Snap knew about sextortion and gun sales, unsealed lawsuit reveals
Snap employees were reportedly chatting about 10,000 user reports of sextortion every month by November 2022. This info comes from a recently unsealed lawsuit filed by New Mexico's attorney general against Snap. The employees admitted that these reports "likely represent a small fraction of this abuse" because of the shame and other hurdles people face when reporting. This less-redacted version of the filing, gives us new insights into what Snap employees allegedly knew about the sextortion problem on its platform.
Internal research reveals unwanted contact exposure
Snap's internal research from 2022 reportedly found that over a third of teen girls and 30% of teen boys on its app, had been exposed to "unwanted contact on its platform," according to a complaint. In one instance, workers referenced a case with 75 reports against it "mentioning nudes, minors, and extortion," yet the account remained active. These new details suggest that Snap was aware of its alleged shortcomings in protecting minors on its service.
Safety measures criticized by former employees
Former Snap trust and safety employees have raised some serious concerns about their time at the company. According to a recent complaint, they felt totally cut off from upper management, saying they had way less interaction with top executives compared to other social media firms. Plus, they mentioned facing pushback when trying to roll out safety features in the app. Apparently, CEO Evan Spiegel was more focused on design than on safety measures.
Snap defends its safety measures amid allegations
In response to the allegations, Snap said that its app is meant for chatting among close friends. The company pointed out its built-in safety features and design choices, that make it tough for strangers to find minors on the platform. Snap also mentioned its ongoing efforts to improve safety measures and policies, like using advanced tech to detect and block certain activities, stopping friend requests from suspicious accounts, and working with law enforcement agencies.
Employees feared safety measures would burden user privacy
According to the complaint, Snap workers shared an external report in 2021 that highlighted instances of alleged predators, connecting with kids as young as eight through Snapchat. The report also mentioned that child sexual abuse material was being obtained via the platform. However, employees raised concerns that measures to catch such behavior would infringe on user privacy and "create disproportionate admin costs," as stated in the suit.
Quick Add feature poses risks
Snap employees apparently flagged some risks with certain Snapchat features, like Quick Add, which suggests other users to connect with. An executive noted that new strategies were essential to safeguard vulnerable users, and make it tougher for predators to find them through Quick Add/search. Even after tweaking Quick Add to only show up for accounts of 13-17-year-olds when they had "a certain number of friends in common with that person," employees still saw major internal shortcomings, as per the complaint.
Snap allegedly facilitated illicit gun sales
The unsealed complaint spills the beans on how Snap supposedly helped in the shady business of selling guns. The company admitted in an undated presentation that its platform sees "50 posts related to illegal gun sales per day and 9,000 views per day of these marketed weapons." The complaint also points out that reported content usually gets hundreds of views before it's flagged, hinting at a possible gap in their monitoring and control systems.
