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Did Snapchat Enable Sextortion? This State’s AG Says Yes

Photo from Thought Catalog via Unsplash

Did Snapchat Enable Sextortion? This State’s AG Says Yes

By Movieguide® Contributor

New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez filed a lawsuit against Snapchat’s parent company, Snap Inc., for enabling sexual abuse and the trafficking of children, drugs and guns.

“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,” said Torrez.

“Snap has misled users into believing that photos and videos sent on their platform will disappear, but predators can permanently capture this content and they have created a virtual yearbook of child sexual images that are traded, sold, and stored indefinitely,” he continued. “Through our litigation against…Snap, the New Mexico Department of Justice will continue to hold these platforms accountable for prioritizing profits over children’s safety.”

Among other disheartening discoveries, the investigation revealed that Snapchat’s executives have ignored tens of thousands of reports of abuse sent to them from lower-level moderators.

“It is disheartening to see that Snap employees have raised many red flags that have continued to be ignored by executives,” said Attorney General Torrez. “What is even more disturbing is that unredacted information shows that the addicting features on Snapchat were blatantly acknowledged and encouraged to remain active on the platform.”

Snapchat has responded, pointing towards the millions of dollars it puts towards safety every year along with a reiteration that it continues to value public safety.

“We understand that online threats continue to evolve and we will continue to work diligently to address these critical issues,” Snap Inc. said after the lawsuit was filed. “We have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in our trust and safety teams over the past several years, and designed our service to promote online safety by moderating content and enabling direct messaging with close friends and family.”

Contrary to the company’s defense, Snapchat has repeatedly faced lawsuits for the way it enables crime across its platform. It has also been placed on the National Center on Sexual Exploitation’s “Dirty Dozen” list multiple years in a row. Clearly, the app remains unsafe despite any attempts by Snap Inc. to clean it up.

Movieguide® previously reported:

A lawsuit from dozens of families against Snapchat will move forward in court after a California judge ruled that the parents’ complaint could continue to trial.

Over 60 families are suing Snapchat for unsafe features on the platform that enable drug dealers to contact and make deals with children in nearly untraceable ways.

“Today’s ruling marks the first time a court has allowed parents to hold social media companies accountable for facilitating the sale of deadly drugs,” Matthew P. Bergman, an attorney for the families, said after the ruling. “Fentanyl is the largest killer of kids under 18 and social media plays a huge role [in] the deadly drug sales that have resulted in a 350% increase in teen deaths over the past three years.”

“Parents who lost children to fentanyl poisoning will now be able to move forward with [the] lawsuit, [and] uncover evidence of Snapchat’s contribution to illegal drug sales and by holding Snap legally accountable spare other families the unspeakable grief they experience every day,” he continued.