Josh Hawley to Mark Zuckerberg: Facebook Must Stop ‘Aiding and Abetting the Drug Overdose Epidemic’
Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) has written a letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg demanding that he respond to an investigation that claimed that drug dealers are openly selling illegal drugs including opioids on Instagram. Hawley wrote that “It is unconscionable that any company would aid and abet this epidemic of death and despair.”
This week Sen. Josh Hawley sent a letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg demanding a response from the tech giant CEO to a recent investigation that found that drug dealers are operating openly selling opioids and other drugs on the Facebook-owned Instagram platform.
Mark Zuckerberg discusses Instagram (AFP/Getty)
Tablets of opioid painkiller Oxycodone (ERIC BARADAT/AFP/Getty Images)
Hawley wrote:
The findings of the report are horrifying, especially as our nation confronts a drug overdose epidemic of historic proportions and an alarming deterioration of teenagers’ mental health precipitated by the coronavirus pandemic and misguided mitigation measures to it. According to provisional data from the National Center for Health Statistics released in November, more than 100,000 Americans died from drug overdoses in the 12-month period between May 2020 and April 2021—a record high and a 30 percent increase over the previous year…
It is unconscionable that any company would aid and abet this epidemic of death and despair. Unfortunately, given Instagram’s blatant disregard for the mental health of its young users, the findings from TPP’s investigation are not shocking.
Hawley demanded that Zuckerberg provide an explanation of the measures and protocols put in place by Instagram to track and remove these drug dealing accounts. Hawley further requested information on whether Instagram had collaborated with law enforcement officials to crack down on the issue.
Hawley asked that Instagram answer the following questions by January 31, 2022:
- Instagram’s Community Guidelines state that the “buying or selling non-medical or pharmaceutical drugs are…not allowed.”[6] What steps has Instagram taken to prevent the sale of illicit and prescription drugs on your platform?
- What protocols does Instagram have for the removal of accounts selling drugs? How many accounts have been removed for violations?
- Does Instagram currently partner with law enforcement when dealing with accounts selling drugs? If so, what does this partnership entail? If not, does your company plan to begin doing so?
Read Hawley’s full letter here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan or email him at lnolan@breitbart.com
Mozilla Launches ‘Facebook Pixel Hunt’ to Analyze How Mark Zuckerberg Tracks Us Online
Mozilla, the organization behind the popular Firefox web browser, is conducting a study to analyze Facebook’s “tracking pixels” that track user actions across the internet. The “Facebook Pixel Hunt” aims to understand how Facebook pulls data about users from millions of websites that contain its tracking pixels even when they aren’t using the social media platform.
Gizmodo reports that researchers at Mozilla have announced the launch of its “Facebook Pixel Hunt” study which aims to analyze Facebook’s internet-wide tracking network that utilizes its “Facebook Pixel” tech to follow users and determine what they do even when not using the Facebook platform.
(David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg ( Kevin Dietsch/Getty)
The study focuses on Facebook Pixel tech, which is a small pixel embedded in millions of websites across the internet that allows websites to track their visitors and target ads towards them.
Mark Zuckerberg and the Masters of the Universe also collects this data, and if the individual visiting a website featuring pixel tracking also has a Facebook account, this information is added to the details that Facebook has already collected on that user.
If the user doesn’t have a Facebook account, Facebook collects the information anyway and uses it to develop a “shadow profile” of that particular user.
Mozilla wants to investigate these practices and if you’re a Firefox user, you can help. Mozilla has created a browser extension in partnership with reporters from the Markup to collect details about Facebook’s tracking. The browser extension, called Mozilla Rally, will collect data sent out by Facebook’s pixels as you visit various websites.
The extension also tracks the time spent on different websites, the URLs that the browser visits, and more. Mozilla noted in its announcement that all data being exported from the extension will be anonymized and not shared with third parties aside from the Markup’s reporters.
Read more at Gizmodo here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan or email him at lnolan@breitbart.com
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