Meta's Failing Ad Moderation: Health Scams Targeting EU Users

Our investigation reveals how Meta approved 46k+ fraudulent health advertisements, displayed 292M+ times to European users since 2023.

14-04-2025

Our investigation reveals Meta's ongoing failure to moderate its advertisement ecosystem, particularly for health-related content. Building on previous findings regarding political ads and investment scams, this report examines Meta's handling of health-related advertising since the Digital Services Act (DSA) implementation in August 2023.

Using Meta's Ad Library data, we identified over 46,000 advertisements containing unapproved drugs and deceptive health claims that appeared on European users' screens over 292 million times. These ads violated at least 15 of Meta's own Advertising and Community Standards, featuring celebrity deepfakes, impersonation of medical professionals and news outlets, and misleading health claims.

The fraudulent advertisements targeted various health concerns including weight loss, joint inflammation, diabetes, prostate issues, parasites, and erectile dysfunction. Most alarming is that this activity continues unabated into 2025, suggesting systemic failures in Meta's risk mitigation approaches required under DSA Article 34.

Solution & Methodology

We analyzed 450 million advertisements collected through Meta's Ad Library API since August 2023. Our approach identified instances where identical or nearly identical text was published by multiple advertiser pages—a pattern suspicious when tens or hundreds of distinct pages publish identical content. To identify potential health scams, we conducted semantic analysis of duplicated advertisements, focusing on health-related terms. The 46,000+ advertisements promoted unapproved drugs, using celebrity deepfakes, and impersonating news outlets and target vulnerable populations.

Findings

Our analysis identified platform features that enable deceptive practices: - The "beneficiary" and "payer" self-disclosure mechanism lacks verification, allowing fraudulent declarations; - Meta allows advertisers to display URLs different from actual destinations, facilitating phishing; - Advertiser pages openly impersonate celebrities and medical professionals without detection. These findings demonstrate Meta's failure to implement effective risk mitigation measures despite DSA obligations.

20-11-2024
Le Figaro reports on our investigation uncovering 46,000 Meta-approved ads promoting dubious health products and medications viewed +292 million times by European users.