Snapchat allowed the sextortion of underage users and other dangerous behaviors to flourish while it struggled to find a way to address such issues without “striking fear” into its users and their parents, according to an unredacted version of a lawsuit recently filed against the company.
New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez initially sued Snapchat on behalf of the state in early September, labeling it “a breeding ground for predators to collect sexually explicit images of children and to find, groom and extort them.”
While the initial complaint was heavily censored, Torrez on Tuesday released the documents in full, providing a clearer picture of how the photo-sharing app allegedly prioritized growth over safety and failed to effectively address or disclose features that make Snapchat a haven for abuse.
“Snap was specifically aware, but failed to warn children and parents, of ‘rampant’ and ‘massive’ sextortion on its platform — a problem so grave that it drives children facing merciless and relentless blackmail demands or disclosure of intimate images to their families and friends to suicide,” according to the court documents.
The suit specifically cited an internal report from back in November 2022, when Snap employees discussed receiving “around 10,000 user reports of sextortion each month.” The company followed up a few weeks later with a marketing brief about how sexting had become “regular behavior” for Gen Z, sparking a struggle to keep its users safe without scaring them off the platform entirely.
“The ephemeral nature of Snaps can encourage inappropriate content and behavior by giving young people a false sense of privacy,” a Snap consultant said in a 2022 presentation, pointing to the disappearing nature of sent snaps.
What’s more, the reports “likely represent a small fraction of this abuse,” according to an internal Snap analysis referenced in the court documents. It cited the low likelihood of victims flagging the problem to Snap.
A separate internal analysis of 279 known instances of sextortion in 2023 found that 70% of victims never reported the abuse and that for the 30% who did, Snap failed to take any action, the Wall Street Journal reported.
“It is disheartening to see that Snap employees have raised many red flags that have continued to be ignored by executives,” Ruiz said.