BBC finds users are advertising illegal drugs on Instagram, so it blocks "certain hashtags".

[Mors]

[URL="http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/nov/07/instagram-illegal-drugs-bbc-investigation"]Source[/URL]

[QUOTE=The Guardian]The photo sharing service Instagram has taken steps to block certain hashtags in a bid to stamp out the sale of illegal drugs via its users.

The social networking site – where people post and comment on photographs and videos – announced the move after a BBC investigation, which found users were showing narcotics and advertising their sale.

Most of the drug sales appear to have taken place in the US, according to the #BBCtrending strand on the broadcaster's website.

Among the illegal drugs advertised on Instagram were MDMA and other amphetamine-related substances.[/QUOTE]

[IMG]http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/cartoons/2013/11/7/1383867651373/Pictures-appear-on-the-sm-009.jpg[/IMG]
[I]Photo sharing application Instagram seen on a smartphone. Photograph: Thomas Coex/AFP/Getty Images[/I]

[Doritos-pope]

They're gonna block the word "hashtag" next because hash is a drug, aren't they?

:v:

[snookypookums]

So now Instagram, having started this arms race, has to keep a very updated dictionary of slang words for drugs as people creatively outsmart them at every turn.

Yeah, good luck with that. :v:

[GoldenGnome]

what idiot drug dealer does it via instagram

[editline]8th November 2013[/editline]

instagram-a-gram

[kaze4159]

[QUOTE=GoldenGnome;42799020]what idiot drug dealer does it via instagram

[editline]8th November 2013[/editline]

instagram-a-gram[/QUOTE]

The kind who wants to sell Ecstasy to stupid teenagers, which Instagram is full of :v:

[Apocalypsewaffle]

[QUOTE=kaze4159;42799041]The kind who wants to sell Ecstasy to stupid teenagers, which Instagram is full of :v:[/QUOTE]

Whatever happened to handing it out in packed clubs like aspirin?

[Zeemlapje]

haha wow, dealers these days make it so easy for the police but the police probably doesn't even bother, too busy looking for bomb threat on twitter lol!

[pr00ch]

#Drugs
#Drugss
#Drugsss
#Drugssss
etc.

[SomeRandomGuy18]

Hashtag hashbag

[Karmah]

#420
#hash
#dankkush

[elix]

I guess my detailed collection of badly-filtered photos of common garden weeds are no longer acceptable there.

[Ananace]

"About to drop some #dope beats, #crank it to the max yo!"

I would take a picture of a subwoofer and post it, if I had an instagram account that is.

[Boozy&Bitter]

People come up with new names for drugs all the time. They can't seriously think this will do anything, can they? This has to be a public image thing.