US police confirm that Meta and Snapchat (parent company Snap Inc.) routinely delay or reject subpoenas and warrants [1A]. These tech giants frequently fail to provide law enforcement with critical information in a timely manner, and fail to take timely action against unlawful activity on their platforms.
This greatly hinders investigations in child abuse, sex trafficking, and drug cases.
Obtaining a response of any kind may require repeated requests and take weeks or months. Even then the response is often incomplete. Warrants have been rejected for technical errors as small as the misplacement of a dash or comma.
“Every day of delay puts a child at risk. It can exacerbate damage and even cost lives. We can’t afford to let the delays continue [1B].”
— Shawnna Hoffman, Chief Exec. of International Center for Missing and Exploited Children
While Meta contends that it produced data in 88% of the nearly 75,000 requests it received from authorities between July and December 2024, the International Center for Missing and Exploited Children has called for clearer rules and faster processes.
Part of the difficulty lies in the need for digital privacy. The Fourth Amendment to the US Constitution guarantees freedom from unreasonable search and seizure by the government. Law enforcement officials are required to show probable cause to secure a judge’s approval before they can access private communications.
Unfortunately, the Stored Communications Act (Title II of the 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act), which set rules for how companies store and disclose user data, was written decades before social media existed.
“We need public visibility into how these companies perform. We need mandatory public reporting on response times and compliance rates. Self-regulation has failed – it’s time for lawmakers to act [1C].”
— Sacha Haworth, Executive Dir. of Tech Oversight Project
The priority of tech companies is to protect themselves against liability, not share information. By contrast, the banking industry is much faster to respond to subpoenas and warrants.
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[1A, 1B, and 1C] The Guardian, “‘A black hole’: families and police say tech giants delay investigations into child abuse and drug cases” by Katie McQue, 12/19/25, https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/dec/19/meta-snapchat-tech-giant-child-abuse-drug-cases.
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”Self regulation has failed….”
Of course it has failed. Self regulation almost always fails because it is dependent upon a moral, conscious decision to “do the right thing”. When profits are at stake, we can be sure that morality takes a back seat to what is best for shareholders.
Exactly.
It’s clear that the tech platforms have been exploited by bad actors for very, very bad purposes. The thing is, everyone has been saying that, about the same reasons, for (at least) the better part of two decades. There doesn’t seem to be any appetite, or effect, on all the issues we know go on in the dark corners of these online platforms.