Coronavirus: Face mask price gougers continue to profit from Covid-19 pandemic on Facebook and Instagram

'Facebook is littered with pages trying to capitalise on people's fears,' report states

Facebook banned listings for medical face masks on 6 March in an attempt to prevent price-gouging (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Medical face masks continue to be listed on Facebook, Instagram and Google for inflated prices despite a pledge by the tech giants to crack down on price gouging, according to a report.

Both Facebook and Google announced temporary bans on commerce listings for face masks earlier this month after people tried to profit from shortages resulting from the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic.

A review by the Tech Transparency Project (TTP) since the ban was put in place found more than 130 Facebook Pages offering medical face masks for sale.

"Facebook is littered with pages that offer face masks and try to capitalise on fears about the coronavirus pandemic," TTP wrote in a blog post.

"All of the pages were easily located in Facebook searches for terms like 'corona mask,' 'N95,' and 'surgical mask'. The review found similar examples on Facebook-owned Instagram, as well as face mask ads served by Google on a variety of websites."

The report noted that Facebook takes a fee for transactions processed through its platform, meaning the company is potentially profiting from the sales.

Facebook said it had removed millions of ads and listings for face masks, hand sanitiser, disinfecting wipes and coronavirus test kits since Covid-19 was declared a public health emergency.

"Facebook is focused on preventing exploitation of this crisis for financial gain," a Facebook spokesperson told The Independent.

“While enforcement is not perfect, we have put several automated detection mechanisms in place to block or remove this material from our platform.

One Facebook page called 'Coronavirus Mask' offered a range of face masks at inflated prices (TTP/ Facebook)

Facebook noted that it had taken a number of measures in response to the coronavirus pandemic, which has so far seen more than half a million confirmed cases around the world.

A number of new features have been rolled out in recent weeks in an effort to combat the spread of misinformation across social media.

Following conversations between Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and the World Health Organisation (WHO), a new service was set up on the Facebook-owned WhatsApp messaging app to provide information from official sources.

The social media giant said that this and other services on Facebook and Instagram has so far directed more than 1 billion people to resources from health authorities.

Facebook also made a donation of 720,000 face masks earlier this week to assist emergency health workers, though this prompted questions about why Facebook held on to its reserve for so long amid a global shortage.