Facebook to DEA: Stop impersonating people & trying to sell drugs

Facebook has sent a strongly-worded letter to the U.S.'s DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) telling them to stop creating accounts on the social network to impersonal real people and try to catch criminals. This comes shortly after the government agency was revealed to have used a real woman's identity to message others offering drugs, eventually getting the woman wrongly arrested.


While the U.S. Department of Justice has tried to defendthe DEA's actions, Facebook chief security officer Joe Sullivan wrote that the company is "deeply troubled" by what happened, and argues that its terms and policies were violated, specifically the real identity requirements. The letter continues that law enforcement agencies are not above these rules, and such sting operations are a threat to Facebook's integrity, and its users' trust.

In a response to BuzzFeed, a Justice Department spokesman said that the DEA's case was still being reviewed, adding that as far as they know, they don't believe law enforcement agencies resort to this sort of practice frequently. In other words, the Justice Department is just going to go with the benefit of the doubt on this activity.

I dont know which is more disturbing, the actions of the DEA or people actually being gullible enough to buy drugs thru facebook...

There's a lot of stupidity all away around. Agree some people are pretty reckless and irresponsible trying to buy illegal drugs online. You never know who you are talking to.

The suspect, Sondra Arquiett, sued the Drug Enforcement Agency and the federal government for $250,000 and was due to begin court proceedings on the matter this week, but the suit is now in mediation as the feds try to buy their way out of the embarrassing situation. The revelation that law enforcement was using the popular social media networking site to conduct undercover investigations was just another on a growing list of incidences that have left those still logging on wondering just how real, and how safe, Facebook actually is.

Besides the highly publicized Arquiett case, we also told you recently about the year-long Instagram investigation that led to the DEA arresting nine suspects on various cannabis-related charges in San Diego.

The powers that be that run the two mega-popular sites do acknowledge that drug dealing on their platforms is a problem, they just don't seem to know how to address it without alienating the user base that pays their bills.

This is from The Toke of The Town. This is just part of the article.

This seems more like an inter-agency spat to me than anything else.