Meta: Do Better for Animals

Tell Meta to stop animal cruelty content from spreading on Facebook and Instagram.

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Every time a video of animal cruelty is uploaded and shared, the suffering continues.

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Cruelty content can reach huge audiences, generate attention or income for those responsible and expose adults and children to deeply disturbing acts of animal abuse. When platforms fail to act, they allow that harm to continue.

 

Meta owns some of the world’s largest social media platforms, including Facebook and Instagram. It has enormous resources, sophisticated technology and the power to change how content is detected, recommended and shared.

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In 2026 alone, more than 83% of the animal cruelty content reported to SMACC came from Meta platforms.

 

The Social Media Animal Cruelty Coalition has been engaging with Meta since 2021. We have shared evidence, escalated cruelty content and offered our expertise to help Meta improve its policies and moderation systems.

 

Some content has been removed and limited policy changes have been made. But progress has been far too slow and inconsistent. Too often, our questions, content escalations and requests for meetings have gone unanswered.

 

Meanwhile, horrific animal cruelty content continues to circulate.

Meta has shown that it can change its platforms when there is evidence that their design and systems can contribute to harm. We are asking Meta to apply that same thinking to animal cruelty.

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Meta can and must do better.

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We are calling on Meta to:

• strengthen and consistently enforce its policies covering animal cruelty, including content disguised as entertainment, “rescue”, education or other seemingly harmless content;

• invest in proactive technology to detect cruelty content, prevent known content from being repeatedly uploaded and stop algorithms from recommending it to more people;

• provide an effective reporting process and respond promptly to reports and expert escalations;

• publish meaningful information about the action it takes against animal cruelty content; and

• engage consistently and meaningfully with animal experts in the Social Media Animal Cruelty Coalition to identify emerging forms of cruelty, share evidence and improve its response.​

 

Meta has the evidence, technology and resources needed to make real progress.

 

What is needed now is the commitment to act.

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Meta: protect animals, protect your users and stop animal cruelty content from spreading.

Do better.