A SEXUAL health charity has contacted government ministers over damaging social media adverts about fake HIV cures.

HIV Scotland has written to the UK and Scottish Governments over the spam posts on Facebook peddling medication which claims to cure the virus with herbs.

It comes after The Herald contacted the social media giant about misleading posts on the charity’s own page, which were unable to be removed.

After contact with The Herald, the posts were deleted.

Now Nathan Sparling, chief executive of HIV Scotland, is determined to tackle the false advertising across the platform as a whole.

He said people with HIV are being signposted to groups selling the illicit herbal medications, and could be persuaded to buy them rather than seek help from a doctor.

People with HIV who are members of legitimate support groups have been receiving 'recommendations' on the platform to join other groups set up solely to sell the useless medication, often at high prices.

Mr Sparling has written to UK Government Digital and Culture minister Caroline Dinenage, Scottish Government minister for Public Health Joe Fitzpatrick as well as Digital, culture, media and sport (DCMS) select committee members urging them to appeal to Facebook directly.

He wrote: “Facebook needs to act – not simply by deleting a few posts – but by restricting this sort of misinformation.

“We know they can do it – they have implemented COVID specific policies which prevent misinformation about the current pandemic.

“Sadly, the HIV pandemic remains and this misinformation could serious impact on public health – not just in the UK but globally.”

John Nicolson, SNP MP and member of the DCMS Select Committee said he was disappointed by the social media platform's action so far, and said owners of social media firms should be made personally liable for misinformation on their sites.

He told The Herald: I am appalled and disappointed to discover that Facebook has only removed harmful and disinformative comments on "herbal HIV cures" on HIV Scotland's Facebook page when the charity took the story to the press.

"Still, hundreds of posts, pages and groups exist promoting a herbal cure – preying on vulnerable people.

"We are seeing unacceptable lethargy from social media companies in tackling online harms and it is clearer, now more than ever, that in order for social media companies to take online hate and disinformation seriously, we need to incentivise them with financial penalties for inaction.

"Ofcom recently reported that 61% of adult and 79% of 12-15 year old internet users claimed to have had at least one potentially harmful experience online in the past 12 months. They also found that social media sites, and Facebook in particular, are the most commonly cited sources of potential online harm.

"I have previously called on the UK Government to give Ofcom the powers to sanction social media companies for disregarding online harms regulations and to make directors of social media personally liable, including facing prosecution."

A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: "We urge the companies involved to take swift and necessary action to stop adverts like these now and in the future.

“The Scottish Government and its partners work hard to ensure that people living with or at risk of HIV have access to accurate information on treatment and prevention.

“We recognise the damage and impact of misinformation and false advertising and we urge anyone who is aware of online harmful content, to report it to Police Scotland.”

A DCMS spokesman said: "We're working closely with social media companies to quickly identify and respond to potentially dangerous misinformation on their platforms.

"While positive steps have been taken it is clear that they have further work to do and we are developing world-leading plans to protect people from harm online."

A Facebook spokesman said: “We are investigating the problems raised by HIV Scotland.”