Meta — the tech company that owns Facebook and Instagram — is being investigated by federal authorities who are looking into whether the tech giant is willfully facilitating or profiting off drug sales on its platforms, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The outlet reports federal authorities in Virginia have already pressed Meta for company records regarding “violative drug content on Meta’s platforms and/or the illicit sale of drugs via Meta’s platforms.”
FLORIDA WOMAN DIES ABOARD BAHAMAS CRUISE, COCAINE FOUND IN CABINInvestigators are reportedly being assisted by officials from the Food and Drug Administration.
“The sale of illicit drugs is against our policies and we work to find and remove this content from our services,” Meta told Fox Business on Saturday.
Meta proactively cooperates with law enforcement authorities to help combat the sale and distribution of illicit drugs.”
Many online social platforms have become a hotbed of illegal activity, including the domestic and international sale of illicit substances.
FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM SERVICE RESTORED AFTER WIDESPREAD OUTAGE”Fighting drug trafficking online is bigger than any single platform.
That’s why we actively collaborate with other technology companies to share information and prevent bad actors from doing harm online,” Meta says in the “Transparency Center” section of their website.
The company states, “For example, we’re working with Snap to identify patterns and signs of illicit drug-related content and activity.
Through this program, we’ve identified novel ways to detect illicit drug content at-scale on our platform, and routinely share these signals back with Snap so we can independently evaluate and remove violating drug content across platforms.”
Secretary of State Anthony Blinken recently announced a collaborative campaign between the State Department and social media companies (including Meta) to combat online drug trafficking at the 67th Session of the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs.
GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO BY CLICKING HERE”The United States and the UNODC recently launched a new collaborative effort with Meta, Snap, and others to disrupt synthetic drug activity online and instead to have these platforms use their influence to educate users about the risks,” said Blinken.
The partnership was also touted on social media by Meta President of Global Affairs Nick Clegg on Friday.
Fox Business has reached out to the Food and Drug Administration for comment.
Prior to its IPO the following week, Reddit revealed that it could make $203 million in revenue over the next several years by licensing user posts to Google and other companies for AI projects. US regulators are already investigating that new business venture, the community-driven platform was compelled to reveal on Friday.
Reddit said in a regulatory filing that it was questioned in a letter it received on Thursday regarding “our sale, licensing, or sharing of user-generated content with third parties to train AI models.” The US Federal Trade Commission. “.
Companies found to be involved in unfair or deceptive trade practices may face sanctions from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the main antitrust regulator in the United States. Legislators and human rights organizations have expressed concerns about copyright, fairness, and privacy risks associated with the idea of licensing user-generated content for AI projects.
Reddit is not the only website attempting to profit from user-generated data licensing for artificial intelligence. The owner of Tumblr, Automattic, has stated that it is collaborating “with select AI companies” and that users will have the option to refuse having their data shared. The programming Q&A website Stack Overflow has inked a contract with Google, while the Associated Press has a deal with OpenAI. None of the licensors immediately responded to requests for comment. According to Axios, which cited an unidentified former agency official, Reddit is not the only business that has received an FTC letter regarding data licensing.
It’s unclear how directly the letter to Reddit relates to the investigation of any other businesses.
In its disclosure on Friday, Reddit stated that while it does not think it used any unfair or misleading tactics, it should be noted that handling a government investigation can be expensive and time-consuming. The document states that the FTC intended to request information and documents from us as its investigation progresses, and that the letter expressed the agency’s interest in meeting with us to discuss our plans in more detail. The FTC letter, according to Reddit, described the investigation as part of “a non-public inquiry.”. ”.
Reddit last month announced a deal to license the content to Google. AI experts view Reddit’s 17 billion posts and comments as valuable for teaching chatbots how to have a conversation. Requests for comment from Reddit and Google were not immediately answered. The FTC opted not to respond. (The company that owns Condé Nast, the publisher of WIRED, Advance Magazine Publishers, has equity in Reddit. ).
AI chatbots such as Google’s Gemini and OpenAI’s ChatGPT are perceived as a rival to publishers, Reddit, and other content-driven, ad-supported companies. One potential benefit of generative AI for certain businesses has been the possibility of licensing data to AI developers, which has surfaced in the last year.
However, there are a lot of concerns that have been brought up in boardrooms, courtrooms, and Congress regarding the use of data that is harvested from the internet to train AI models. These concerns include who actually owns the content and whether it is appropriate to license it out without paying the creator a portion, especially for Reddit and other websites whose data is contributed by users. Security researchers have discovered that the materials used to create AI models can leak personal data. And some critics have suggested the deals could make powerful companies even more dominant.
