Meta in the sights of American justice

2024-03-16 15:28:00

Prosecutors in the state of Virginia in the United States opened an investigation in 2023 into suspicions of illegal sale of drugs on the social networks of Meta, parent company of Facebook and Instagram, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday. citing documents and sources close to the matter. Prosecutors are seeking to determine whether Meta facilitated and profited from such sales, the daily said, according to which court summons were issued last year and interrogations carried out as part of this criminal investigation. The Food and Drug Administration, the federal authority responsible for the drug sector, is participating in this investigation, continues the Wall Street Journalwhile emphasizing that this type of procedure does not necessarily result in indictments.

“The sale of illicit medicines is contrary to our policy and we are working to identify and remove this content from our services,” recalled a Meta spokesperson quoted by the newspaper, adding that the group was cooperating with the authorities.

How Meta defends himself

Meta’s president of international affairs, Nick Clegg, posted on Friday on X (formerly Twitter) that the group had joined the Alliance to Prevent Drug Harm, alongside the US State Department and the Office United Nations on Drugs and Crime (UNDOC). The objective is in particular “to help prevent the sale of synthetic drugs on the internet”he explained, noting that the opioid crisis constituted a “major public health problem” in the USA.

However, federal prosecutors in the state of Virginia “ requested archives linked to +content on medicines in violation (with regulations) on Meta platforms and/or on the illegal sale of medicines via Meta platforms+ “. Meta did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters and AFP, nor did the FDA and the Virginia prosecutor’s office. The latter two refused to respond to the WSJ.

AliExpress in the sights of the European Commission

In Europe, the European Commission launched a formal investigation on Thursday into the Chinese online commerce site AliExpress, suspected of distributing dangerous products such as fake medicines, on its platform, an initiative which exposes its parent company Alibaba to a heavy fine. This is the third investigation of this type after those targeting the social networks X and TikTok, which are still ongoing. This is part of the EU’s Digital Services Act, which requires companies to do more to combat illegal and harmful products on their platforms.

“We are concerned about the systemic risks linked to the distribution of illegal products such as fake medicines or non-compliant and ineffective foods or dietary supplements on AliExpress,” European Commission officials told the press.

Alibaba did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Commission also requested information on Thursday from Microsoft’s Bing platform as well as Google Search, Meta Platforms, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, ByteDance (TikTok) and X about their use of generative artificial intelligence. “We are of course concerned about harmful content seeking to manipulate the public sphere, whether it is ‘deep fake news’ or ‘deep fakes’ linked to the elections”officials said.