Snapchat Allows Drug Dealers To Operate Openly on Platform, Finds Danish Study

Snapchat has been accused by a Danish research organisation of leaving an "overwhelming number" of drug dealers to openly operate on Snapchat, making it easy for children to buy substances including cocaine, opioids and MDMA. The Guardian: The social media platform has said it proactively uses technology to filter out profiles selling drugs. However, research by Digitalt Ansvar (Digital Accountability), a Danish research organisation that promotes responsible digital development, has found evidence of a failure to moderate drug-related language in usernames. It also accused Snapchat of failing to respond adequately to reports of profiles openly selling drugs.

Researchers used profiles of 13-year-olds and found a multitude of people selling drugs on Snapchat under usernames featuring keywords such as "coke," "weed" and "molly." When researchers reported 40 of these profiles to Snapchat, the company removed only 10 of them. The other 30 reports were rejected, they said.

In case you need anything

[know-nothing cunt]

my Snapchat username is Druggy McDrugface.

Re:

[rsilvergun]

Make sure you guys message the real Druggy McDrugface and not Druggy McDrugfacee (two eyes) or Drugggy McDrugface (three gs). Those guys can't be trusted unlike our fine upstanding citizen Druggy McDrugface here.

Keywords

[JP205]

All three of the mentioned keywords have other meanings. I'm not at all surprised only a few were actually removed.

Oh no

[stealth_finger]

And how exactly are they doing that? Like, exactly.

Molly??

[Geoffrey.landis]

They're asked to censor usernames with the name "Molly" in them?

People named Molly ought to be a bit concerned here.

Re:

[GuB-42]

So does the Coca Cola company and gardeners.

Re:

[timeOday]

Yeah I don't think banning people with certain usernames is going to work.

I think what we need for this is something like Miami Vice, except it's a private security organization operated by Big Tech. It's an all-star team of private investigators and ex-special forces that act as judge, jury, and executioner in the mean streets of the internet-enabled drug wars of the 21st century.

Not sure how it will blend with Denmark's "fix rooms" which is a government-funded safe space for people to go use drugs,

I feel the need for a new digital ID

[hyades1]

I may have to abandon my current nom de plume and reincarnate myself as Molly Cokeweed. Or maybe I should swing for the upper class stratosphere and instead become Molly Coke-Weed, Esq.

No ambition?

[Bruce66423]

Duke of Fentanyl
Marquis Heroin
Earl Crack
Viscount Cocaine
Baron Methamphetamine
Sir Cannabis

Re:

[hyades1]

There is a real, for-true Lord Sugar in England. He's got the Donald Trump role in their version of The Apprentice.

So that's why they removed my post

[Chris Mattern]

It was about my excitement for the new cane-sugar Coca-cola, cleaning up my garden, and protective covers for power switches.

Shocked

[CommunityMember]

I'm shocked! Shocked, to learn there is drug dealing going on on social media platforms. Round up the usual suspects!

Eh, no big deal

[smooth wombat]

Let the kids die. That'll teach 'em a lesson.

Find new ways to motivate the decision makers

[schwit1]

Massive fines or jailing C-level officers? Aiding and abetting similar to money laundering.

Re:

[Local ID10T]

Massive fines or jailing C-level officers? Aiding and abetting similar to money laundering.

Know-Your-Customer laws for internet use. Government verified ID required for all accounts. Mandatory reporting of suspect behavior. Special Police task forces investigating internet activities.

Careful what you ask for, you might get it.

Which drugs do they care about?

[LainTouko]

Is this another organisation pretending there's some sane reason that drugs far less dangerous than alcohol or tobacco are prohibited while alcohol and tobacco are allowed, and expecting their bigotry to be everyone else's common sense? There's nothing "responsible" about supporting drug prohibition. They should be blaming the Danish government (like all governments) for failing to regulate the market properly.

Re:

[HiThere]

I'm not going to claim those are harmless, but banning them appears more socially destructive than allowing them.

Police?

[gurps_npc]

I am not shocked that this happens.

I am shocked that the police do not make a ton of arrests through snapchat.

This is the dumbest criminal idea ever, operating publicly so it is easy for the cops to get you to deliver yourself to them rather than having to go looking for you.

I hesitate to even call this kind of operation an undercover operation as the cops may not even have to take off their uniforms to do it.

Snapchat by default has no End-to-end Encryption

[atrimtab]

So it would not seem to be a good platform to set-up illicit drug business.

\o/

[easyTree]

Hello? Gotta create your target customer somehow.

Original source (in Danish)

[ISayWeOnlyToBePolite]

Article by the organization conducting the research (in Danish) https://www.digitaltansvar.dk/... [digitaltansvar.dk]
Research (in Danish) https://drive.google.com/file/... [google.com]
They do have a flag menu to switch to English but it only seems to work on their front page https://www.digitaltansvar.dk/ [digitaltansvar.dk]

I suggest including links to original sources in the summary even when they're non English.

Priorities: here, kids are being shot at school

[BrendaEM]

Perhaps if they were rolling, more they would be shooting less.

police accounts?

[usedtobestine]

The other 30 reports were rejected, they said.

Don't want to block the Danish Politiet, do you?