Facebook Redirects Users Searching for Opioids to Federal Crisis Help Line

Tech giants are grappling with questions about illicit sales on their platforms

Join Our Community of Science Lovers!

Facebook users attempting to purchase opioids or seeking out addiction treatment will be instead be redirected to information about a federal crisis help line, the company announced Tuesday, a major step for an industry leader facing pressure to more aggressively police illicit drug sales on its platform.

The announcement comes a week before an “opioids summit” convened by the Food and Drug Administration to get Facebook and other tech companies, including Twitter and Google, to take additional measures to help curb the nation’s opioid crisis.

The Facebook feature, the company said, is the result of months of work with a policy team largely focused on how the company can address the opioid epidemic—work that it said predates FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb’s focus on tech companies’ role in opioids issues.

On supporting science journalism

If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.

Kevin Martin, who leads Facebook’s operation in Washington, announced the new feature at a Tuesday event, and the company recently added Avra Siegel, an Obama administration veteran, to lead the opioids policy initiative.

Siegel said the redirect feature—which will go live at some point Tuesday—was specific to Facebook, but planned in consultation with the recovery advocacy group Facing Addiction and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

Greg Williams, the vice president at Facing Addiction, said Facebook aimed to seize on moments of vulnerability—searches either for treatment or for opportunities to purchase illicit drugs—to nudge individuals with opioid use disorder toward treatment.

Facebook’s efforts to stem the opioid epidemic come as part of a broader conversation about how much responsibility tech companies bear for illicit activity to take place on their platforms.

Republished with permission from STAT. This article originally appeared on June 19, 2018

Subscribe to Support Independent Journalism

Great science journalism requires human expertise, time, effort and creativity. And it costs money. That’s why I and the journalists here at Scientific American hope you’ll join our community.

When you subscribe, you are supporting staff and freelance journalists who are passionate about telling science stories that are true, important and compelling. Our editors and reporters are often experts in their fields, which means they understand the nuances of big discoveries and can untangle the breakthroughs from the hype. With a subscription, you are also supporting rigorous fact-checking to ensure the words we publish are precise and accurate. And you’re supporting original illustrations, graphics and photos that bring you closer to an advanced laboratory, an ice sheet in Antarctica or a space mission in orbit. You’re helping us craft other types of high-quality journalism as well: Our newsletters are carefully written, edited and curated by staffers you have or will come to know and love. Our Science Quickly podcast is based on original reporting, collaboration with editors and scientists and exacting production.

Subscriptions keep this engine running so we can continue to deliver thoughtful, rigorous and independent science journalism to you. In an era of viral misinformation, this work is crucial. If you value what we do, I hope you’ll consider joining us as a subscriber

Thank you,

Jeanna Bryner, Editor in Chief, Scientific American