We are asking the US Federal Trade Commission to investigate and act to change Meta’s discriminatory censorship of sexual and reproductive health information for women and people of underrepresented genders – and we are calling on Meta to change its practices of rejecting these ads.

Last year, Center for Intimacy Justice (CIJ) published an investigative report in The New York Times and 80 media outlets revealing that Meta systemically rejects women’s health advertisements (of the 60 companies CIJ studied, 100% faced ad rejections) – despite Meta allowing erectile dysfunction and other male-focused advertisements. In response to CIJ’s findings, the US Senate HELP Committee publicly questioned Meta on this issue, Hillary Clinton called attention to the matter on Twitter, and recently a US Senator raised CIJ’s research in a hearing question on the Senate floor.

After CIJ’s report came out, Meta made wording additions to its Global Ads Policy that specifically wrote more examples of women’s sexual health ads that Meta states are allowed. However, Meta is not enforcing these additions (and CIJ is also calling for further policy change); CIJ’s recent surveys show that sexual health advertisements for women and people of underrepresented genders are being censored, as before.

Now, Center for Intimacy Justice is taking new action: We’ve filed a legal complaint with the Federal Trade Commission with our lawyers at Harvard's Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society, asking the FTC to take action to change Meta's discriminatory blocking of women's health advertisements. Senator Mazie Hirono, Senator Elizabeth Warren, Senator Amy Klobuchar, Representative Adam Schiff, and a number of Congressmembers publicly requested in a public letter that the FTC investigate CIJ’s complaint about Meta’s practices.

Tell Meta to end its discriminatory censorship that prevents women and people of underrepresented genders from accessing vital information about their health – and urge the FTC to help and take action!

Sign the petition to:

1. Ask the FTC to investigate and take action to change Meta’s rejections of these sexual health ads;

2. Call on Meta to create an equitable verification system for health and wellness advertisers to not be wrongly blocked as adults products or nudity under Meta’s algorithms

To:

Lina M. Khan - Federal Trade Commission, Chair

Mark Zuckerberg - Meta, CEO

Kevin Bankston  - AI Policy Director

Norberto de Andrade- Director, AI Policy

Roy Austin  - Vice President for Civil Rights and Deputy General Counsel