Taking on Snapchat
ALEXANDER DIED FROM A PILL HE BOUGHT ON SNAPCHAT. NOW HIS MOTHER IS TAKING ON BIG TECH
By Carly Williams for ABC PM
When California teenager Alexander Neville ordered what he thought was oxycodone pills from social media app Snapchat, he was just days away from receiving treatment for drug abuse.
KEY POINTS:
California teenager Alexander Neville died after taking what he believed to be an oxycodone pill ordered from a user on social media
A recent New Zealand study reveals an increasing number of people are ordering drugs on social media platforms
An Australian expert says the same is likely happening in Australia
His mother Amy Neville said the pill he received turned out to be fake and was laced with fentanyl.
"Alexander took one pill that killed and that pill had enough fentanyl in it to kill him and four other people," she told the ABC's PM program.
Snapchat's Australian law enforcement operations team provides data to the Australian Federal Police to support drug investigations.
Cybercrime expert Richard Buckland from UNSW said it was a tough balance.
"I don't envy the tech companies," Professor Buckland said.
"I wouldn't want to have a law to say that whenever the police went to them asking for data, they'd have to give it to them.
"But I do think the tech companies should have some skin in the game, there should be some cost to them that makes them strongly motivated to help solve this problem."
America's DEA insists big tech isn't doing enough to rid the platforms of fentanyl-based illicit drugs.
