NM AG claims Snapchat facilitates abuse

By Katabella Roberts

New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez filed a lawsuit on September 5 against Snap Inc., the parent company of social media platform Snapchat, accusing the site of facilitating and promoting the sharing of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and facilitating the sexual exploitation of children.

The lawsuit, filed in state court in Santa Fe, details how Snapchat’s policies, content and recommendation algorithms allegedly contribute to the sharing of illegal sexual material involving children, child trafficking, drugs and weapons.

Snap said in a statement to multiple media outlets that it shares Torrez’s and the public’s concerns about children’s online safety.

“We understand that online threats continue to evolve, and we will continue to work diligently to address these critical issues,” a spokesperson said. “We’ve invested hundreds of millions of dollars in our trust and safety teams over the past few years, and designed our service to promote online safety by moderating content and enabling direct messaging with close friends and family.”

According to the lawsuit, the New Mexico Department of Justice (DOJ) has been investigating Snap’s platforms in Santa Monica, California, for several months.

That investigation found that Snapchat serves as a “primary platform” for criminals to conduct sextortion, where individuals are coerced into sending explicit images or videos of themselves, which are then used to blackmail them into sending money.

According to Torrez’s office, sextortion is so common and easy for predators to carry out on Snapchat that criminals are even distributing “sextortion scripts that include manuals for victimizing minors.”

While the scripts are widely available on the platform, they are not blacklisted by Snapchat, his office said.

The study found that Snapchat is the leading social media platform for sharing child sexual abuse. Parents report that their children share more child sexual abuse on Snapchat than on any other platform. Minors report having more sexual interactions online on Snapchat than on any other platform.

According to the lawsuit, Snapchat recruits more sex trafficking victims than any other platform and often promotes sexually explicit material and predators to minors.

The attorney general’s office said the New Mexico Department of Justice also conducted an undercover investigation as part of its probe, which revealed a “large network of dark web sites dedicated to sharing stolen, non-consensual sexual images” from Snap.

Snapchat ‘misled’ public about safety

That undercover investigation found more than 10,000 documents related to Snap and CSAM last year alone, including information about sexual abuse of minors under the age of 13.

“Undercover investigators with the New Mexico Department of Justice discovered that many of the Snapchat accounts that openly captured, distributed, and sold CSAM material directly on Snapchat’s platform were connected to each other via Snapchat’s recommendation algorithm,” the attorney general’s office said.

In addition to sexual abuse, the lawsuit alleges that the company also openly promotes child trafficking, drug trafficking and weapons trafficking.

The New Mexico Department of Justice also alleged that Snap and its executives misled the public about the safety of the platform and accused the platform of endangering the health and safety of New Mexico’s youth.

“Our undercover investigation revealed that Snapchat’s harmful design features create an environment in which child molesters can easily target children through sextortion schemes and other forms of sexual abuse,” Attorney General Torrez said in a statement.

Torrez accused the platform of misleading users into believing that photos and videos sent on its platform will disappear, when in fact predators can permanently capture such content, creating a “virtual yearbook of child sexual images that are traded, sold and stored indefinitely.”

“Through our lawsuit against Meta and Snap, the New Mexico Department of Justice will continue to hold these platforms accountable for putting profits ahead of children’s safety,” Torrez said.

New Mexico’s lawsuit against Snap Inc. comes after Torrez in December sued Meta Platforms, its subsidiaries and CEO Mark Zuckerberg over allegations that the company’s social media platforms are unsafe for children.

In that lawsuit, which is still ongoing, the social media giant is accused of allowing child abusers to trade child pornography and solicit minors for sex on its platforms.

Meta said at the time that it prioritizes teen safety and age-appropriate online experiences and that the complaint “misrepresents our work by using selective quotes and cherry-picked documents.”

The Epoch Times has reached out to a spokesperson for Snap Inc. for further comment.

Stephen Katte and The Associated Press contributed to this report.