National Security

Cartels use Facebook, Snapchat, TikTok, other sites to drive human smuggling schemes

A human smuggler and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg / edited from Getty Images Collin Anderson • November 18, 2022 12:00 pm

The world’s largest social media companies are facing pressure from Republican lawmakers to “take immediate steps to stop facilitating illegal immigration” as cartels use their platforms to recruit drivers for human smuggling schemes.

In a Thursday letter to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Republican senators Marsha Blackburn (Tenn.), Thom Tillis (N.C.), and Steve Daines (Mont.) accused the company of failing to curtail the solicitation of those smuggling schemes on its platforms, which include Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. Cartel smugglers often use those sites, the Wall Street Journal reported last month, to anonymously post advertisements promising thousands of dollars to Americans in border states if they complete a short driving job, which really consists of picking up illegal migrants who have just crossed into the United States. For Blackburn, Tillis, and Daines, Meta should be able to shut down those posts, which they say have “led to a devastating amount of drug and human trafficking and other forms of violent crime.”

“Although your company has developed—and long enjoyed the benefits of—incredibly complex algorithms and other technology to keep users addicted, you claim to be unable to curb these illegal immigration schemes,” the letter, which the Washington Free Beacon obtained exclusively, states. “You have the ability to address this problem, and it is critical that you take immediate steps to stop facilitating illegal immigration on your platform.”

Meta responded to the Journal‘s report by saying it “prohibits the facilitation of human smuggling and invests in technology and works with law enforcement to address the issue.” In late January, however, the company privately announced it would allow users to solicit human smugglers on its platforms, the Free Beacon reported. In an internal memo detailing the decision, Meta stressed the need to allow people to use Facebook and its other platforms to “seek safety or exercise their human rights,” a move it acknowledged comes with “tradeoffs” such as scrutiny from “law enforcement and government bodies.”

Meta is not the only social media giant that has a cartel problem. TikTok—whose CEO received a similar letter from Blackburn, Tillis, and Daines—has been flooded with cartel recruitment posts, which promise fast cash and lavish parties for

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