Facebook has removed
adverts about HIV prevention medicines, following intense lobbying from
lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer advocacy groups.
They argued in an open
letter sent to Facebook in December, that the ads went beyond misinformation to
"put people's lives in imminent danger".
Medical studies suggest
drugs such as Truvada are safe.
But the ads, from law
firms attempting to convince gay and bisexual men to join lawsuits, suggested
otherwise.
They focused on harmful
side effects, such as kidney issues.
Facebook agreed that
this was misleading: "After a review, our independent fact-checking
partners have determined some of these ads in question mislead people about the
effects of Truvada.
"As a result we
have rejected the ads and they can no longer run on Facebook," it said in
a statement to the BBC.
The US Center for
Disease Control and Prevention has said that PrEP (Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis)
drugs are "highly effective for preventing HIV from sex and injection drug
use".
Pressure has been
mounting on the social network to do something about the issue since December,
when an open letter signed by 50 health and LGBTQ groups was sent.
It read: "By
allowing these advertisements to persist on their platforms, Facebook and
Instagram are convincing at-risk individuals to avoid PrEP, invariably leading
to avoidable HIV infections. You are harming public health."