Snapchat Lawsuit Discloses Company Knew About Sextortion And Other Security Risks.
A recent lawsuit filed by New Mexico’s attorney general has shed light on disturbing facts about Snapchat’s handling of sextortion and safety concerns on Tuesday. According to the lawsuit, Snapchat employees were aware of around 10,000 monthly user reports of sextortion by November 2022 which they believed was only a fraction of the actual abuse and safety issues. Snapchat allegedly failed to take adequate action including leaving an account with 75 reports related to nudes, minors, and extortion despite knowing about incidents involving minors.
An internal research from the year 2022 showed that over one-third of teen girls and 30% of teen boys using Snapchat had experienced unwanted contact with unknown people. Some employees also claimed that CEO Evan Spiegel prioritised design over safety resisting stronger safety mechanisms. Additionally, trust and safety employees had minimal contact with upper management, unlike other social media companies and they are not supposed to connect with the higher level employees for any such discussions.
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On the contrary, Snapchat claims to have implemented various safety measures including advanced technology to detect inappropriate behaviour and working with law enforcement. However, the lawsuit suggests Snapchat employees were aware of the platform’s vulnerabilities including predators using the app to connect with children as young as eight and even below. It was said that the app’s latest ‘Quick Add’ feature also poses risks to vulnerable users.
The lawsuit alleged that the company is intentionally giving chances to predators to connect with small girls via its app. Furthermore, Snapchat allegedly tracked 50 daily posts related to illegal firearms viewed by 9,000 users per day, but often failed to address reported content promptly and hadn’t filed any complaint regarding security issues. The lawsuit pointed out that these issues raise serious concerns about its security vulnerabilities and deliberate actions to bestow chances to users to connect with minors without any in-app restrictions.
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