U.S. authorities are investigating the activities of Meta company for its role in selling illegal drugs, The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday. Citing documents and people close to the case, the American business newspaper reported that the prosecutor’s office in the South American state of Virginia is investigating whether the company’s social media platforms facilitated the sale of illegal drugs and whether it profited from it.

Prosecutors are seeking records of “illegal drug content on Meta platforms and/or illegal drug sales through Meta platforms,” according to copies of the subpoenas seen by The Wall Street Journal.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is assisting with the investigation, the publication said.

“The sale of illegal drugs is against our policy, and we are working to find and remove this content from our services,” Meta said in a statement, adding that the company was “proactively working” with law enforcement to help combat drug sales. illegal drugs. .

Neither the FDA nor Meta had any comment when contacted by AFP on Saturday morning.

On Friday, Nick Clegg, Meta’s head of global affairs, said the company was joining efforts by the U.S. State Department, the United Nations and Snapchat to help stop the online sale of synthetic drugs and educate users about the risks.

“The opioid epidemic is a serious public health problem that requires action from every segment of American society,” Clegg wrote in X.

More than 700,000 people died from opioid overdoses between 1999 and 2022, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Source