On Sept. 5, New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez filed a lawsuit against Snapchat over concerns that the app’s policies have allowed for mass amounts of exploitative material from underage users to spread across the dark web.
Torrez is alleging that criminals used Snapchat to carry out sextortion, which occurs when a predator coerces minors into sharing explicit images and threatens to release the content publicly unless the minor pays the predator, according to a press release.
“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,” the press release reads.
An investigation by the New Mexico Department of Justice uncovered more than 10,000 records of stolen images from Snapchat on dark web sites, according to the press release.
Over 50% of those affected by sexual exploitation and solicitation online are children aged 12-15, according to the Child Crime and Prevention Safety Center.
According to the press release, the Department of Justice found that Snapchat misleads users about the protections its policies supposedly ensure.
The lawsuit is similar to a suit Torrez filed against Meta in December 2023 after concerns arose about human trafficking and sexual abuse on Facebook and Instagram.
Meta argued it had immunity from such accusations of civil liability because of the Communications Decency Act, which protects social media companies from the legal consequences of the content users post on the sites, according to a press release. The judge presiding over the suit dismissed Meta’s request to drop the suit, according to the press release.
In 2023, after filing the Meta suit and before filing the recent Snapchat suit, Torrez warned all harmful social media platforms to be on notice, according to the Associated Press.
Maria Fernandez is a freelance reporter and photographer for the Daily Lobo. She can be reached at news@dailylobo.com or on X @dailylobo
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