Despite new changes to content moderation announced earlier this week, Meta—the owner of Facebook, Instagram and Threads—appears not to be changing its practices around marijuana, continuing to block search results on the social media platform for terms such as “marijuana” and “cannabis” and instead displaying a notice encouraging users to report “the sale of drugs.”
Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, announced on Tuesday a number changes to its content policies and moderation. These include a move away from third-party fact-checking in favor of community notes, where users are responsible for flagging any questionable content. The company also said that it is “removing a number restrictions on topics such as immigration, gender identity, and gender which are often the subject of political discourse and discussion.”
In its announcement, the company stated that they would “allow more speech” by lifting restrictions from some topics which are part of mainstream discourse. “We will also focus our enforcement on high-severity and illegal violations.”
The company said that “up until now, we used automated systems to scan all policy violations. This has resulted too many errors and too much content was censored which shouldn’t have,” it added.
To many in the cannabis space—including some medical marijuana patients, cannabis content creators, news outlets and even government agencies—that feels like an apt description of how they’ve have been treated by the company, which has historically removed or limited the visibility of marijuana-related accounts.
But the new changes—touted under the banner of “free expression”—don’t appear to affect the handling of cannabis on Meta’s platforms.
Facebook nor Meta responded to MEDCAN24’s requests for clarifications regarding the new policy this week. However, the only mention made of drugs was in the new announcement It is the stated intention of the company to “continue focusing” its content-moderation systems on “tackling illegal and serious violations, such as terrorism, drugs and fraud.”
It says that “for less serious policy violations, we will rely on someone to report an issue before taking action.”
Uncertainty surrounds the exact date of implementation. Facebook has said that it will implement community notes in the “next couple of months” and continue to improve them throughout the year. It did not give a specific timeframe for any changes to the content moderation policies.
As of this week, however, the platform still censors all searches involving the words “marijuana” or “cannabis”—even when searching for accounts that merely regulate state-legal marijuana, engage in political advocacy or simply report news related to the issue. For example, a search for “Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission,” the “Marijuana Policy Project,” and “MEDCAN24” yields no results. Instead, a notice encourages users to report any drug sales they see.
Many platforms have policies that prohibit the sale of illegal drugs or age-gate content relating to controlled substances. However, Meta’s filters often catch content focusing on public health, education and political advocacy.
When contacted this week, the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission’s spokesperson confirmed that, “as have many licensed business, the Commission has had issues with certain of its content showing up on social media platforms.”
In a press release, the spokesperson stated that “Shadow Bans and other restrictive actions make it difficult for stakeholders to find our government agency” and can prevent legitimate, timely messages reaching members of public.
The statement called social media “a valuable tool for the Commission to communicate critical announcements to licensees and state residents, to increase education about responsible cannabis use and youth prevention through our ‘More About Marijuana’ campaign, and to promote new social equity programming opportunities.”
New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory Commission (another state regulatory agency) said in an e-mail that they have “no official statements on this matter.” However, it added that “we know that social media companies frequently block posts that mention cannabis since it remains a Federal Schedule I Substance.”
The agency said that “that happens with legitimate companies and state agencies,” which means we have to be creative and think outside the box in order to keep consumers and operators safe and informed.
Brian “Box Brown” is an editorial cartoonist who has been a part of the media for over ten years. work Meta’s marijuana policy has also affected his nonfiction comic Legalization Nation.
“From my perspective,” he told MEDCAN24 in an email, “no change has been made in Meta’s attitude towards cannabis, and it’s just lumped in with ‘drugs.'”
He said that after being on Instagram for many years, he began posting “pretty exclusive cannabis content” around four years ago. He wasn’t in trouble until just recently.
Brown stated that “about 4 to 5 month ago, my posts began getting flagged and deboosted,” and it killed my growth.
“My mind boggled,” continued he. “My comic that is TOO wacky about policy gets flagged for drug selling.”
He created a verified Instagram profile because he was told it would help him contact the company easier.
Brown said that he was able “to get real customer support” but “after many hours dealing with the impossible to use chat box, I learned that some stuff is flagged because it uses cannabis-related words, even if there are no rules being broken, and it then stops being advertised and nobody sees it.” Then you have to go in and appeal those changes which fixes the problem… briefly.”
He continued, “Eventually those same posts are flagged for the exact same reason again and you will have to appeal.” Maybe futilely, I started censoring any weed related words in my comic strips, but all kinds of ancillary words like ‘vape’ and ‘hemp’ are also flagged.”
Brown is currently giving up on his constant appeals. On Wednesday, he revealed that his last 18 strips had been de-boosted. “My follower number also stopped changing at all.” After this new announcement, I went back and appealed everything and my account was back to normal…briefly…then this week’s comic was flagged twice.”
META has NOT changed its stance on weed. pic.twitter.com/k4mCKR4qjl
— Brian Box Brown (@boxbrown) January 8, 2025
The cartoonist has changed the settings of his account so that it is only for 18-year-olds, but it was made so recently that he can’t tell whether it has helped.
Puffco, a manufacturer of vape devices, complained to Meta and Instagram about what it called an aggressive campaign flagging and removing cannabis-related posts. In a video, the company claimed that Instagram’s enforcement of cannabis posts from brands and individuals effectively hinders efforts to build community among veterans and medical marijuana users.
The video stated, “The world did not want us so we created a safe place for our community on Instagram to be ourselves and share the things we love.” “Isn’t this the point of a place like this?”
Morgan Fox, political Director for the advocacy organization NORML, said to MEDCAN24 in this week that Facebook has limited the reach of Marijuana Policy Project – where he had previously worked – but that for a short time “it seemed like that issue had already been resolved.”
Fox described it as “incredibly frustrating” that the accounts continue to be restricted today.
He stated that the algorithms responsible for this and the restrictions imposed on the search terms still prevent advocates from being exposed to the public, as well as the vast number of users of these services.
Social media companies flag cannabis-related posts as violating their terms of service, despite the fact that more states have legalized marijuana for adults. This practice has resulted in the suspension of accounts of state-regulated cannabis brands and informational websites, as well as individual content creators. These individuals now create backup accounts, to avoid losing a vital communication channel to their thousands of followers.
In 2018, concerns arose that Facebook was “shadowbanning” marijuana pages, including those of state cannabis regulatory agencies, by blocking them from search results. An internal presentation at the company the next year noted that it was considering loosening cannabis restrictions, but many have continued to run into problems
In July 2023, Meta announced that it had updated its cannabis advertising policy to permit the promotion of some non-ingestible CBD products and also loosen restrictions on hemp ads. Businesses can begin to promote CBD products if Meta gives them written permission and the products have been certified by Legitscript, a payment compliance company. The ads could also not be directed at people under 18 years old.
Meta stated, “We want people continue to learn about and discover new services and products on our technology.” The company added that advertisers will still be banned from running ads that advertise THC products, or cannabis products with psychoactive components.
Meta was criticized earlier that year for a feature in its microblogging application, Threads. The feature prompts users to “get help” by directing them to federal resources for substance abuse if they search for “marijuana”, various psychedelics, and other controlled drugs. Alcohol and tobacco searches were not affected by the prompt. The feature appears to no longer be available.
Twitter, which is now called X, used a similar policy in 2020. It warned users to avoid “marijuana search” as part of a SAMHSA-sponsored partnership. Alcohol and tobacco searches were not restricted. But in late 2022, after being acquired by Elon Musk, Twitter suspended that practice.
Also, Twitter since updated its cannabis advertising policy, aiming to give cannabis businesses that are “certified advertisers” the ability to feature “packaged” cannabis products in the ad creative that’s promoted on the social media site.
Google, for its part, updated its policy in January 2023, making it so companies can promote Food and Drug Administration- (FDA) approved drugs containing CBD, as well as topical CBD products with no more than 0.3 percent THC.
Video game streaming company Twitch, meanwhile, updated its branding policy for streamers, prohibiting promotions of marijuana businesses and products while explicitly allowing alcohol partnerships. Twitch had previously clarified rules in a way that was inclusive of cannabis—exempting marijuana-related references from the list of banned usernames, just as it does for alcohol and tobacco.
In an update to Apple’s iPhone software that was instituted in 2022, users were given an option to track medications and learn about possible drug interactions with other substances—including marijuana.
In 2021, Apple ended its policy of restricting cannabis companies from conducting business on its App store. Eaze, the marijuana delivery company, announced that for the first ever, consumers could shop for and pay for their products via its iPhone app.
In contrast to Apple, Google’s Android app hub updated its policy in 2019 to explicitly prohibit programs that connect users with cannabis, no matter whether it is legal in the jurisdiction where the user lives.
In 2022, New York marijuana regulators asked the social media app TikTok to end its ban on advertising that involves the word “cannabis” as they worked to promote public education on the state’s move to legalize.
This article has been updated and includes additional comments.
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