New Mexico Sues Snapchat Over Sextortion Allegations: The Dark Side of Disappearing Messages

New Mexico Sues Snapchat Over Sextortion Allegations: The Dark Side of Disappearing Messages

Edited by: TJVNews.com

Snapchat, the popular photo-sharing app known for its disappearing messages, is at the center of a new lawsuit filed by New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez, who alleges that the platform has become a primary tool for online predators engaged in “sextortion” schemes, according to a recent report in The New York Post. The lawsuit, which follows a months-long investigation, accuses Snapchat’s parent company, Snap, of facilitating the sharing and distribution of child sexual exploitation material through the app’s design and policies, which specifically appeal to minors.

Snapchat, launched in 2011, quickly gained popularity among young users for its unique feature of sending photos and videos that disappear after a short time. With more than 750 million monthly active users, many of them teenagers, the app has become a dominant social media platform for Gen Z, according to information in The Post’s report. However, its signature feature, ephemeral messages, has raised serious concerns about the safety of its youngest users.

The New Mexico attorney general’s lawsuit alleges that Snapchat’s disappearing messages feature gives predators a sense of security, believing their illegal activities will disappear without a trace. But in reality, the lawsuit alleges that many predators abuse the app to coerce minors into sending explicit content that can then be stored, shared and even sold on the dark web, as noted in The Post’s report.

“Sextortion” is a form of online exploitation in which predators blackmail victims, often minors, by threatening to release private or explicit images unless they comply with further demands, which can include sending more graphic content or even money, according to information in The Post’s report. The lawsuit noted that Snapchat is particularly susceptible to this type of exploitation because of its large teenage user base and features that lull users into a false sense of security.

The Post reported that Attorney General Torrez stated, “Snap deceived users into believing that photos and videos sent on its platform would disappear, but predators could permanently capture this content, creating a virtual yearbook of child sexual images that were traded, sold and stored indefinitely.” The lawsuit paints a bleak picture of Snapchat as a major source of child sexual exploitation material.

Torrez’s office launched an investigation into Snapchat’s role in the crimes, creating a decoy account for a fictitious 14-year-old girl named “Heather.” The decoy account quickly attracted the attention of troubling accounts like “child.rape” and other explicitly named users. According to The Post’s report, this experiment revealed the extent to which predators were targeting young users on the platform, using Snapchat’s disappearing messages as a cover to engage in illegal activity.

The investigation also uncovered more than 10,000 records on dark websites that linked to child sexual abuse content that originated from Snapchat. The Post reported that researchers found that Snapchat was “by far the largest source of images and videos among the dark websites examined,” suggesting that the app is a significant contributor to the global problem of online child sexual exploitation.

The findings have shocked many and raised serious questions about the platform’s responsibility to protect its users, particularly minors, from such exploitation. The Post’s report noted that the lawsuit alleges that Snapchat’s design and policies have inadvertently created an environment in which predators can operate with relative ease, abusing the trust young users place in the app’s disappearing messages.

In response to the lawsuit, a Snap spokesperson confirmed that the company had received the complaint from the New Mexico attorney general and was “carefully reviewing it,” The Post reported. The spokesperson stressed that the company shares the public’s concerns about online safety and is committed to making Snapchat a safe and positive place, particularly for younger users.

“We share Attorney General Torrez’s and the public’s concerns about youth safety online and are deeply committed to ensuring that Snapchat is a safe and positive place for our entire community, especially our younger users,” the company representative said, according to The Post’s report. Snap also stressed that it is committed to finding, removing and reporting bad actors on the platform, while educating users and providing safety tools for teens, parents and caregivers.

Snap has introduced a variety of safety features over the years, including parental controls, content moderation and partnerships with child safety organizations. However, the lawsuit suggests that these measures may not be enough to combat the growing threat of predators who abuse the platform’s design to target minors.

These lawsuits mark a pivotal moment in the ongoing debate over the responsibility of social media companies to protect vulnerable users, particularly children and teenagers, from exploitation and abuse.

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

Snapchat isn’t the only platform under scrutiny. Last December, New Mexico filed a similar lawsuit against Meta Platforms, accusing Facebook and Instagram of failing to protect underage users from adult predators, according to The Post’s report. The lawsuit alleged that both platforms allowed the distribution of inappropriate content, including explicit images and videos, and disturbing messages from child predators. According to the complaint, investigators found that Meta’s platforms had become a “marketplace for predators” seeking to exploit children.

New Mexico investigators took a methodical approach to investigating Meta’s platforms, creating fake accounts for fictional children 14 and under. These accounts quickly attracted the attention of adult users who posted explicit content and made disturbing propositions, such as offers to appear in pornographic films. The state’s lawsuit criticized Meta for its inadequate moderation of harmful content and accused the company of conduct that was “unacceptable” and “unlawful.”

Meta, like Snap, has defended its efforts to protect young users, saying it uses advanced technology and works with law enforcement and organizations like the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) to combat exploitation. The Post reported that Meta said in response to the lawsuit, “We use advanced technology, hire child safety experts, report content to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and share information and tools with other companies and law enforcement, including state attorneys general, to root out predators.”

The legal action against Meta comes amid growing awareness of the global nature of sextortion schemes. As noted in The Pos’ report, Meta announced in July that it had removed approximately 63,000 Instagram accounts in Nigeria that attempted to engage in sextortion scams targeting both adult men and children in the U.S. Among these accounts, Meta identified a network of 2,500 accounts operated by a group of 20 individuals, who primarily targeted adult men using fake identities.

This revelation illustrates the complexity of the challenge facing social media companies, as sextortion schemes are not limited to minors. Predators around the world are using sophisticated networks to exploit victims across borders, making it difficult for companies and law enforcement agencies to keep up with the growing threat.