Promotion of tobacco products on Facebook: policy versus practice

Abstract

It is laudable that Facebook has policies intended to interdict tobacco promotion throughout its platform. Nevertheless, widespread tobacco promotion and sales were found at variance with the company's policies governing advertising, commerce, page content and under age access. Vetting could be improved by automated screening in partnership with human reviewers.

Youth access to JUUL online: eBay sales of JUUL prior to and following FDA action

“…The long time span that listings were left active provides further evidence that eBay was not effectively identifying JUUL listings to enforce its terms of service policies. This is consistent with Facebook’s weak enforcement of its policies against tobacco sales and promotions,9 suggesting that online platforms may be lacking either the will or expertise to effectively monitor content for tobacco products. Prior research suggests that eBay has also struggled to prevent alcohol sales to minors 12…”

“…The online sale of e-cigarettes to minors without age verification is not a new development,13 14 although the rapidly growing popularity of JUUL among youth brings renewed attention to the issue. Since online platforms often fail to enforce their own policies and vendors can bypass minor platform changes,9 12 more significant policy change appears to be needed. For example, amending the Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking Act (PACT) of 2009 to include e-cigarettes would require internet vendors to confirm the ages of purchasers at the time of purchase and use a delivery service that checks ID.…”

“…Despite recent FDA and eBay actions, there has been no empirical evidence on JUUL sales on eBay. Online surveillance of JUUL is critical to informing future regulatory actions, particularly in light of evidence that tobacco brands and retailers often fail to comply with both their own terms of service policies and federal policies that prohibit tobacco promotions or require age verification 8–10. The goals of this study are to: (1) characterise the sale of JUUL devices and pods on eBay prior to the FDA’s request to remove listings in April 2018, and (2) document the impact of the FDA action and the ways in which eBay vendors work to bypass efforts to limit JUUL sales.…”

EAT-Brazil Award for Tobacco Control: a brief description of its first edition

“…8 Together, these data reinforce how important it is that social media is included as a platform in government prevention campaigns aimed at young people, as well as the importance of quickly countering fake news, which often presents new forms of tobacco consumption as a non-harmful option. 10 The comprehensiveness and transdisciplinarity of the first edition of the EAT-Brazil Award (with participants from nine states and 18 different fields of study) reinforce the potential of the EAT-Brazil Award for finding new strategies and talents in tobacco control in the country.…”

‘Greenwashing’ tobacco products through ecological and social/equity labelling: A potential threat to tobacco control

“…It is highly unlikely that the Brand and Variant names alone would have a significant impact on the marketing success of such initiatives. However, although strict controls on tobacco advertising and sponsorship exist in countries such as Australia, New Zealand and Member States of the European Union, control of online and social media marketing may be an Achilles heel in such regulation, particularly given the significant growth in the average amount of time people spent using such technologies [72][73][74] . National borders and local legislation mean little in an increasing online and virtual world.…”