US signs agreement with 3 social media giants aimed at preventing distribution of synthetic drugs
UNITED NATIONS — The United States has signed a memorandum with some of the world’s largest social media companies Thursday aimed at preventing the use of their platforms for the distribution of synthetic drugs.
U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said at a signing ceremony that “t technology companies play a crucial role in stopping the illegal production, trade and marketing of synthetic drugs, and just as importantly, educating the public.”
The Alliance to Prevent Drug Harms is a joint initiative of the U.S. Mission to the United Nations and Meta, the owner of Facebook and WhatsApp, X and Snap Inc., the owner of photo-sharing app Snapchat.
The US mission said the signatories will work together to “disrupt” illegal drug activities online and “increase public awareness of the dangers of synthetic drug abuse.”
Thomas-Greenfield said during the ceremony at the US mission that the use of synthetic drugs an “international crisis” that “no government and no sector can tackle alone.”
“These criminals have skillfully used online platforms, social media, e-commerce, search engines and messaging apps to coordinate their illegal activities,” they said.
Neither Thomas-Greenfield nor the social media representatives provided details on the specific measures they will take to curb the online distribution of synthetic drugs as part of the Prevent Alliance. However, Jacqueline Beauchere, Snap’s global head of platform safety, said the company has detailed its existing efforts in detail.
Beauchere said Snap, which reaches 90% of 13- to 24-year-olds in the United States, has tried to make its platform a “hostile environment” for drug distributors by using technology that can “proactively detect illegal drug content,” making referrals to law enforcement and “raising awareness” about the risks of drug use among users on the app.
According to Nell McCarthy, vice president of Meta Trust and Safety, the company’s platform can help combat the opioid epidemic by providing a place for families of victims, people in recovery, and organizations fighting stigma to come together.
The Prevent Alliance is the result of conversations that began in September 2023 at the UN General Assembly’s annual meeting of world leaders, Thomas-Greenfield said.
The US mission said the partnership’s objectives align with the US State Department’s Global Coalition to Address Synthetic Drug Threats, a multilateral initiative to prevent the illicit distribution of synthetic drugs launched by Secretary of State Antony Blinken last July.
“Whether it’s companies involved in production or distribution, marketing, or financial networks whose platforms can be abused to traffic these illicit drugs, everyone has a role to play,” Maggie Nardi, the U.S. principal assistant secretary of state for International Drug and Law Enforcement Affairs, said Thursday.
Delphine Schantz, head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime in New York, puts illicit drug use in a global perspective.
According to the 2024 World Drug Report, 292 million people used drugs in 2022, a 20% increase over the past decade, Schantz said.
The report estimated that 60 million of those people used opioids. That same year, nearly 82,000 people died from opioid use in the United States, a 24-fold increase since 2010.