SANTA FE, NM— New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez alleges that internal correspondence between employees of Snapchat reveals the firm allowed sextortion and child grooming on their service to persist- without addressing reports or responding to them.
As reported by NBC News, a September lawsuit filed by Torrez contained alleged examples of internal correspondence between Snap employees, which demonstrate the firm “ignoring reports of sextortion, failing to implement verifiable age-verification, admitting to features that connect minors with adults.”
The Albuquerque Journal added that the internal messages and other details were heavily redacted in the publicly released court filing. Still, it noted that the messages between Snap employees and executives give "further confirmation that Snapchat’s harmful design features create an environment that fosters sextortion, sexual abuse and unwanted contact from adults to minors,” citing a press release from the AG.
Torrez wrote,
The NMDOJ found, "Snap’s analysis and an outside security firm report also are quoted to state that 'at least ∼700k Snapchatters are exposed to drug content daily in the areas we scanned' and that it 'takes under a minute to use Snapchat to be in a position to purchase illegal and harmful substances.' Law enforcement apparently warned Snap that its ephemeral messages caused drug dealers to prefer Snapchat and made their activity 'untraceable.'"
"Snap may claim that Snapchat is unlike other social media, but those claims are false and knowingly so," the DOJ noted in the lawsuit. "Snap’s conduct is not only dangerously deceptive; it is unlawful."
Torrez explained, "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.
As reported by ZeroHedge, a Snap spokesman said in a statement, We share Attorney General Torrez’s and the public’s concerns about the online safety of young people and are deeply committed to Snapchat being a safe and positive place for our entire community, particularly for our younger users. We have been working diligently to find, remove and report bad actors, educate our community, and give teens, as well as parents and guardians, tools to help them be safe online."
As reported by NBC News, a September lawsuit filed by Torrez contained alleged examples of internal correspondence between Snap employees, which demonstrate the firm “ignoring reports of sextortion, failing to implement verifiable age-verification, admitting to features that connect minors with adults.”
The Albuquerque Journal added that the internal messages and other details were heavily redacted in the publicly released court filing. Still, it noted that the messages between Snap employees and executives give "further confirmation that Snapchat’s harmful design features create an environment that fosters sextortion, sexual abuse and unwanted contact from adults to minors,” citing a press release from the AG.
Torrez wrote,
According to the New Mexico Department of Justice release, the investigation uncovered evidence of additional, potentially criminal behavior "that Snap tolerated drug and gun sales on the platform.""It is disheartening to see that Snap employees have raised many red flags that have continued to be ignored by executives. 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. I will always work to hold companies, like Snap and Meta, accountable to create a safer user experience.”
The NMDOJ found, "Snap’s analysis and an outside security firm report also are quoted to state that 'at least ∼700k Snapchatters are exposed to drug content daily in the areas we scanned' and that it 'takes under a minute to use Snapchat to be in a position to purchase illegal and harmful substances.' Law enforcement apparently warned Snap that its ephemeral messages caused drug dealers to prefer Snapchat and made their activity 'untraceable.'"
"Snap may claim that Snapchat is unlike other social media, but those claims are false and knowingly so," the DOJ noted in the lawsuit. "Snap’s conduct is not only dangerously deceptive; it is unlawful."
Torrez explained, "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.
As reported by ZeroHedge, a Snap spokesman said in a statement, We share Attorney General Torrez’s and the public’s concerns about the online safety of young people and are deeply committed to Snapchat being a safe and positive place for our entire community, particularly for our younger users. We have been working diligently to find, remove and report bad actors, educate our community, and give teens, as well as parents and guardians, tools to help them be safe online."
They added, "We understand that online threats continue to evolve and we will continue to work diligently to address these critical issues."
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