New Mexico is suing Snap Inc. after the investigation finds a “dark web” of child abuse

Attorney General Raúl Torrez filed the lawsuit against Snap Inc. Thursday in state court in Santa Fe. In addition to sexual abuse, the lawsuit alleges that the company also openly promotes child, drug and gun trafficking.

Last December, Torrez filed a similar lawsuit against Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook, saying it allows predators to trade child pornography and solicit minors for sex on its platforms. That lawsuit is pending.

“Snap’s harmful design features create an environment where predators can easily target children through sextortion schemes and other forms of sexual abuse,” Torrez said in a statement. Sexual extortion, or sextortion, involves persuading someone to post explicit photos online and then threatening to make the images public unless the victim pays money or engages in sexual favors.

“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.” Torres said.

In a statement, Snap said it shares Torrez’s and the public’s concerns about the online safety of young people.

“We understand that online threats continue to evolve, and we will continue to work diligently to address these critical issues,” said the Santa Monica, California-based company. We’ve invested hundreds of millions of dollars in our trust and safety teams over the past few years and designed our service to promote online safety by moderating content and enabling direct messaging with close friends and family.”

According to the complaint, minors report having more online sexual interactions on Snapchat than any other platform, and more sex trafficking victims are recruited on Snapchat than any other platform.

Before the trial, New Mexico conducted a months-long undercover investigation into child sexual abuse images on Snapchat. According to Torrez’s statement, the investigation uncovered a “vast network of dark web sites dedicated to sharing stolen, non-consensual sexual images from Snap,” finding more than 10,000 Snap-related records and child sexual abuse material over the past year. These included information related to the sexual assault of minors under the age of 13.

As part of the undercover investigation, the New Mexico Department of Justice created a decoy Snapchat account for a 14-year-old girl named Heather, who found and exchanged messages with accounts with names like “child.rape” and “pedo_lover10” .

Snapchat, according to the lawsuit, “was by far the largest source of images and videos among the dark web sites investigated.” Investigators also found Snapchat accounts that were openly circulating and selling child abuse images directly on the platform.

Recommended reading:
In our new special edition, a Wall Street legend gets a makeover, a tale of crypto iniquity, poultry misbehavior and more.
Read the stories.