Drug-Related Hashtags Active After Instagram Kills Them

Yesterday, the BBC reported that Instagram had blocked several drug-related hashtags after a BBC investigation about drug sales on the photo-sharing network. Curious to see what had been blocked, I did a few searches for tags I figured dealers might be using. Seems like not much has been blocked.

#mollyforsale, #weedforsale, #xanaxbars, #roxyforsale, #pillsforsale, even, lol, #drugsforsale were all searchable and turned up vendors pushing their wares. One post from someone who appears to be a former Silk Road seller read, “new to the IG game. former SR vendor. looking to keep my biz afloat and expand. I’m not a scam so if you are, fuck off!! just hit me up with what you need and we can go from there.”

Of course, now that Silk Road is apparently back, it’s unclear who’s using Instagram for this kind of thing, anyway.

Republished with special permission from ANIMALNewYork.