One category of users for whom 2013 has not been a good year in technology is drug dealers. First, Silk Road was shut down; now there has been a clamp down on apparently another way of selling illicit drugs online.

According to the BBC, Instagram has blocked certain search terms, previously used to find narcotics for sale, which were being advertised and falsely presented as photographs on the photo sharing service.

The clamp down was apparently set in motion after journalists from a new social media series, #BBC trending, alerted Instagram to a few rather shady images and videos which clearly were advertising drugs for sale.

Drugs for sale

An example was a post that showed an image of several bags of marijuana, accompanied by the text "Just getting a few packs ready for tomorrow morning... Place your order today, it gets shipped out at 8AM tomorrow." Additionally, other drugs were also found for sale, such as Xanax and Roxicodone, both of which require a prescription.

The BBC continued that those engaging in drug transactions, most of which were apparently within the US, were turning to instant messaging apps like WhatsApp to finalise the deal. More telling is that Instagram is not the only social media service being used in this fashion, with YouTube apparently similarly being used as an advertising medium for illicit substances.

Instagram responded by stressing that it has “a clear set of rules about what is and isn't allowed on the site," adding that, "people can't buy things on Instagram, we are simply a place where people share photos and videos."

Conclusion

Clearly, punting the drug trade is not something that founders of any mainstream social media site envisioned or aspired that their site be used for, but it is happening nonetheless. Now, the question is, how exactly it will be stopped and how social media savvy law enforcement will become to drugs being sold in this fashion.