Snapchat (Snap) has been deceptively marketing itself to young people despite monumental risks of sexual scams (sextortion), according to New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torres. The state filed a lawsuit against the platform in early September, alleging it did not do enough to warn users of online risks despite employees waving red flags.
New Mexico’s suit claims that the platform weighed the cost of addressing widespread child grooming and decided it wasn’t worth the administrative burden, despite warnings that the problem was becoming more common among teens. Internal communications show the company believed the task “should not be its responsibility,” and safety staff documented that 90 percent of reports were ignored in favor of automatic prompts telling users to merely “block the other person.”
The newly unredactedcomplaint points to a 2022 internal analysis showing company employees were fielding around 10,000 reports of sextortion each month. Those numbers are most likely grossly underestimated, …