DOJ won’t say if it is investigating Facebook’s ‘facilitation’ of illegal migration into the US

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FIRST ON FOX: In response to a request for a federal investigation by Facebook into its guidelines on the potential use of the platform by people smugglers and sex traffickers, the Justice Department declined to comment, citing the department’s longstanding policy of neither confirming nor denying the existence of an investigation.

Fox News exclusively reviewed a letter from the DOJ dated Nov. 17 in response to a request from Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich to the department to investigate the social media giant’s practices.

ARIZONA AG INVITES DOJ TO CHECK FACEBOOK AFTER USERS CAN SHARE INFORMATION HOW TO ILLEGALLY JOIN US

Brnovich wrote to Attorney General Merrick Garland on October 14, urging the department to investigate Facebook’s “facilitation” of illegal migration to the United States after the tech giant said it was allowing users to access information related to people smuggling and illegal entry to share in a country.

Mark Brnovich at Fox News
(Fox News)

“Facebook’s policy that posts promoting people smuggling and illegal entry into the US regularly reach billions of users seriously undermines the rule of law,” Brnovich said in a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland. “The company is acting as a direct agent, adding to the disaster that is struck on the southern Arizona border.”

However, the DOJ declined in its response to the Attorney General months later to provide information on whether it is currently investigating Facebook or whether it plans to do so in the future.

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“Regarding your specific concerns about Facebook, the ministry takes allegations of criminal misconduct seriously,” the letter said. “While we appreciate your views, the Ministry’s long-standing policies and practices prevent us from further discussing allegations or confirming the existence or initiation of investigations,” wrote Theo Stamos, Intergovernmental Affairs Liaison of the Ministry,

Stamos then outlined examples of how the department is “committed to the rule of law” and how the agency uses tools to combat people smuggling and trafficking.

Attorney General Merrick Garland steps down from the podium after speaking at a press conference at the Justice Department in Washington on Monday, November 8, 2021.
(AP Photo / Andrew Harnik)

For example, earlier this year the Attorney General announced the establishment of Joint Task Force Alpha, a law enforcement task force that will pool the department’s investigative and law enforcement resources to support US enforcement efforts against the most productive and dangerous people smuggling and trafficking organizations to reinforce. ”

Stamos also mentioned the DOJ’s partnership with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to launch the US-Mexico Bilateral Human Trafficking Enforcement Initiative in 2009 to address threats across the border and dismantle human trafficking networks on both sides of the border.

A spokesman for the Meta Company told Fox News on Saturday, “We are banning content that promotes or encourages people smuggling, investing in technology and people to proactively identify it, and removing it from our platform if we find it.”

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In an August letter to the Brnovich office, Facebook said it does not allow criminal organizations to operate on its platform and prohibits content “that offers or facilitates people smuggling, including the promotion of a people smuggling service:” We allow people to do so To exchange information about illegal entry into a country or to request information about smuggling. “

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The tech giant said the guidelines were designed “to ensure that we prohibit content related to the human smuggling business, but that it does not interfere with people’s ability to exercise their right to asylum recognized under international law.”

The DOJ did not immediately respond to Fox News’ requests for comment.

Adam Shaw of Fox News contributed to this report.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/doj-facebook-faciliation-illegal-immigration