Facebook and Instagram accused of running false ads and spreading misinformation about Truvada

Over 50 LGBTQ organizations, AIDS activists, and public health professionals are calling on Facebook and Instagram to immediately stop running ads spreading misinformation about PrEP, scaring people who already take the drug, and steering potential patients away from it.

In an open letter published on GLAAD‘s website yesterday, the groups, which include the Human Rights Campaign, Gay Men’s Health Crisis, The Trevor Project, and many, many others, writes:

Using Facebook’s and Instagram’s targeted advertising programs, various law firms are attempting to recruit gay and bisexual men who use Truvada PrEP as an HIV preventative to join a lawsuit, claiming that the drug has caused harmful side effects in this patient population, specifically bone density and kidney issues. By focusing on ‘Truvada’ and PrEP — rather than ‘Tenofovir Disoproxil Fumarate’ (or TDF) and HIV positive individuals who use it as an antiviral — the law firms’ advertisements are scaring away at-risk 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.

The letter also states that the ads are being directed at-risk community members and deliberately feeding into common fears about taking PrEP. It adds that by allowing the ads to remain up, both Facebook and Instagram are “harming public health” by “convincing at-risk individuals to avoid PrEP, invariably leading to avoidable HIV infections.”

The letter continues:

This issue goes beyond misinformation, as it puts real people’s lives in imminent danger….

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