facebook feed.

"I kind of feel angry about it, I feel like there should be some accountability on the part of Facebook for this," he said.

The 35-year-old says he's worried ads like this could prove troubling for others trying to get clean, as well as his other Facebook contacts.

"If I was in early recovery, that would be extremely triggering for me," he said.

"I know that that there's some sort of proximal algorithm that Facebook uses to advertise to people you're around. Many vulnerable people on my friends list could be targeted and affected by this, not to mention the people that aren't necessarily addicts, but those that are young and impressionable – and if they're seeing it on Facebook, then there's not an underlying tone of it being wrong to buy these drugs if they're available on a trusted media platform."

Priddle says he flagged and reported several of the advertisements to Facebook and contacted the social media platform to inform them, but complains many have continued to show up.

"Even after I made the reports, I started getting even more ads from different sources for different products.

"Facebook has a past of censoring things like Canadian media, so I don't know why they can't keep this kind of thing off their platform."

Meta responds

CTV News contacted Meta – the parent company of Facebook – for a response as to why advertisements for certain drugs were appearing on its platform.

In an emailed response from a company spokesperson, Meta said it is aware of the situation.

"We prohibit content – both in ads and in organic content – that promotes the buying and selling of pharmaceutical and non-medical drugs, and remove it whenever we find it," read the statement.

"Our systems are designed to proactively detect and enforce against violating content, and we reject hundreds of thousands of ads for violating our drug policies. We continue to invest resources and further improve our enforcement on this kind of content to keep our platforms safe."

Meta went on to say that it "understands how vital it is to give people safe spaces where they can feel free to discuss the dangers of drugs and strategies for overcoming addiction."

The company also said it works to make resources easier to find, directing people to mental health resources when they search for certain terms and blocking negative terms associated with illicit drug sales.

On Facebook and Instagram, the prevalence of drug content involving the selling or buying of illicit or organic commercial substances is considered by Meta to be "very low," at a rate of about 0.05 per cent.

This means that out of every 10,000 views of content on Facebook, it's estimated that no more than five of those views contained content that violated or restricted its goods and services policy.

Of the drug sales violating content that were removed in the first quarter of 2024, more than 98 per cent was detected before a user reported it on Facebook and more 99 per cent on Instagram, according to Meta.

Since 2023, Meta has also introduced a stricter policy to address the sale of high-risk drugs (fentanyl, cocaine and heroin, etc.) and just one violation will result in the disabling of an account.

'Visual triggers'

Jeff Kroeger works at The Calgary Dream Centre as a program manager, helping clients through recovery treatment.

Speaking to CTV News about the potential of ads targeting those who speak up about their recovery journey online, he said it could have concerning impacts.

"Many people suffering from addiction have these visual triggers," Kroeger explained.

"When someone sees an ad like this, they might think, 'Wow, it's easy,' or 'I could get away with this.' Those messages get flooded into their head because when people are vulnerable, especially in the early stages of addiction, their thinking and processing isn't fully intact yet."

Kroeger said when people are actively struggling with addiction, often times they may fear to reach out for help, feel alone, or lack a sense of belonging.

He notes that though social media does have its negative connotations, it can still be a positive tool for bringing people together, especially those dealing with similar struggles.

"The opposite of addiction isn't sobriety. The opposite of addiction is connection, and all human beings crave that connection, but if we don't have that connection, especially if we struggle with addictions, it's very hard or almost impossible to move forward," Kroeger said.

"We all know loneliness is a massive killer, right? So, we need these communities. We need these connections, and if there are things on the internet that are targeting people in recovery, especially, that can be very tough."

'Slip through the cracks'

Neil Brigden, an associate professor of marketing at Mount Royal University says the algorithm for advertisements on social media platforms typically are pointed towards a users' interests.

He says automatic screening typically takes place for ads, which are removed if they are deemed to be transparently illegal, but there are some loopholes.

"As we saw in the case of these ads, they're more suggestive, so I think that's likely why these kinds of ads can slip through the cracks," Brigden said.

"And then a Facebook employee is not reviewing an ad unless users are reporting that ad, so, they wait for users to identify ads that are problematic, and then a human might actually review it and see that, 'Oh, this is clearly promoting something that's illegal.'"

Brigden says users do have some control over the ads that they see on social media platforms, including Facebook, through the setting of preferences, but that still doesn't mean they won't show up.

"For example, you can tell Facebook you don't want to see ads for gambling, and you won't be shown ads for gambling, but there's no way to say 'Don't show me ambiguous ads for illegal drugs,' because, of course, there shouldn't be any ads for illegal drugs on Facebook in the first place.

"I think again, the core of the problem is there's not a human being reviewing ads before they get posted, so they're depending on users to report things, and so that system is slow to respond to things like this that are ambiguous."