It’s not a secret that, as a society, we live in a highly volatile environment. Here, some things can become full-blown trends within a blink of an eye, while the other chunk takes a long time in earning the trust of the masses. Unfortunately, technology fell into the latter category. It’s not to say that the creation’s arrival didn’t spark any interest amongst the millennials. Instead, the long journey it had to take for reaching the pinnacle talks more to the doubt that was consistently present alongside the largely shared feeling of fascination. The sustainability of such a creation didn’t seem convincing enough at the beginning, but when technology continued its ascent, tables begin to turn. This, as one would expect, led us towards a world that was essentially all about harnessing the potential of different by-products for the purpose of fulfilling human needs in a far more efficient and inventive manner. One such by-product we brought into play was the all-encompassing idea of social media platforms. The introduction of social media, which was initially motivated by the desire of bringing friends and family closer, has now clocked a level where it’s the lifeblood for many important activities taking place out there. From businesses to non-profit entities, all are dependent on social media under some capacity. However, if these platforms are delivering a ton of positives, there are also some negatives that we must acknowledge before it gets too late. Stepping aside from the generic privacy issues for a second, a string of recent cases involving Snapchat has given us a fresh reminder about all the devastation that can be caused by these drivers of our social life.
In a sensational report put-together by NBC, it’s revealed that Snapchat is now quickly becoming an attractive place for cutting drug deals, but something even worse is happening here. The people buying it, mostly teenagers, are actually being duped into taking fentanyl in the name of prescription and recreational drugs. As a result of it, many kids have lost their lives so far, and that has triggered a world of scrutiny on Snapchat. Parents of the affected kids have argued that the popular platform is doing nothing to stop the brazen advertisement of these pills by some users. Although the company did provide information about a suspected dealer to the law enforcement agencies which led to an arrest, one of the parents pointed out that it took over five months for Snapchat to do it.
Snapchat, in its bid to fight off the accusations, has bolstered up the size of its law enforcement response team. Apart from that, the company is making a point of focusing on automated tools that proactively scan for drug-related content. To aid this frontier, it’s working in collaboration with DEA and other third-party experts for keeping a track of latest internet slangs. For now, thousands of accounts have been deleted in relation to such activities, but the hassle-free process of creating a new account means that the issue persists; hence it remains to be seen what measures are taken to bring better moderation into the fold.
