META's use of AI to moderate communities unfairly targets responsible breeders

How breeders with responsible practices are impacted

While animal sales have always been against Facebook’s community rules, the popular site has only started cracking down on enforcing violations over the last few years. META, Facebook’s parent company, established this policy with the intention of protecting animal welfare since they can’t guarantee animal safety in “peer-to-peer transactions.” Under their Commerce Policy, the tech giant lists that any post promoting the sale of an animal is strictly prohibited. Though, in the process of attempting to monitor their communities, breeders with responsible practices are being unfairly targeted. Groups, business pages, and personal profiles— which breeders often depend on and have worked hard to create— have completely vanished, even if they haven’t violated any community rules.

Many tech companies have been looking to AI (artificial intelligence) as an efficient and cost-effective business resource. META specifically uses the technology to monitor their communities. Unfortunately, this implementation of AI comes at a different cost. The technology is prone to making errors, and responsible breeders, in particular, have been impacted by the use of AI in community moderation. Policy-compliant business posts, personal posts, and puppy photos have been unfairly flagged as community violations, leading to the permanent deletion of breeders’ groups and pages. Once Facebook’s screening system flags one of these posts as a community violation, there’s often an impossible path towards restoring a deleted account.

But while META polices all kinds of breeder-facing posts, they allow posts about animal sales from certain businesses or groups to remain live. Brick and mortar retail stores like puppy shops are promoted freely. Though responsible breeders are much more likely to prioritize animal safety in their exchanges, META continues to flag breeder programs across their platforms.

How Good Dog can help

Good Dog has been affected by these recent changes too. In the past few weeks, our private breeder Facebook group received numerous violations on policy-compliant posts like litter announcements, and our Instagram was even temporarily suspended after we shared puppy photos alongside an educational infographic about health testing.

With the changing landscape, it’s only going to get harder and harder for breeders to rely on social media to connect with buyers, build their businesses, sell their puppies, and receive support from their community— that’s where we come in.

At Good Dog, we’re working hard to help those impacted by these changes by building a secure platform specifically for dog breeders. We screen, recognize, celebrate, and support the responsible breeders who put an incredible amount of work into their programs, and provide a safe space for them to promote their businesses, grow their programs, and connect with buyers. We invest in SEO strategies and paid ad campaigns to bring top-tier potential buyers from across the country— so breeders don't have to. Learn more about how Good Dog can help place your puppies.

As a breeder in the Good Dog community, you'll be able to:

• Place your puppies with a network of millions of serious buyers and market your litters
• Access legal support and sample puppy contracts
• Get exclusive discounts on health testing, microchips, and more
• Get support from an entire team of real, dedicated breeder specialists

Facebook is unreliable at best— the platform asks responsible breeders to self-censor to maintain their accounts, and even if a post aligns with their policies, it could still be flagged. Good Dog is built intentionally— so breeders have a place to showcase their programs, find great homes for their puppies, exist in community with other breeders, and access exclusive resources. Since responsible breeders are already pouring so much money and time into caring for their dogs, we make sure Good Dog is always here to support you through every step of your puppy placement process.

In addition to a secure and effective way to place all of your pups, breeders in our community receive access to world-class breeder education, legal support, and exclusive discounts and resources to save money and energy so they can spend more time on what really matters– their dogs. By empowering our community with technology, responsible breeders are able to easily post available litters, securely collect payments, and connect with serious and committed applicants without worrying about losing their profiles or being monitored.

As we work toward a world where dog breeders are destigmatized, we’ll still have to contend with elements out of our hands, like unreliable technology. Investing in platforms that don’t have the best interests of breeders in mind cuts into the time and effort it takes to grow and manage a breeding program— maintaining pages and profiles takes work, and all of that can be stripped away with one errant mistake. Good Dog is a place built for dog breeders to thrive— without an algorithm looking over their shoulder.

How can I join and become a Good Breeder?

Apply to join our community and access our network of benefits and buyers. Here's how it works:

Step One: Sign Up

Complete our brief questionnaire 

Step Two: Good Dog Review

Our team will review your program

Step Three: Join our Community

Receive access to your customized profile and start placing your pups!

Sign up to join the Good Breeder community