The office of New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torres said Thursday it has filed a lawsuit against Snapchat (NYSE:SNAP) alleging that the social media company’s policies, content, and recommendation algorithm promote the sharing of child sexual abuse material and facilitate child abuse. Sexual exploitation.
“Our undercover investigation revealed that malicious design features on Snapchat create an environment where predators can easily target children for sextortion schemes and other forms of sexual abuse.” Attorney General Torres said in a statement:.
The statement said that Snap misled users into believing that photos and videos sent on its platform would disappear, but that predators were able to capture the content permanently, and created a “virtual yearbook of child sexual images” that was traded, sold and stored indefinitely.
The complaint also alleges that Snapchat’s features, algorithms, and policies fail to meet the needs of its young users, and that the company fails to verify users, making the platform unable to prevent minors from accessing illegal and inappropriate content.
The New Mexico Justice Department also alleges that Snap and its executives misled the public about the safety of the platform, including during congressional testimony and in a 2024 Super Bowl ad proclaiming the platform to be “more private” and “less permanent” than other social media platforms.
Snap could not immediately be reached for comment on Seeking Alpha’s request.
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