Facebook has reacted to BuzzFeed’s report earlier this month that Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents impersonated a woman on Facebook during a criminal investigation, calling the DEA’s behavior “a knowing and serious breach” of their terms of service.
The DEA set up a profile in the name of Sondra Arquiett, formerly known as Sondra Prince, who had cooperated with agents during an investigation of a drug trafficking ring in which she had minimal low-level involvement. The agents published photos of Arquiett in her bra and underwear taken from her personal cell phone without her consent, as well as photos of her young son and niece, and used her profile to communicate with a criminal fugitive.
Once a friend of Arquiett noticed the strange profile, Arquiett sued the DEA agent for impersonating her. The government now claims that Arquiett “implicitly consented” by cooperating with the investigation and letting them look at her cell phone.
Facebook characterized the DEA’s actions as akin to “harmful conduct” and requested they confirm with the company that they have disabled any other fake accounts they may have created.
“Using Facebook to impersonate others abuses that trust and makes people feel less safe and secure when using our services,” Facebook said in a statement. “Indeed, as we have observed at Facebook, such deceptive actions are often used to further harmful conduct, such as trolling, hate speech, scams and bullying and even domestic violence.”
The company asserted that the DEA had knowingly violated their terms of services with their “deceptive actions,” since Facebook “has long made clear” that law enforcement authorities are subject to their policies forbidding false profiles.
