Student Activists Petition to End Cannabis, Plant Medicine Censorship on Instagram by Meta

August 6, 2025

Dan Ulloa

Student legalization activists launched a petition to end cannabis, psychedelic, and harm reduction censorship on Instagram by the corporation Meta, which also owns Facebook.

Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP) is leading the way through online efforts.

“Accounts committed to public education, legal and policy advocacy, research dissemination, and harm reduction services, including those of licensed healthcare professionals, nonprofits, and legal businesses, have been routinely shadow banned, deplatformed. Or had their posts removed with little explanation or recourse. Despite operating in full compliance with local laws,” they wrote in the petition.

“It is vital that evidence-based, life-saving information is not censored. Harm reduction and drug education save lives. Cannabis and psychedelic therapies are supported by rigorous scientific research and show promise for conditions ranging from PTSD to depression to addiction. These are not fringe topics. But crucial conversations impacting the health and well-being of our community,” they added. “Meta’s platforms are among the most powerful communication tools in human history. With that power comes significant responsibility.”

Petition Demands

End discriminatory bans and shadow bans on accounts related to cannabis, psychedelics, and harm reduction when they operate within legal guidelines.
Establish clear, transparent, and consistent content policies that distinguish between promotion of the sale of illegal substances and legitimate drug education and advocacy.
Create a dedicated appeals and accountability process specific to drug-related content that includes community stakeholders and subject-matter experts.
Engage in regular dialogue with the psychedelic, cannabis, and harm reduction communities to better understand our work and co-create equitable guidelines for content moderation.

“Censorship of science, public health, legal, and public policy discourse is not an act of neutrality. It causes harm. As the cultural and legal landscapes around these issues evolve, so too must your policies,” they concluded.

Broad Anti-Censorship Coalition

Many leading national organizations signed SSDP’s petition. Some of the national ones have been active in the New Jersey legalization campaigns in the past. The following groups endorsed the petition:

Instagram Cannabis Witch Hunt

The Instagram cannabis witch hunt has been brutal for many over the years. It is so difficult because it is the dominant social media platform across cannabis communities and the state-legal industries.

The Meta corporation has trained its Artificial Intelligence (AI) to flag words like “marijuana” and “cannabis” and others.

Heady NJ has been shadow banned numerous times by Meta IG for reporting legitimate news stories which has hurt us greatly.

For example, Instagram hated our news post of former President Joe Biden endorsing Schedule III marijuana rescheduling last year in May 2024.

We were only un-shadow banned after removing a lot of legitimate legal news posts like the Biden story.

Now, we cannot safely show great shots of the sacred herb on Instagram like this:

So, I signed it. You should sign it too!

It seems like made some progress was made earlier this year by Meta on searching. However, several accounts, including ours @heady_nj, still face penalties preventing growth and monetization.