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
Mark Zuckerberg is a rich piece of dreck, a term he would likely recognize. He is out only for his own interests and no one else’s.
THIS IS DISGUSTING!!! WHAT IS WRONG WITH ‘META’???? WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO DO TO TAKE THIS LOAD OF CRUD DOWN???
ARE PEOPLE THAT DESPERATE FOR ABHORRENT ENTERTAINMENT, IS THIS WHAT ITS COME TO IN OUR SOCIETY TODAY???
SADISTIC,DISGUSTING,CRUEL,AND ABHORRENT SICKENING TORTURE OF INNOCENT ANIMALS!!!
WAKE UP AND GET A DECENT LIFE PEOPLE!!
THESE ARE GOD’S CREATURE NO OURS!!
And may God’s justice PREVAIL GREATLY!!!
Zuckerberg doesn’t need the funds generted by ‘views’ of torture and abuse of animals so why is he letting this continue? Take these horrific videos down, no viewers means the abusers find something else to do. Do the right thing (for once) and block all animal abuse videos from META sites
Do not allow these horrific videos and content on your platforms! Doing so normalizes cruelty toward animals, it as much as condones cruelty toward animals and in a sense advocates it. Do you allow antisemitic content, do you allow the torture of human beings on your platforms? Why are animals any different. I know FB has stopped any fact checking in regard to politics and you may believe removing animal torture content violates freedom of speech and expression. I however, believe you have a responsibility to the public and especially to the animals being tortured and killed for the pleasure of a perverse faction of society, not all of society. You developed platforms viewed by millions of people, I believe what goes along with that, is responsibility. Responsibility to do what’s obviously right. Monitor and remove dangerous, depraved content that only deepens the depravity and spreads it far and wide.