The Dangers of Censorship on Social Media
Public health workers are sounding the alarm that lives could be at risk due to social media platforms automatically removing educational posts about illicit drugs. These posts, which provide critical information to communities, are being censored without proper oversight. The Australian Injecting and Illicit Drug Users League (AIVL) has raised concerns that these actions are preventing vital messages from reaching those who need them most.
A Growing Concern
Organizations such as Pill Testing Australia, CanTEST, and New Zealand-based KnowYourStuffNZ have experienced the removal of their posts and even the suspension of their accounts. In some cases, entire pages and personal accounts have been permanently deleted. According to AIVL, Meta’s automated content moderation systems are flagging these alerts as promoting drug use, which leads to their removal.
John Gobeil, the chief executive of AIVL, emphasized the importance of these messages. “These services rely on social media to tell people where they are, what’s in circulation and how to stay safe,” he said. “If those messages are blocked, people don’t know the service exists, and they lose the chance to make safer decisions.”
The Role of AI in the Problem
David Caldicott, clinical lead at CanTEST and Pill Testing Australia, highlighted that the issue is not just with automated systems but also with the approach taken by social media companies. He pointed out that posts containing information about drugs are sometimes withheld, altered, or censored. “This is health information, but unfortunately, the transition from a human-mediated system to an AI-mediated system means that it just gets pinged and pulled,” Dr. Caldicott said.
He also noted that Meta, being an American company, may have different standards regarding drug education. “There’s an imperative to prevent any conversation about illicit drugs, even if it’s health related,” he said. This approach, according to Dr. Caldicott, is unacceptable, especially when younger people typically get their news and information from social media rather than traditional media.
Calls for Intervention
Dr. Caldicott is urging social media companies to commit to engaging with healthcare providers and allowing proper information to be distributed in a timely fashion. The affected organizations are also calling on the e-Safety Commissioner to intervene and compel Meta to restore all accounts and content that have been removed or suspended based on drug-related community standards violations.
In response to these challenges, CanTEST has developed an app called Night Coach, which doesn’t rely on social media to spread awareness and information. “We need to think more about how we can engage with these social media companies because essentially they’re pulling all the strings as far as the health information is concerned in this field,” Dr. Caldicott said.
The Impact on Public Health
Stephanie Stephens from Directions Health Services, which runs CanTEST, explained that they are continuing to look for ways to resolve the social media issues. “Our attempt is to raise it with Meta, have that resolved — obviously that’s not been effective to date,” she said. “We attempt to repost, reinstate things, we use other platforms like our website, but … the reach of social media in particular is so helpful, so we’ll be exploring avenues to have it better resolved.”
Ms. Stephens noted that tens of thousands of people follow CanTEST on social media. She shared an example where a post about a potentially lethal opioid was taken down just before the Split Milk festival in Canberra. “We urge people looking for alerts and information to go to the CanTEST website,” she added.
The e-Safety Commissioner’s Response
In a statement, an eSafety spokesperson mentioned that as the independent regulator for online safety in Australia, eSafety’s role is to implement and enforce the Online Safety Act. “This includes obligations under the Online Safety Codes and Standards which require service providers to take certain steps to reduce the risk of unlawful and highly harmful material on their services,” the spokesperson said.
They clarified that the removal of lawful material such as public health information relating to drugs is not required. “The removal of material of this nature is a matter for the services involved and should be raised directly with those services,” the spokesperson added. They encouraged organizations to take a multi-channel approach when sharing important public health information.
The Way Forward
Social media platforms set and enforce their own terms of service, which means lawful content may still be subject to moderation or removal. Relying on a range of communication channels can help ensure critical information remains accessible to the communities who need it.
In response to questions from the ABC, Meta declined to comment. However, the ongoing efforts of public health organizations highlight the urgent need for a balanced approach that protects users while ensuring access to vital health information.
