Here's What Snapchat Is Doing To Fight Drug Menace On The Platform

In a bid to fight the drug menace on the platform, popular social media app Snapchat is working to introduce measures like automated drug detection systems.

Here's What Snapchat Is Doing To Fight Drug Menace On The Platform/Getty

New Delhi: In a bid to fight the drug menace on the platform, popular social media app Snapchat is working to introduce measures that intend to check what it calls the “Fentanyl Epidemic” in the US that has led to an explosion in drug-related deaths among US high school and college-aged youth.

"Our position on this has always been clear: we have absolutely zero tolerance for drug dealing on Snapchat. We are continuing to develop new measures to keep our community safe on Snapchat, and have made significant operational improvements over the past year toward our goal of eradicating drug dealers from our platform. Moreover, although Snapchat is just one of many communications platforms that drug dealers seek to abuse in order to distribute illicit substances, we still have a unique opportunity to use our voice, technology and resources to help address this scourge, which threatens the lives of our community members," the company said in a statement.

The Snap-owned company also mentioned that it recognises the human toll that the opioid epidemic is taking across the county, along with the impact of Fentanyl and adulterated drugs that are often masked as counterfeit prescription drugs.

"Today, we’re expanding on this work, in several ways. First, we will be welcoming two new partners to our Heads Up portal to provide important in-app resources to Snapchatters: Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America (CADCA), a nonprofit organization that is committed to creating safe, healthy and drug-free communities; and Truth Initiative, a nonprofit dedicated to achieving a culture where all young people reject smoking, vaping and nicotine," Snapchat added.

In the coming days, the company will also release the next episode of its special "Good Luck America" series focused on Fentanyl, which is featured on Snapchat's Discover content platform. In its fight against the drug menace, Snapchat has also increased its detection rates by 390 per cent -- an increase of 50 per cent since its last public update in October. Also, 88 per cent of drug-related content Snapchat discovers is now detected by its machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) technology, and the remainder is reported by the Snapchat community.

This is an increase of 33 per cent since the company's previous update. "When we find drug dealing activity, we promptly ban the account, use technology to block the offender from creating new accounts on Snapchat, and in some cases proactively refer the account to law enforcement for investigation," the company noted.