Many accounts have posts with photos of illegal substances, working to quietly promote them
Instagram, the popular social media platform for posting color-edited photos using pre-made filters, has also been described as a parallel, illegal drug market. “Thousands of accounts today appear to be selling marijuana, prescription pills, ecstasy and other drugs,” venturebeat.com writes.
“Instagram works like the infamous Silk Road (an online marketplace for anonymous and often illegal trade), except that it is a thousand times more user-friendly and does not face operational problems,” a lengthy article states. In fact, the smuggling is not carried out directly through these accounts. The photos of the illegal goods are used to demonstrate the substances. The transactions are completed on other platforms, most often with payment in Bitcoins - the most widespread digital currency.
A search for various drug hashtags reveals tens of thousands of results. Often, suppliers do not publish an email or mobile phone number on suspicious accounts, but prefer pseudonyms that refer to less popular instant messaging services. It is possible that many of these Instagram accounts are fake. There are also others who expose fake accounts by posting photos with their details and the word “scam”.
Harder drugs, such as cocaine, methamphetamine, and heroin, do not appear to be easily identified for sale via Instagram.
The venturebeat.com editors reached out to Facebook, which owns Instagram after its $1 billion acquisition two years ago, for a response. “If an account is reported for prohibited or illegal content, including photos or videos of extreme violence, then it may be disabled and appropriate action may be taken, which may include notifying the authorities. In addition, it is neither possible nor permitted on our platform to conduct transactions related to products under special control status. If photos or videos of accounts promote the sale of such goods or services, including firearms, alcohol, tobacco and prescription drugs, rest assured that we follow all legal procedures and encourage everyone else to do the same,” was Facebook’s response, which venturebeat.com describes as a “disclaimer.”.
Instagram has been online since October 2010 and has more than 200 million users.
Similar problems, with content related to smuggling and illegal trafficking of weapons or drugs, are observed on many social media, as it is now possible to post photos and videos on almost all of them.
Source: protothema.gr
