Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith says it’s “outrageous” dealers are openly peddling class A drugs on Facebook Marketplace and will be seeking an explanation for the failure from the billion-dollar tech giant.
A Herald investigation on Friday revealed 56 different listings were circulating on Marketplace offering magic mushrooms, cannabis and in one case LSD in locations across the North Island and the top of the South Island.
Some of the advertisements encouraged visitors to connect with them on the encrypted text app Telegram for a “full menu”.
One full menu seen by the Herald offered the listed psychedelics and cannabis as well as cocaine, MDMA and ketamine.
A Bay of Plenty man said he made dozens of complaints over several weeks about the listings, but Meta took no action and the ads remained active.
It was only when the Herald contacted Meta on Thursday that a spokeswoman said many listings had been removed and Meta was continuing to review the situation.
“Meta has removed numerous Facebook Marketplace ads promoting the sale of illicit drugs for violating community standards,” the spokeswoman told the Herald.
However, by Friday morning, dozens of listings offering mushrooms, gummies and edible psychedelics had resurfaced with links to Telegram accounts offering other class A substances.
Speaking to Michael Morrah on Herald NOW, Goldsmith said it was “outrageous” and he would be contacting Meta.
“As Justice Minister I’ll be asking some tough questions about how this is happening, and what’s going on. This [not preventing illegal drug sales] is something they should be doing better on, and we’ll be making that very clear to them.”
He said it raised questions about whether law changes were needed to make Meta more accountable.
Concerns have been raised about tech barons hiding behind a provision in telecommunications legislation called exclusion of liability that protected them from third-party content posted on their platforms.
Goldsmith, who’s also Broadcasting Minister, said making changes in that area had global ramifications.
“In terms of the broader relationship with Meta, and all those big [tech] companies, we do need to put pressure on but also be mindful of the global context.”
Labour’s Willie Jackson was highly critical of the failures exposed by the Herald’s investigation.
Asked on Herald NOW if Meta was running roughshod over the rules and didn’t care, he agreed.
“Absolutely, it’s an indictment on them,” he said.
“This is just an absolute disgrace. It shows the arrogance of these companies that they can get away with this.”
Jackson said companies like Meta should be made accountable, rules should be imposed and he accused Goldsmith of “not doing anything”.
“Look at the billions they’re taking out of this country, and [they have] no regard at all.”
Meta’s spokeswoman said the company enforces its policies, including a prohibition against the promotion or sale of illegal drugs, through a combination of reports from users, human review and artificial intelligence.
She said the company recently updated its community standards to prevent precursor chemicals that could be used to make drugs from being sold. She also said any violation involving the sale of drugs, including fentanyl, cocaine or heroin, will result in accounts being disabled.
However, Massey University public health researcher Dr Robin van der Sanden didn’t think targeting sellers of illegal drugs was a priority for Meta.
She said the company was “walking this tight rope” between doing enough to stave off the regulators but not being so restrictive that it loses users to other platforms.
“So that does kind of undermine their willingness to prioritise tackling things like illegal activity on the platform because their priority really is the money-making aspect of it,” she said.
Facebook reported making $7.59 million in New Zealand last year, which was down from profits in previous years.
Michael Morrah is a senior investigative reporter/team leader at the Herald. He won News Journalist of the Year at the 2025 Voyager Media Awards and has twice been named reporter of the year at the NZ Television Awards. He has been a broadcast journalist for 20 years and joined the Herald’s video team in July 2024.