Facebook And Instagram Seem To Have Stopped Censoring Search Results For ‘Marijuana’ And ‘Cannabis’ – Marijuana Moment
Meta appears to have rolled back a restriction on searches for words like “marijuana” and “cannabis,” says Marijuana Moment. The company has received criticism that their censorship was overbroad and limited access to education, public health information and political advocacy.
Kat Murti, executive director of Students for Sensible Drug Policy, called the updated search function “wonderful news” but noted that there are other ways Meta continues to interfere with access to even public health-focused information about drugs.
“We had met with Meta over a year ago and brought up the issue of both the search—the lack of ability to find things in the search—as well as how the algorithm was shutting these [accounts] down,” she said in an interview. “They’ve been shutting down access to businesses that are in full compliance with local laws, but also harm reduction groups that are working to save lives, drug education groups [and] folks who are working on policy change.”
“Meta is one of the biggest sources of information in our society, and people need to be able to connect,” Murti added. “They need to be able to find information about how to save lives from overdose, how to engage with their local governments, how to get involved in changing policy. They need to be able to find information about harm reduction, about getting out to vote, about legislation that’s on the ballot—and all of that is still getting censored.”
