Facebook ad uses story of family dying of COVID-19 to sell masks. They’re all alive

A California woman said a face mask company used her family photo in a Facebook ad, claiming that they had died from the coronavirus.

Sara Ancich told CNN that FilterMax used a photo of her family in an ad, saying her entire family died except for her youngest son. The photo was from a holiday card taken eight years ago and she reached out to Facebook to get it taken down, the outlet reported.

“Who would have the audacity to clearly not know a family and type that they had died?” Ancich said, according to CNN. “It’s on the forefront of everybody’s mind in the news and everything, and how quickly it is taking lives. It could so clearly be true to people.”

After CBS Los Angeles reached out to Facebook the ad was taken down.

Facebook told CBS Los Angeles that it has banned “all ads having to do with hand sanitizer, masks, wipes, and COVID-19 tests.”

According to an investigation by Consumer Reports, Facebook has failed to filter out ads on its platform containing misinformation about the coronavirus pandemic, according to TechCrunch.

As of Wednesday, there were 25,793 confirmed cases of coronavirus in California and 782 deaths, according to The San Francisco Chronicle.

This story was originally published April 15, 2020 at 2:41 PM with the headline "Facebook ad uses story of family dying of COVID-19 to sell masks. They’re all alive."