Facebook has been facing a variety of allegations recently. Among these allegations, including their advertising and data-sharing practices.
In an effort to somewhat manage what is able to be advertised on the site, Facebook has previously banned tobacco advertising on their website. However, tobacco companies, e-cigarette companies, and other smoking products have continued to infiltrate this social media platform in a variety of ways.
The vaping and tobacco industry has been taking advantage of Facebook’s lax rules in order to reach a new generation of users. Facebook has several policies in place that are meant to ban the marketing of these types of products by stating that “ads must not promote the sale or use of tobacco products and related paraphernalia”.
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However, the team that discovered that these companies are still infiltrating the site, found a variety of brands showcasing their products on specific pages that are liked by many people. For example, smoke shops with public Facebook pages are still able to promote their products on their page to the thousands of people who follow them.
Users who are under age are perfectly able to like these pages and are therefore exposed to the content that is posted and advertised through that page.
The use of these privately held pages for different businesses is one of the loopholes that these smoking, vaping, and tobacco companies are utilizing in order to reach as many people as possible via Facebook’s platform, even though Facebook’s policies don’t allow for this type of content to be advertised.