US authorities are investigating Meta for its role in illegal drug sales, The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday.
Citing documents and people close to the matter, the US business daily said prosecutors in the South American state of Virginia are investigating whether companies’ social media platforms facilitate and profit from illegal drug sales.
Prosecutors requested records of “infringing drug content on the Meta platforms and/or the illegal sale of drugs through the Meta platforms,” according to copies of the subpoena reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is helping with the investigation, the paper said.
“The sale of illegal drugs is against our policies and we are working to find and remove this content from our services,” Meta said in a statement to the newspaper, adding that it is “proactively working” with law enforcement to help combat sale of illegal drugs. .
Contacted by AFP on Saturday morning, the FDA and Meta had no comment.
On Friday, Nick Clegg, Meta’s president of global affairs, said the company had joined efforts with the US State Department, the United Nations and Snapchat to help disrupt the sale of synthetic drugs online and educate users about the risks.
“The opioid epidemic is a major public health problem that requires action from all parts of American society,” Clegg wrote on X.
Between 1999 and 2022, more than 700,000 people died of opioid overdoses, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.