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New Mexico Lawsuit Claims Snap Ignored Sextortion Risks, Received 10,000 Reports Monthly

Oct 1, 2024, 09:45 PM

An unsealed lawsuit filed in New Mexico alleges that Snap Inc., the parent company of Snapchat, failed to properly warn users, particularly underage users, about sextortion risks on its platform. Internal documents cited in the complaint reveal that Snap employees were well aware of the app's child safety issues, with discussions noting that by November 2022, the company was receiving 10,000 user reports of sextortion each month. The lawsuit claims that Snap grappled internally with how to address these risks without alarming users and their parents, prioritizing platform growth over safety measures. According to the internal documents, Snap stated that a large-scale effort to tackle child grooming would "create disproportionate admin costs, and should not be its responsibility." New Mexico's Attorney General asserts that these findings demonstrate the company's failure to manage and notify users about sextortion on the platform.