Target: Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta Platforms, Inc.
Goal: Compel Meta to immediately remove reported animal-abuse content, ban repeat offenders, and cooperate with law-enforcement investigations.
Millions of social-media users may be exposed to horrifying scenes of animal suffering every day. A new Social Media Animal Cruelty Coalition (SMACC) report states that 87.5 percent of the 2024 animal-cruelty links flagged by the public were hosted on Facebook, with thousands more on Instagram. Nearly a quarter of the Facebook posts allegedly depicted outright physical torture—dogs beaten, cats maimed, even endangered primates terrorized for “entertainment.” Yet only about one-third of this material had been removed when researchers checked.
The investigation further notes that at least 108 featured animals apparently belonged to endangered or vulnerable species, including orangutans and gorillas. Other clips reportedly showed macaques, dogs, and cats enduring deliberate torment or being marketed as exotic pets. Despite Meta’s community standards prohibiting such content, enforcement appears disturbingly lax; many videos amassed thousands of likes and shares before any action occurred—if they were acted upon at all.
Unchecked digital abuse fuels copy-cat cruelty, rewards traffickers with ad revenue, and normalizes violence against living beings. Laws such as the UK’s Online Safety Act and the EU’s Digital Services Act now classify animal cruelty as priority illegal content, carrying multi-million-dollar fines for non-compliance. Meta must proactively detect and remove these posts, share data with authorities, and permanently bar individuals and networks that profit from pain.
PETITION LETTER:
Mr. Zuckerberg,
A recent SMACC analysis of more than 80,000 public complaints indicates that Facebook and Instagram host the vast majority of reported animal-cruelty content online. Over half of 2,050 closely examined links reportedly remained active at the time of review—some showing deliberate torture of dogs, cats, and endangered species. This apparent failure to enforce your own policies enables repeat abusers to collect views, likes, and advertising dollars while animals suffer on camera.
Governments worldwide now recognize digital animal abuse as a serious crime. Under the UK’s Online Safety Act and the EU’s Digital Services Act, platforms that do not swiftly remove such material face penalties of up to 10 percent of global revenue. Beyond regulatory risk, continued tolerance of brutality erodes public trust in Meta’s commitment to safety and responsibility.
We urge Meta to:
Remove all reported animal-cruelty content within 24 hours and apply automatic detection tools to block it pre-upload.
Ban repeat offenders, shut down coordinated abuse networks, and preserve evidence for law-enforcement investigations.
Collaborate with animal-welfare experts to refine and publicly disclose clear, comprehensive anti-cruelty policies.
Taking these steps will protect countless animals from exploitation and demonstrate that Meta will not profit from or facilitate cruelty.
Sincerely,
[Your Name Here]
Photo credit: Anurag R Dubey
