A Call for Broadening the Analysis of Corporate Political Activities: Insights From Social Media as a Commercial Determinant of Health; Comment on “Corporate Political Activity: Taxonomies and Model of Corporate Influence on Public Policy”

Articles in Press

Document Type : Commentary

Author

1 EPIUnit ITR, Institute of Public Health of the University Porto, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal

2 Departamento de Ciências da Saúde Pública e Forenses, e Educação Médica, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal

Abstract

Corporate political activities of unhealthy commodity industries have been identified and categorised in terms of framing and action strategies. This commentary discusses the relevance of systematically and comprehensively applying these taxonomy models to other commercial determinants of health, with special attention to their joint activities and health implications. The social media industry is an especially relevant case to be analysed due to its direct and indirect health effects, namely those associated with digital marketing of unhealthy commodities, mis and disinformation, and social polarisation. Interferences in research, lobbying, and corporate social responsibility actions are examples of the strategies used by this industry to prevent and obstruct regulators’ efforts, limiting the control of the marketing of unhealthy products, the spread of mis/disinformation, and the promotion of violent speech and attitudes.

Keywords

References

  1. World Health Organization. Just four industries cause 2.7 million deaths in the European Region every year. 2024. Accessed April 14, 2025. https://www.who.int/europe/news/item/12-06-2024-just-four-industries-cause-2.7-million-deaths-in-the-european-region-every-year.
  2. Gilmore AB, Fabbri A, Baum F, et al. Defining and conceptualising the commercial determinants of health. Lancet. 2023;401(10383):1194-1213. doi:1016/S0140-6736(23)00013-2
  3. Ulucanlar S, Lauber K, Fabbri A, et al. Corporate political activity: taxonomies and model of corporate influence on public policy. Int J Health Policy Manag. 2023;12:7292. doi:34172/ijhpm.2023.7292
  4. Lacy-Nichols J, Nandi S, Mialon M, et al. Conceptualising commercial entities in public health: beyond unhealthy commodities and transnational corporations. Lancet. 2023;401(10383):1214-1228. doi:1016/S0140-6736(23)00012-0
  5. Purba AK, Pearce A, Henderson M, McKee M, Katikireddi SV. Social media as a determinant of health. Eur J Public Health. 2024;34(3):425-426. doi:1093/eurpub/ckae029
  6. Denniss E, Lindberg R. Social media and the spread of misinformation: infectious and a threat to public health. Health Promot Int. 2025;40(2):daaf023. doi:1093/heapro/daaf023
  7. Knai C, Petticrew M, Capewell S, et al. The case for developing a cohesive systems approach to research across unhealthy commodity industries. BMJ Glob Health. 2021;6:e003543. doi:1136/bmjgh-2020-003543
  8. World Health Organization. WHO report on digital marketing of alcohol: control policies in the European Region are not enough. 2021. https://www.who.int/europe/news/item/08-12-2021-who-report-on-digital-marketing-of-alcohol-control-policies-in-the-european-region-are-not-enough#:~:text=This%20report%20makes%20clear%20that,especially%20at%20risk%20of%20harm. Accessed April 14, 2025.
  9. STOP. Digital Danger: How Big Tobacco Sells Addiction Online. 2024. https://exposetobacco.org/news/selling-tobacco-addiction-online/. Accessed April 14, 2025.
  10. World Health Organization. Monitoring of Marketing of Unhealthy Products to Children and Adolescents – Protocols and Templates. 2020. https://www.who.int/europe/tools-and-toolkits/monitoring-of-marketing-of-unhealthy-products-to-children-and-adolescents---protocols-and-templates#463672. Accessed April 14, 2025.
  11. World Health Organization. Restricting digital marketing in the context of tobacco, alcohol, food and beverages, and breast-milk substitutes: existing approaches and policy options. 2024. https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/97892400772490. Accessed August 18, 2025.
  12. Zenone M, Kenworthy N, Maani N. The Social Media Industry as a Commercial Determinant of Health. Int J Health Policy Manag. 2023;12:6840. doi:34172/ijhpm.2022.6840
  13. Kayali L. Inside Facebook’s fight against European regulation. Politico. 2019. https://www.politico.eu/article/inside-story-facebook-fight-against-european-regulation/. Accessed April 14, 2025.
  14. Dozdiak N. Facebook CEO Zuckerberg looks to calm ‘tech lash’ with call for government rules on political ads and data. Fortune. https://fortune.com/2020/02/17/facebook-ceo-zuckerberg-eu-government-regulation/. Accessed April 14, 2025.
  15. Kaplan J. More Speech and Fewer Mistakes. Meta. 2025. https://about.fb.com/news/2025/01/meta-more-speech-fewer-mistakes/. Accessed April 14, 2025.
  16. Schouten F, Wright D, Matthews A. Musk spent more than a quarter-billion dollars to elect Trump, including funding a mysterious super PAC, new filings show. CNN. 2024. https://edition.cnn.com/2024/12/05/politics/elon-musk-trump-campaign-finance-filings/index.html. Accessed April 14, 2025.
International Journal of Health Policy and Management

Articles in Press, Corrected Proof
Available Online from 26 August 2025

Files

History

  • Received Date: 15 April 2025
  • Revised Date: 19 August 2025
  • Accepted Date: 25 August 2025
  • First Published Date: 26 August 2025

Share

How to cite

Statistics