The poor man's Silk Road, right in your hands.
With the closure of the original Silk Road (but the rise of Silk Road 2.0, just this week), buyers and sellers of drugs had to move on to find other places to get their fix; and those places just happened to be apps your girlfriend uses to show off her selfies. A BBC news team launched an investigation into the practice of using hashtags and photos to sell drugs on Instagram and Twitter. Sellers would post pictures of their drugs on the social networks, and when a buyer contacts them, they'll complete the transaction on other private messaging services like Kik or WhatsApp.
"Instagram has a clear set of rules about what is and isn't allowed on the site," an Instagram spokesperson said. "We encourage people who come across illegal or inappropriate content to report it to us using the built-in reporting tools next to every photo, video or comments, so we can take action."
It wasn't clear exactly what hashtags they were using, but it will probably be just a matter of time before new ones pop up.
