In every instance, Snap pointed CNN to its community guides but remained silent on the status of some of the litigation. An inquiry for comments was not answered by TikTok.
However, some of those bereaved families are searching elsewhere for advancement because of the lack of progress from legislators or the courts, as well as the protracted legal fights between Big Tech and regulators. To try to help children across the nation, people are now forming their own organizations, collaborating with nonprofits, and establishing connections with one another rather than waiting for others to take action.
Puerta told CNN, “All I am is a grieving father who wants to make sure this doesn’t keep happening.” “My son should not have lost his life because of a mistake he made [on social media].”
Puerta established VOID (Victims of Illicit Drugs) not long after Daniel passed away. The organization provides parents and educators with information on the risks associated with social media and drugs laced with fentanyl.
He claimed to have discussed the subject with representatives from Homeland Security, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the Los Angeles Police Department, and other government organizations. In addition, he conducts student assemblies at high schools during which he shows a short film about four families—including his own—who lost children to narcotics with fentanyl that were bought on social media.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report that in 2022, fentanyl and other synthetic substances were a major factor in approximately 80,000 opioid overdose deaths in the US. As per the Drug Enforcement Administration, certain drug traffickers use emojis and code words combined with 24-hour disappearing posts on social media sites as a means of eluding law enforcement and platform algorithms.
The Wall Street Journal reported last month that federal authorities are allegedly looking into Meta for its involvement in the sale of illegal substances on Facebook and Instagram. The corporation responded to the report by telling CNN that, in spite of its regulations, it actively works with law enforcement to help combat the sale and distribution of illegal substances.
“I knew I had to be proactive because the government wasn’t,” Puerta said in an interview with CNN. The stigma associated with drug overdoses leads one to assume that the victim was either an excessive user or a drug addict. However, the majority of people are unaware that first-time users who are not hooked are losing their lives to fentanyl.