Snapchat is finally doing something about its massive Fentanyl problem

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Snapchat is apparently fed up with drug dealers taking advantage of its platform. The company has announced that it is adding a series of measures to help combat drug dealing on Snapchat.

In the company’s blog post earlier this week, Snap’s primary concern as of now is fentanyl. Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that was present in over 60% of all drug deaths last year. That fact comes from Snapchat’s new drug education portal, where users will be redirected if they search for “fentanyl” on the platform.

But that’s not the only improvement that Snap is making to how it handles drugs on its platform. The company said that its enforcement rates have improved greatly and its detection rates have increased by around 260 percent since the beginning of 2021.

READ MORE: Snapchat is reportedly adding a paid tier for early-access features

Snap also says that it detects around two-thirds of the drug content on the platform and that its response time to law enforcement requests has improved by 85 percent.

Though this announcement comes on the heels of an NBC report about the dangers of fentanyl on Snapchat, the company says its announcement has nothing to do with the report. Snap told The Verge that these initiatives have been several months in the making and the announcement would have been made this week regardless of the NBC report.

Regardless of the reason for these improvements, it’s definitely nice to see. In a time where we are learning just how bad certain social media platforms are for society, it’s good to see that Snapchat is taking the drug problem on its platform seriously.

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