PROPAGANDA

e yers Carhart found were just some of the anti-Semitic propaganda found in Front Range areas so far this month, with more yers found in the Terrain neighborhood in Castle Rock on March 7. Castle Rock Mayor Jason Gray, whose grandfather died in a concentration camp during the Holocaust, spoke out against the messaging at the March 7 town council meeting, calling it “disheartening” and encouraging the council and ease of ordering food delivery or calling a ride-share service,” Weiser wrote in the report. O cials spoke with former drug users and sellers and families of overdose victims for the report.

In 2021, at least 1,881 Coloradans died of a drug overdose and roughly half of those people died of fentanyl, according to state data. Many of those people are taking fentanyl without realizing it, as the cheap synthetic opioid is cut into other drugs like cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine.

As many as six in 10 counterfeit prescription pills contain a potentially lethal dose of fentanyl, the report said.

It didn’t quantify exactly how large the online illicit drug market has become, citing limited access to the social media platforms’ data. But research suggests that drug dealers and buyers turn to the internet and social media platforms “as a primary vehicle for drug transactions.”

A search for “Denver” and “Boulder” on the Kik messaging app returned dozens of results for groups dedicated to selling and buying drugs that were open to the public, the report showed.

“Connecting with a local dealer took mere minutes,” the report said.

Dealers advertise drugs using slang, emojis, QR codes and disappearing messages that help reach customers while evading content moderation tools on the social media platforms, the report said. Often drug sellers are active on multiple social media platforms — advertising their products on Instagram, but listing their WhatApps or Snapchat handles for inquiries — which makes it harder for law enforcement to crack down on the sales.

Sellers can create new pro les as soon as one is suspended or removed, town residents to speak out against it and report it.

“It’s not what Castle Rock is about,” Gray said. “ is kind of rhetoric makes my blood boil.” creating a frustrating “whack-a-mole” e ect for local law enforcement, the report said.

A report from the Anti-Defamation League released on March 8 found that 2022 had over 6,750 instances of white supremacist propaganda reported, the highest number of instances the organization has recorded.

Scott Levin, the director for the Anti-Defamation League Mountain States Region, said Colorado had 163 instances of white supremacist propaganda last year compared to 159 in 2021.

A lot of social media companies, including Meta, TikTok and Snapchat, have policies that ban advertising, buying or selling drugs and some have made e orts to work with law enforcement to address the issue.

But the report said the companies’ responses to drug activity on their platforms have been “uneven in their application and limited in e ectiveness.”

Weiser urged social media companies to adopt strong, uniform practices to prevent and respond to illegal drug sales. He also called for a federal agency to oversee social media platforms and legislation that would give the federal government more access to their data.

Hank Dempsey, the head of state public policy for Snapchat’s parent company, Snap Inc., called Weiser’s report a “must-read report” for anyone working to combat the fentanyl crisis. He said he appreciated working with the attorney general’s o ce “to contribute by sharing our insights and e orts to aggressively combat drug activity on our platform, including our policies that take a zero tolerance approach to this abuse.”

In an email, Meta spokeswoman Jeanne Moran said “content that attempts to buy, sell or trade drugs is not allowed on Facebook or Instagram, regardless of state or country law.” e company is “working hard” to keep drug sales o the platforms and users that post content that violates its policies could have their account removed.

Kayla Whaling, spokeswoman for the Tinder and Hinge parent company Match Group, said the report focused on a critical issue and that the company

Levin said a concern with the increasing propaganda is that it will lead to the normalization of hate, which can lead to violence.

“ e problem is that they do normalize this kind of hate and anger in a way that it might become criminal activity,” he said. “It only takes one person to react to this, think some of it may be true, and act on it.” e propaganda also serves to recruit people to white supremacist groups and helps those groups make money by connecting people to their websites and media, Levin said. e yers Carhart found in Highlands Ranch linked to a website is “supportive of any conversation that aims to help make internet platforms safer.” e report made several recommendations for Colorado lawmakers to pass new protections to help prevent such sales, including:

“However, we strongly disagree with how our brand is categorized here and we have been in contact with Attorney General Weiser’s o ce to refute the inaccurate claims in this report,” Whaling said. She said their platforms are “very ine cient” for drug sales since they are designed for one-on-one interactions and that the company has made proactive e orts to ban accounts that mention drugs.

TikTok did not return requests for comment.

• Requiring platforms to create and publicly post their policy on illegal drug sales and how law enforcement can request account records; e Department of Law worked with representatives from Meta, Snapchat and TikTok to compile the report, as well as law enforcement, public health experts and harm reduction advocates. is story is from e Colorado Sun, a journalist-owned news outlet based in Denver and covering the state. For more, and to support e Colorado Sun, visit coloradosun.com. e Colorado Sun is a partner in the Colorado News Conservancy, owner of Colorado Community Media. featuring Holocaust denial and streaming an anti-Semitic lm, which the Anti-Defamation League report found is often associated with the white supremacist group White Lives Matter.

• Enforcing platforms to submit annual reports to the Department of Law showing the amount of content on the apps that promoted the purchase or sale of illegal drugs and how many times the posts were shared and viewed.

Levin said the best response to nding propaganda is to loudly rebuke it so that the messaging doesn’t become normalized. He added that reporting instances of propaganda to law enforcement and the Anti-Defamation League helps track the issue.

“Neighbors need to speak out and say ‘ is stu isn’t acceptable’ and they need to give support to those groups that are targeted,” he said.