Snap sued by New Mexico DOJ for policies that facilitate “sextortion” and sexual abuse

New Mexico Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against Snap SNAPthe parent company of popular photo messaging app Snapchat on Thursday over features that allegedly encourage sexual abuse.

Despite presenting itself as a safe alternative to other social media sites, the platform has become a primary social media platform for the distribution of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and for criminals to target minors through “sextortion”, a supported state DOJ. Sextortion, like defined by the FBIdescribes when adults force minors to send explicit images online.

“Our undercover investigation revealed that Snapchat’s harmful design features create an environment where predators can easily target children through sextortion schemes and other forms of sexual abuse,” Attorney General Raúl Torrez said in a statement.

The process claims that Snapchat’s algorithms and policies, including its claims that photos and videos sent through the platform disappear forever once opened, facilitate child sexual exploitation and sextortion.

“Snap misled users into thinking that photos and videos sent to their platform would disappear, but predators can permanently capture this content and have created a virtual directory of child sexual images that are traded, sold and stored indefinitely.” Torrez said.

Snap chief Evan Spiegel presented research that shows the platform does not have a negative impact on mental health, like TikTok, Instagram and YouTube, in a letter to staff released publicly on Tuesday.

“That doesn’t mean bad things can’t happen when people use Snapchat,” Spiegel added. “That’s why we’ve invested hundreds of millions of dollars in our trust and safety teams over the past few years and designed our service to help keep people safe by moderating content and allowing people to communicate only with the friends they’ve selected. “

But an undercover DOJ investigation in New Mexico found that some of those safeguards may be insufficient. The DOJ found more than 10,000 records related to Snap and CSAM in the past year alone, including information related to the sexual assault of minors under 13, the department said.

In severe cases, sextortion has led teenagers and children to commit suicide. From October 2021 to March 2023, the FBI received more than 13,000 reports of online financial sextortion of minors, leading to at least 20 suicides.

In April 2023, a 13-year-old South Carolina boy took his own life after falling victim to a sextortion scheme on Snapchat. His mother is suing the platform.

Last December, Torrez’s office sued Metathe parent company of Facebook and Instagram, and the company’s founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, for allegedly exposing children to sexual exploitation and mental health harm after conducting a similar investigation. A judge denied Meta’s motion to dismiss the claim in May.

“Through our litigation against Meta and Snap, the New Mexico Department of Justice will continue to hold these platforms accountable for prioritizing profits over the safety of children,” Torrez said.