New Mexico lawsuit alleges Snapchat enables child sextortion

The New Mexico Attorney General has filed a lawsuit against Snap, accusing the company of creating an environment on the Snapchat app that facilitates the sexual exploitation and sextortion of children.

CNBC reports that New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez (D) has launched a legal battle against Snap, the parent company of popular social media app Snapchat, alleging that the app’s design features and algorithmic recommendations create a “breeding ground” for predators to target, manipulate and exploit children. The lawsuit, filed in the First Judicial District Court in Santa Fe County, alleges that Snapchat facilitates the exchange of illegal sexual material involving minors and enables the trafficking of children, drugs and weapons.

According to the lawsuit, Snap deceived users into believing that Snapchat photos and videos would quickly disappear. Torrez said, “Snap deceived users into believing that photos and videos sent on its platform would disappear, but predators could permanently capture this content and have created a virtual yearbook of child sexual images that are traded, sold, and stored indefinitely.”

The lawsuit accuses Snap of making false public claims about the safety and design of its platforms, even when the company’s own internal findings contradicted those assertions. The lawsuit alleges that Snap knew about the “rampant” and “massive” sextortion problem on its platform but failed to warn children and parents about the serious problem. The New Mexico Department of Justice alleges that the problem is so severe that it has driven children who face relentless demands to blackmail or release intimate images to their family and friends to commit suicide.

Recent investigations by the New Mexico Department of Justice have uncovered a massive network of dark web sites dedicated to sharing stolen, non-consensual sexual images from Snapchat. The department found more than 10,000 records related to Snapchat and child abuse material in the past year alone.

The lawsuit alleges that Snap violated New Mexico’s unfair business practices law. This legal action follows Torrez’s ongoing lawsuit against Facebook-owned Meta, which similarly accuses the company of facilitating the sexual exploitation of children. Torrez emphasized the state’s commitment to holding these platforms accountable for prioritizing profit over child safety, stating, “Through our lawsuit against Meta and Snap, the New Mexico Department of Justice will continue to hold these platforms accountable for prioritizing profit over child safety.”