U.S. prosecutors in Virginia are probing whether Facebook-parent Meta’s social media platforms facilitated and profited from the illegal sale of drugs, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday March 16, citing documents and people acquainted with the case.
The prosecutors sent summons in 2023 and have been asking questions as part of a criminal grand jury probe. According to the report, they have also been requesting records related to drug content or illicit sale of drugs via Meta’s platforms.
The Food and Drugs Administration has also been assisting with the investigations, the paper added. It noticed that investigations don’t necessarily prompt charges of bad behavior.
The paper quoted a spokesman for Meta as saying in a statement:
“The sale of illicit drugs is against our policies and we work to find and remove this content from our services”.
“Meta proactively cooperates with law enforcement authorities to help combat the sale and distribution of illicit drugs,” he added.
The prosecutors’ office and a spokeswoman for the FDA have declined to comment.
Meta, the FDA and the Virginia Attorney General’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Meta’s president of global affairs, Nick Clegg, said on social media platform X on Friday that Meta had joined up with the U.S. State Department, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and Snapchat to help disrupt the sale of synthetic drugs online and educate users about the associated risks.
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