• by Erik Sass , Staff Writer @eriksass1, February 3, 2017

It’s safe to say this was probably not one of the uses Instagram’s inventors had in mind when they launched the photo-sharing app back in 2010.

Public prosecutors in Detroit have revealed that drug-dealing gangs in the city have been using the app to create visual hit lists of their enemies, with deadly consequences, according to NBC affiliate WDIV Local 4.

U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade told an interviewer that members of two rival gangs, the Seven Mile Bloods and 6 Mile Chedda Boys, were “posting pictures on Instagram of people on the hit list, you know, shoot to kill on site.”

And these were not idle threats or mere attempts to intimidate. Out of 10 people on one of the Instagram hit lists, seven were shot, four of these fatally.

The gang members were also using YouTube to record some of their illegal activities, leaving a trail of clues that helped police and prosecutors build the case against them. McQuade noted: “In our trials, we've shown pictures of gang members holding guns and drugs with their gang colors, schemes on shirts.”

Gangs across the country have been quick to adopt social media to communicate, recruit new members, and intimidate rivals. Back in 2012 former New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly created a social media division within the force to track gangs’ online activities, resulting in busts with hundreds of gang members arrested.

In one operation the following year, for example, the NYPD arrested 63 members of three gangs for various crimes, including three murders, around three dozen shootings, and gun trafficking, after gang members boasted of their exploits on social media.

In 2015, police arrested Osiris Aristy, a 17-year-old from Bushwick, Brooklyn, for posting emojis on his Facebook page that were interpreted as threatening violence against cops. They include one of a police officer, and another of a gun that appeared to be pointing at the police officer.