U.S. prosecutors in Virginia are probing whether Meta's social media platforms facilitated and profited from the illegal sale of drugs, WSJ reported.

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, citing documents and people familiar with the matter.

The prosecutors sent subpoenas last year and have been asking questions as part of a criminal grand jury probe, the report said, adding that they have also been requesting records related to drug content or illicit sale of drugs via Meta’s platforms.

The Food and Drug Administration has also been helping with the investigation, the newspaper added. It noted that investigations do not always lead to charges of wrongdoing.

  • wise_pancake
    51·
    8 months ago

    Bad take, with this logic no website could do user generated content or secure messaging without aiding drug sales. You would have to curate every post.

    Facebook and Instagram both have massive amounts if logging, I bet if the police even asked they’d give them everything from their geolocation data to the drug users entire social network.

    • horsey@lemm.eeEnglish
      43·
      8 months ago

      Well, what do you know. That’s exactly how Facebook feels. They can’t hire moderators or properly police their content to prevent people from being preyed upon, but can ban people for ridiculous shit that makes no sense, because then they’d have to spend money (oh no… tears for Zucky…)

      Of course police have access to their data, and they’re lazy and ineffective also.