Facebook removed more than a dozen closed groups promoting unlicensed medicines after a Business Insider investigation

Tom Porter

October 18, 2019 10:01 AM

Facebook deleted at least 14 groups where unlicensed and potentially dangerous medicines were promoted and sold, after Business Insider flagged them to the site.

FILE - This March 29, 2018, file photo shows the Facebook moniker on screens at the Nasdaq MarketSite, in New York's Times Square. Acknowledging misuse, Facebook is tightening its rules around political advertising ahead of the 2020 U.S. presidential elections. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)

The deletions were prompted by a larger investigation into medical misinformation on social media.
In a network of groups, a substance called GcMAF was promoted as a treatment for cancer by UK national Amanda Jewell.
Other groups were removed earlier this year for promoting the a substance called Miracle Mineral Solution as a cure-all. It is actually a type of bleach.
Read the full Business Insider investigation here.
Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Facebook has deleted more than a dozen groups promoting unlicensed medicines after an investigation by Business Insider found the site rife with closed communities pushing medical misinformation.

The full investigation can be read here.

Several of the groups were promoting GcMAF, a type of protein, as a cure for illnesses including cancer and conditions such as autism. Medical authorities in the UK and US say that the substance is untested and unproven as a cure for any illness.

A number of the groups were run by UK national Amanda Jewell, who Business Insider found had used Facebook to sell GcMAf for thousands of dollars as well as treatment at an unlicensed medical clinic she ran in Belize, Central America.

Amanda Mary Jewell Healing Oracle/YouTube

You can read the full investigation of Jewell, her clinic, and the wider issue of medical disinformation, here.

Other groups promoted a substance known as Miracle Mineral Supplement, which according to authorities is really a form of industrial bleach . Proponents groundlessly claim it can cure autism and malaria.

"We do not allow the sale of non-medical or pharmaceutical drugs on Facebook, and we have taken down all the groups, user accounts and related pages flagged by Business Insider," a Facebook spokesperson told Business Insider.

Experts told Business Insider that those promoting unproven or untested medical substances on Facebook were exploiting its system of closed groups, which are subjected to minimal scrutiny.