New Mexico has filed a lawsuit against Snapchat’s parent company, Snap Inc., accusing the messaging platform of facilitating the spread of child sexual exploitation material.
The lawsuit, spearheaded by Attorney General Raul Torrez, claims that Snapchat's design and policies make it a primary venue for sextortion, a process where predators coerce minors into sharing explicit images or videos under threat of distributing the content unless additional material or money is provided.
The state’s investigation uncovered that Snapchat's feature, which makes messages disappear within 24 hours, has misled users into believing their content is secure and ephemeral. In reality, according to Torrez, predators can capture and retain this material, leading to the creation of a "virtual yearbook" of abusive images that are traded and sold on dark web sites.
The investigation included the creation of a decoy Snapchat account for a 14-year-old, which engaged with accounts named with explicit references, and found around 10,000 records of abuse content linked to Snapchat on dark web sites. This evidence suggests that Snapchat is a major source of such material among the investigated sites.
This lawsuit follows a similar legal action against Meta Platforms in December, which also accused the company of failing to protect children from sexual abuse and predation.
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