Snapchat Announces Change Designed to Reduce Illicit Substance Sales

Snapchat announced a change this week to its friend recommendation feature to make it more difficult for people selling illicit substances to connect with minors under 17, NBC News reports.

Last fall, NBC News reported that teens and young adults in over a dozen states overdosed after buying fentanyl-laced pills on the popular app. The pills were sold as prescription medications such as Percocet, OxyContin or Xanax, but were counterfeits that contained fentanyl.

In a blog post, the company that owns Snapchat said it is changing its friend recommendation feature, called Quick Add. The feature will no longer suggest that people add accounts belonging to minors unless they have a certain number of friends in common with that person. This change is designed to make it more difficult for strangers to become friends on Snapchat with people they don’t know.

“While we know that drug dealers seek to connect with potential customers on platforms outside of Snapchat, we want to do everything we can to keep minors from being discovered on Snapchat by people who may be engaging in illegal or harmful behavior,” the company said.