Misleading Facebook PrEP Ads Draw Fire
Advocates say personal injury attorney push scares folks away from HIV prevention meds
BY MATT TRACY
More than 50 organizations
dedicated to
LGBTQ rights, HIV/
AIDS prevention and
treatment, and public health issues
penned a letter December 9
to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg
demanding he remove advertisements
on Facebook and Instagram
that advocates say overblow the
potential side effects of HIV prevention
medication.
The groups said in their letter
that law fi rms are trying to encourage
gay and bisexual men who
use Truvada for PrEP to sign onto
a lawsuit claiming that the drug
comes with side effects that can
lead to bone density and kidney
problems.
One ad posted by “Lawsuit
Watch” stated, “Anyone who suffered
Kidney or Bone Damage after
Truvada/ PrEP may be entitled to
Financial Compensation. Gilead
concealed the risks of Kidney
and Bone Damage with Truvada,
Viread & other PrEP Medications.”
Another ad, this one by “Truvada
Side Effects,” stated, “Truvada &
other TDF drugs prescribed to prevent
or treat HIV may harm kidneys
and bones” and added, “Legal
options available.”
GLAAD provided screenshots
of those ads, but the letter only
mentioned “various law fi rms” and
GLAAD did not elaborate on exactly
who is driving the effort.
But the groups used the letter
to push back against those narratives,
saying, “The law fi rms’ advertisements
➤ MEANING OF 90 90 90, from p.04
infection increases in that population
are troubling.
If 2020 arrives and there are, for
example, an estimated 800 new
HIV infections among African-
American and Latino men who
have sex with men — which would
represent a signifi cant decline from
the 2018 level — with another 75
among transgender people, it is inconceivable
any HIV group or any
Advocacy groups are demanding Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg remove ads that they charge are scaring
people away from HIV prevention medication.
are scaring away atrisk
HIV negative people from the
leading drug that blocks HIV infections.
This is despite numerous
studies underscoring the safety of
TDF in HIV-negative PrEP users.”
In a written statement, Human
Rights Campaign president Alphonso
David said Facebook and
Instagram “should not allow misinformation
to fl ourish on their platforms,
especially when it comes to
people’s health and well-being.”
“These dangerous ads should
be removed and banned from running
in the future,” he said.
The letter follows a separate development
in October when Apicha
Community Health Center, which
provides services primarily to
LGBTQ people of color and those
advocate, such as King or Daskalakis,
would call that a success.
“I’m not ready to say we have
achieved every threshold for every
group,” King told Gay City News
adding that in 2020, “I’m not going
to be saying ‘Victory, it’s over and
done.’”
While congratulating the city on
the 90 90 90 goals, Mark Levine,
who chairs the City Council’s Committee
on Health and represents
parts of the Upper West Side and
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living with HIV, tried unsuccessfully
to post a PrEP awareness advertisement.
The ad was rejected,
with Instagram saying advertisers
cannot post ads about social issues,
elections, or politics, according
to Vice .
Peter Staley, a longtime HIV/
AIDS activist who is a cofounder
of PrEP4All Collaboration, which a
coalition of advocates dedicated to
pushing for PrEP access, referred
to Apicha’s situation as he ripped
Facebook for failing to act on the
ads.
“Since they also blocked pro-
PrEP ads from a leading AIDS
prevention group, I’m beginning
to wonder if the company could
care less about the spread of HIV
among gay men,” he said in a written
Washington Heights, noted that
the data was not uniformly great.
“But there are areas where the
numbers are not moving in the
right way,” Levine said referring to
transgender people and men who
have sex with men.
Daskalakis said the city is
confronted with false statements
about the safety of some new interventions,
notably pre-exposure
prophylaxis (PrEP), and also with
the use of methamphetamine or
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statement.
The letter’s international slate
of co-signers include several New
York-based groups including ACT
UP New York, Amida Care, Gay
Men’s Health Crisis, Housing
Works, the New York City AIDS
Memorial, and the LGBT Community
Center. The PrEP4All Collaboration
also signed the letter.
The groups stated in their letter
that they provided Facebook’s
advertising team “ample time and
opportunity” to address the issue,
and even pointed out to Facebook’s
policy stating that, under “certain
circumstances,” the platform bans
ads with “claims debunked by organizations
with particular expertise.”
“We are the organizations with
‘particular expertise,’” the letter
said, referring to Facebook’s policy.
“Given the history of how our community
was met by deadly indifference
during the early years of the
AIDS crisis, the refusal to take action
is deeply concerning.”
In turn, the letter outlined three
main demands: That Facebook
and Instagram remove the ads in
question, that both platforms provide
transparency regarding their
policy’s aforementioned reference
to “certain circumstances,” and
that Facebook review and update
its advertising policies to prevent
misleading health statements.
“These concerns of the LGBTQ
community, AIDS activists, and
public health professionals need to
be prioritized by Facebook, especially
since lives and public health
are at stake,” the note concluded.
opioids in those groups.
More than 50 organizations
complained to Facebook this week
about ads by personal injury attorneys
they charge misrepresent
the risks of PrEP and discourage
its use.
“We have a little bit of medical
mistrust,” he said. “Unfortunately,
there’s been some compounding of
that messaging on social media…
We’re currently trying to unpack
that.”
GayCityNews.com | December 19, 2019 - January 1, 2020 5
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