Instagram Helps Get Around Brazil's E-Cigarette Ban

October 11, 2024

Par: National Committee Against Smoking

Dernière mise à jour: October 11, 2024

Temps de lecture: 5 minutes

Instagram permet de contourner l’interdiction des cigarettes électroniques au Brésil

The policies of the Meta Group (Facebook and Instagram) allow stores to buy, sell, exchange, offer or request e-cigarettes on its platforms, thus directly opposing the ban on the marketing of e-cigarettes in Brazil since 2009.

Meta's content policies allow people to buy, sell, trade, offer and request nicotine products, including e-cigarettes, through profiles run by "legitimate" stores. E-cigarette use has surged in the country in recent years, with sales driven in part by social media platforms such as Instagram and WhatsApp, according to a government reportMeanwhile, the tobacco industry is pushing for their legalization, threatening to reverse decades of decline in tobacco use.

Increase in consumption of illegal vaping devices

The Brazilian government banned the sale, importation, and advertising of e-cigarettes in 2009. For a time, it seemed that the ban had succeeded in keeping vaping rates low. According to Covitel, a national survey aimed at monitoring risk factors for chronic diseases in Brazil, 0.6% of people aged 18 to 24 were regular users of e-cigarettes in 2022. For comparison, in the United States and Canada, 6.4 % and 7.2 % of people aged 16 to 19 were vaping regularly in 2022.

But the use and illicit trade of vaping devices has increased sharply in Brazil. Between 2018 and 2023, the number of Brazilians who admitted to vaping in the 30 days preceding the survey increased from just over 499,000 people to more than 2.87 million, according to a study carried out by Ipec, a market research and opinion polling company. The number of illicit vapes seized from vendors rose from just over 21,000 to about 1.37 million per year during that period, according to tax authorities.

Using Instagram to circumvent Brazilian law

While Meta allows stores like brick-and-mortar stores to sell tobacco and nicotine products through its platforms, it prohibits stores from using its advertising tools to boost that content to a wider audience (content sponsorship). To get around this restriction, sellers have turned to influencer advertising and mass account creation.

A recent investigation by Núcleo Jornalismo revealed that a vaping brand, Nikbar, created a network of at least 44 accounts focused on several Brazilian cities to sell e-cigarettes on Instagram. The brand promoted these accounts in partnership with more than 25 digital influencers, including funk singer MC Kevinho and country singer Zé Felipe, whose combined followers on the platform exceed 50 million.

The media " Rest of World » found more than 100 paid ads from a single e-cigarette brand targeting Brazilians on Facebook. When questioned, some sellers in Brazil say they are not violating Instagram's rules. "Posts only go live if Meta allows us to; they dictate what you can and can't [post]."

Anvisa, the country’s health regulatory agency, constantly monitors social media content. Between January 2023 and June 2024, the agency removed more than 16,000 URLs related to the e-cigarette trade using Epinet, an artificial intelligence-based monitoring tool that constantly scans the internet for the sale of goods prohibited in Brazil.

Industry pushes to legalize e-cigarette sales

In October 2023, right-wing senator Soraya Thronicke presented a bill, backed by the tobacco industry, to legalize e-cigarettes and allow their sale online. It argues that banning the products has been ineffective and benefits illicit trade. The bill has sparked a open letter signed by 80 medical and scientific societies that oppose this legalization.

In 2022, Anvisa approved a technical report indicating the need to maintain the ban on these products and to adopt additional measures to curb irregular sales of e-cigarettes. In particular, it recommended increasing the number of controls and disseminating information campaigns on the health effects of vaping. The issue of the ban was reviewed by the agency in April 2024, following a public consultation that heard contributions from experts, manufacturers of vaping products and consumers. Anvisa once again recommended maintaining the ban on the sale of electronic cigarettes and related accessories.[1].

Brazil has taken strong legislative measures to protect the health of its citizens. In July 2019, Brazil became the second country to fully implement all measures of the WHO treaty, the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, with the aim of reducing tobacco and nicotine consumption and protecting the population from chronic noncommunicable diseases.

©Generation Without Tobacco

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[1] Tobacco-free generation, Brazil maintains ban on sale of heated tobacco and vaping products, published on April 29, 2024, consulted on October 8, 2024

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