Meta Oversight board overturns Instagram ban on posts featuring hallucinogen used in spiritual ceremonies

Meta’s Oversight Board announced this week that it was overturning a previous decision in July to take down an Instagram post depicting what was described as ayahuasca.

In July, an Instagram account run by a spiritual school in Brazil posted a picture of a dark brown liquid, which it described as ayahuasca. The text of the post read, “AYAHUASCA IS FOR THOSE WHO HAVE THE COURAGE TO FACE THEMSELVES.”

Ayahuasca is a hallucinogenic brew, made of a combination of different plants, that is used for spiritual and ritual purposes by South American Indigenous communities. The psychoactive compound responsible for ayahuasca’s effects, DMT, is a Schedule I controlled substance in the U.S.

After receiving about 4,000 views, the spiritual school’s post was reviewed by a human moderator and taken down for supposedly encouraging the use of ayahuasca. The board on Thursday ordered that the post be restored and that Meta’s decision be overturned.

In its ruling, the board determined that while the post did violate Facebook’s Regulated Goods Community Standard, it did not violate Instagram’s Community Guidelines at the time and was only shared on Instagram, though Meta owns both Facebook and the photo-sharing app.

“The Board is concerned that the company continues to apply Facebook’s Community Standards on Instagram without transparently telling users it is doing so,” the oversight board wrote.

“The Board does not understand why Meta cannot immediately update the language in Instagram’s Community Guidelines to tell users this. Meta also did not tell the user in this case what part of its rules they violated,” the board continued.

It pointed out that the post in question did not provide instructions on how to use ayahuasca and mainly discussed its uses in a religious context.

The oversight board also recommended that Meta amend its policies to allow “positive discussion of the traditional or religious uses of non-medical drugs where there is historic evidence of such use.”

The board’s recommendation to allow for traditional and nonmedical drugs to be featured in posts on the company’s platforms may end up being a contentious decision.

Throughout the pandemic, social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram have struggled to contain the spread of COVID-19 misinformation, particularly users promoting unproven and potentially dangerous treatments or “cures.” Dozens of Facebook groups promoted the deworming medication ivermectin as a COVID-19 treatment despite having no basis for these claims.

Though Meta has said it is committed to taking down any groups or posts that promote COVID-19 misinformation, critics have argued that the company is not doing enough.

In October, Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen told lawmakers that she did not believe that the tech company has the “capability to stop vaccine misinformation.”

The Hill has reached out to Facebook for comment.