National and local HIV/AIDS organizations say a series of advertisements on Facebook present misleadingâand potentially dangerousâinformation about HIV prevention. But despite their concerns, Facebook has continued to run the ads.
A story published Monday by the Washington Post details how Facebook ads purchased by personal injury law firms contain incorrect messages about Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), a daily medication people can take to greatly reduce their risk of contracting HIV. The ads, which appear to target members of the LGBTQ+ community, are meant to recruit current PrEP users into class-action lawsuits against pharmaceutical companies that make PrEP medications. The ads specifically name Truvada, a PrEP manufacturer.
According to an open letter to Facebook signed by 52 different HIV/AIDS organizations from across the country, these ads suggest that using PrEP is dangerous for HIV-negative people, âdespite numerous studies underscoring the safety of [PrEP] in HIV-negative users.â
One of the letterâs signatories is Cascade AIDS Project (CAP), a nonprofit that provides HIV/AIDS prevention and support services in Oregon and Southwest Washington. Peter Parisot, CAPâs chief of staff, said that people have reached out to CAP and its LGBTQ+ health clinic, Prism, with questions about PrEPâs safety after seeing the ads on their Facebook feeds.
âPeople were concerned about it when they started running the ads,â Parisot said. âBut there are no real significant dangers, at least not in the way they were presented in these ads, to people who are HIV-negative.
The confusion comes from the fact that Truvada is a drug that can be used both as PrEP for HIV-negative patients, and as an antiviral medication for people living with HIV. Parisot said that while Truvada can cause some dangerous side-effects in HIV-positive people who take it in combination with other drugs, the adsâ focus on dangers posed to HIV-negative PrEP users was false.
The outcome of these misleading ads, Parisot said, is that more people are confused about how PrEP works, and may be discouraged from taking it for HIV prevention. Thatâs especially concerning because the populations most at-risk for contracting HIVâpeople of color, LGBTQ+ people, and homeless peopleâalready âexperience the most barriers to accessing health care,â he said.
âWe are very close to being able to end the HIV epidemic, but PrEP is an important part of our strategy,â Parisot added. âTo create fear among people who are already experiencing higher disparities in accessing health care is counter-productive.â
The letter CAP signed on to said Facebook had so far been unresponsive to HIV/AIDS organizationsâ concerns, despite the fact that Facebook claims to pay attention to âorganizations with particular expertiseâ when considering the appropriateness of an ad.
âWe are the organizations with âparticular expertise,ââ the letter reads, before demanding that Facebook remove the ads on the grounds that they are detrimental to public health.
Parisot said that to his knowledge, Facebook has yet to respond to the letter.
âWe would love to see Facebook and other media outlets take these ads more seriously,â he said, âbecause there are peopleâs lives at stake.â