DEC74128ED5E097987258A3700596307 Hearing Summary

Shalyn Ketterin, Counsel to the Attorney General, spoke about the illicit substances online report that the AG office created. She touched on how the evolution of the internet, specifically social media has corresponded with the progression of the opioid crisis leading to a large market. She stated that underlying social media data is not readily available and the information they receive is what is allowed by the company.

Ms. Ketterin spoke about messaging apps and online groups that are used for illicit drug purchasing and explained the methods one may use. She shared stats from surveys related to how readily available drugs are for purchase online.

Ms. Kettering showed examples of social media posts that may be related to illicit drug sales and explained how they may be written in a purposeful way to avoid being detected. She gave an overview of certain platform features that make buying drugs on social media easier, including publicly available user profiles, end to end encryption, anonymous engagement and geolocation mapping. Their office found in general that social media companies response to drug activity on their platforms has been both uneven in application and limited in effectiveness.

Ms. Kettering went over legal limitations including Section 230 which immunizes web hosts from legal liability for moderating, the stored communications act, the first amendment, and data privacy laws. Companies often argue that access to drugs does not classify as imminent death to comply.

She spoke about best practices for online platforms such as allowing third party content moderation and to submit to independent, external oversight. Developing clear policies prohibiting illicit substance promotion and allocating sufficient resources to preventing and taking action against these posts were additional recommendations.

Recommendations for Colorado include requiring disclosure of policies on illicit substance transactions and related enforcement data. Examples of this include stats on drug related posts and how they were dealt with. Structuring enforceable best practices and providing increased resources to law enforcement o investigate online narcotics cases. It was also suggested to increase investment in harm reductions and substance abuse specifically targeted at young teens and teenagers as well as increasing social media literacy for parents and caregivers.

Ms. Kettering answered questions from members of the about the social media and emoji information shared regarding online drug sales in the state. She also answered a question regarding how law enforcement may be able to use this data and information to take action. She answered a question regarding having social media platforms cooperate with investigations.

Ms. Kettering answered a question regarding what the goal of the recommended policies would be and how this relates to being a responsibility of the social media platforms. She spoke about the efforts to recognize operations that are larger scale operations and not closer to the gray area between user and dealer. She touched on how social media companies are increasing parental controls.