--- title: "Feds Investigating Whether Meta Profited From “Illicit” Drug Sales" description: "Prosecutors are looking into whether Meta profited from ad sales for regulated drugs and the shady telehealth services that pushed them." date: "2024-03-18" modified: "2024-03-18" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/neoscope/meta-illicit-drug-investigation" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "Meta" tags: - "drugs" - "facebook" - "Meta" - "telehealth" --- # Feds Investigating Whether Meta Profited From “Illicit” Drug Sales ![Prosecutors are looking into whether Meta profited from ad sales for regulated drugs and the shady telehealth services that pushed them.]() *\Image: Fabrice Coffrini / AFP via Getty / Futurism\* In a groundbreaking investigation, federal prosecutors are looking into whether Meta-formerly-Facebook profited from ad sales for regulated drugs and the shady telehealth services that pushed them. As the [*Wall Street Journal* reports](), US prosecutors in Virginia subpoenaed Meta last year as part of its probe into the tech company's culpability in [unregulated]() and [illegally-operating online pharmacies]() that advertise their services on its platforms. The criminal grand jury subpoenas, which had not been reported before now and whose existence had been leaked to the *WSJ* by unnamed insiders, requested records related to "violative drug content on Meta’s platforms and/or the illicit sale of drugs via Meta’s platforms." With the meteoric rise of telehealth services in the COVID era, there's been a spate of [sketchy telemedicine companies]() advertising online that they can get people prescriptions for controlled substances like [Adderall]() and [opioids](). More recently, [Meta]() and its competitors have also been [running ads]() for virtual practitioners that promise would-be customers access to unregulated grey market weight loss drugs as demand for the popular injectables Ozempic and Wegovy outpaces supply. Because these companies have paid to use ad marketplaces on Facebook and Instagram, as the apparent rationale behind the probe goes, Meta could be held liable for the activities of these [digital pill mills](). The paper's insiders added that the Food and Drug Administration was also helping out with the investigation, though that office and the Virginia prosecutors declined to comment on the record about it when reached by the *WSJ*. Meta, too, appears to be tight-lipped about the probe, and *Futurism* has reached out to the company to try to get an on-record confirmation or denial about it. "The sale of illicit drugs is against our policies and we work to find and remove this content from our services," a Meta spokesperson told the *WSJ* in a statement. "Meta proactively cooperates with law enforcement authorities to help combat the sale and distribution of illicit drugs." Although nobody on either of the major sides of the probe has gone on the record to discuss it, the executive director of Alliance to Counter Crime Online, an organization that has [done its own investigations]() into the use of Meta platforms for [nefarious ends](), did confirm to the newspaper that it had received subpoenas about the matter as well. As concerns about telehealth pill pushers have ramped up over the past few years, Meta has made public and private overtures to counter the proliferation of those sorts of ads on its platforms. Indeed, Meta is currently [partnered with LegitScript](), a firm that monitors medical merchants online and issues certifications and ratings about which online pharmacies are above board. The day before the *WSJ*'s story dropped, Meta's president of global affairs, Nick Clegg, [tweeted]() that the company is working with the State Department, the United Nations, and Snapchat — of all things — in a new anti-drug campaign as well. "The opioid epidemic is a major public health issue that requires action from all parts of US society," Clegg wrote in his post on X-formerly-Twitter. As far as lip service is concerned, that partnership sends a pretty strong message — but as we've [seen for years now](), Meta tends to [regulate its ad services]() only after it gets [caught with its pants down](). **More on Meta:** [*Meta's VR Headsets Are Getting a Masturbation Mode*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()