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Attorney General Raúl Torrez filed the original complaint on
Sept. 4, but internal messages and other details were heavily
redacted. Tuesday's filing unveils internal messages among Snap
Inc. employees and executives that provide “further confirmation
that Snapchat’s harmful design features create an environment
that fosters sextortion, sexual abuse and unwanted contact from
adults to minors,” Torrez said in a news release.
For instance, former trust and safety employees complained there
was “pushback” from management when they tried to add safety
mechanisms, according to the lawsuit. Employees also noted that
user reports on grooming and sextortion — persuading a person to
send explicit photos online and then threatening to make the
images public unless the victim pays money or engages in sexual
favors — were falling through the cracks. At one point, an
account remained active despite 75 reports against it over
mentions of “nudes, minors and extortion."
Snap said in a statement that its platform was designed “with
built-in safety guardrails” and that the company made
“deliberate design choices to make it difficult for strangers to
discover minors on our service.”
“We continue to evolve our safety mechanisms and policies, from
leveraging advanced technology to detect and block certain
activity, to prohibiting friending from suspicious accounts, to
working alongside law enforcement and government agencies, among
so much more,” the company said.
According to the lawsuit, Snap was well aware, but failed to
warn parents, young users and the public that “sextortion was a
rampant, ‘massive,’ and ‘incredibly concerning issue’ on
Snapchat.”
A November 2022 internal email from a trust and safety employee
says Snapchat was getting “around 10,000” user reports of
sextortion each month.
“If this is correct, we have an incredibly concerning issue on
our hands, in my humble opinion,” the email continues.
Another employee replied that it's worth noting that the number
likely represents a “small fraction of this abuse,” since users
may be embarrassed and because sextortion is “not easy to
categorize” when trying to report it on the site.
Torrez filed the lawsuit against Santa Monica, California-based
Snap Inc. in state court in Santa Fe. In addition to sexual
abuse, the lawsuit claims the company also openly promotes child
trafficking and the sale of illicit drugs and guns.
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