US prosecutors are investigating how Meta platforms played a part in illegal drug sales

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge

Federal prosecutors asking questions astir Meta are "looking into whether the company’s social-media platforms are facilitating and profiting from the amerciable merchantability of drugs," according to unnamed sources successful a study contiguous by the Wall Street Journal. Prosecutors reportedly sent Meta subpoenas past twelvemonth seeking records connected “violative cause contented connected Meta’s platforms and/or the illicit merchantability of drugs via Meta’s platforms.”

A Meta spokesperson told the Journal that, “The merchantability of illicit drugs is against our policies and we enactment to find and region this contented from our services. Meta proactively cooperates with instrumentality enforcement authorities to assistance combat the merchantability and organisation of illicit drugs.”

The WSJ said TikTok did not respond erstwhile asked whether it has received immoderate subpoenas.

Researchers who collected data astir medicine cause ads connected Facebook for the Journal successful 2022 besides said they received a subpoena. Meta didn’t instantly respond to our petition for comment.

As the Journal notes, Meta president of planetary affairs Nick Clegg posted connected Friday that the institution has joined the Alliance to Prevent Drug Harms. US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said during a league of the UN Commission connected Narcotic Drugs yesterday that the US and the UN Office connected Drugs and Crime had begun “a caller collaborative effort with Meta, Snap, and others to disrupt synthetic cause enactment online.”