Snapchat detects 88 percent of drug trafficking activity

Snapchat detects 88 percent of drug trafficking activity

Berlin, Jan. 25, 2022

Snapchat announced that its artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms now proactively detect 88% of drug trafficking activity on its platform, up 33% from October.

The company said it has increased its proactive detection rates by 390% over the past year while cracking down on drug activity. It reported a decrease in community-reported drug sales since October.

The company announced the update in a blog post about its anti-drug tools to combat the opioid/fentanyl epidemic and prevent drug dealers from communicating with minors on its platform.

When the company’s AI/ML systems report drug trafficking activity, Snapchat blocks the relevant accounts and uses technology to prevent users from creating new accounts.

In some cases, users are also referred to law enforcement and data is shared with police via information requests. Snap also uses machine learning to tailor ads and content to users. Last year, the company described how it uses GPU rather than CPU technology to speed up ML model inference and support 10 trillion ML predictions daily.