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Summary
Facebook has deleted nine Nigerian surrogacy groups with over 38,000 members following an investigative report exposing exploitation, misinformation, and legal loopholes in the practice.
Facebook has clamped down on surrogacy groups in Nigeria, following the investigation into how Facebook, misinformation, and legal loopholes throw Nigerian women into the surrogacy ditch.
The report, published on Sept 27, 2025, projects the experience of surrogates in Nigeria who are at the receiving end of exploitative practices and severe health implications. It exposes human rights violations, particularly how surrogate agents lure women into surrogacy by weaponising misinformation, utilising Facebook for advertising, and leveraging legal loopholes to implement the practice.
International groups and Nigerians reacted to the report, criticising the existence of surrogacy groups on Facebook and calling for a ban.
“This is such an eye opener,” Purple Passion (@annie_chrissss) said on X after watching the documentary. “A Facebook page agency for Surrogate mothers is genuinely the most ridiculous thing I’ve heard in recent times.”
Following the report, Facebook removed several surrogacy groups in Nigeria.
Meta removed the surrogacy groups that we had shared with them via email during the investigation: Surrogate Mothers Nigeria, and Egg Donor and Surrogate Mother in Nigeria.
The social networking platform also removed the groups we reported to them via the Facebook app: Egg Donation and Surrogacy (For Expectant Mothers) IVF, and Surrogates and Egg donors group. Initially, Facebook said the groups didn’t violate their community standards. They would later reverse their decisions and delete the groups.
After reviewing their decisions, Facebook deleted more groups we reported to them via its app: IVF & Surrogacy Support Groups Nigeria, Nigeria Surrogates and Intended Parents, Surrogate/Egg and Sperm Donors, and Surrogate Mothers Support and Advocacy Group.
Also, Facebook removed the international surrogacy platform, Surrogate Mothers Agency, which we reported. The group had over 12,000 members and facilitated surrogacy worldwide, including for Nigerians.
Cumulatively, we identified nine groups that had been deleted with over 38,000 global members.
Following the removal of the groups, Facebook also tightened enforcement of its community rules as it is becoming more difficult for surrogate groups to post on the platform.
Temitope Afolabi, a former surrogate, shared that surrogate agents now have difficulty posting surrogacy-related adverts on the platform.
“Many of the surrogate groups have been brought down, and whenever they want to post, they always have an issue,” Temitope said, “They say Facebook don’t allow them.”
Agents managing surrogacy support groups on the platform are now forced to self-regulate against publishing financial advertisements. One surrogacy support group published a disclaimer:
“To follow Facebook’s surrogacy strict policies, we do not post payment plans, pricing, or financial discussions inside this group.”
Before the surrogacy investigation, there were countless Facebook surrogacy communities in Nigeria, with several groups created to facilitate surrogacy. Indiscriminate advertisements of surrogacy flood the groups, with different payment plans ranging from N2 million to N5 million advertised daily.
We emailed Meta via email for comments following the removal of the groups; however, they failed to respond. We further contacted Meta’s head of communications, Oluwasola Obagbemi, on WhatsApp for comments, but she responded that she was “on leave and out of the office.”
However, Meta had initially informed us in an email correspondence,
“Ads and Groups that exploit people through the sale or illegal adoption of children violate our policies, and we remove this content when it’s found – as we have done in this case.”
Facebook also informed us after the removal of the surrogacy groups on their app, with the statement, “Thanks for letting us know. Reports like yours help keep Facebook safe and welcoming for everyone.”
