New Mexico Department of Justice suing Snapchat over content concerns

NEW MEXICO (KRQE) – The New Mexico Attorney General is now going after Snapchat with claims that the app is getting young people hooked and exposing them to a world of child sex abuse material. The lawsuit comes after New Mexico’s Department of Justice created a fake Snapchat profile that posed as a 14-year-old girl named Heather.

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Investigators claimed Snapchat’s algorithm instantly suggested a stream of inappropriate and sexually explicit adult recommendations. “That girl was immediately engaged. That account was immediately engaged by a number of self-identified individual adults who expressed an interest in sexual images,” said New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez.

The NMDOJ claimed the platform made it easy for minor accounts to be located by maliocus users. Investigators also claimed they found several profiles with usernames welcoming minors who’ll share pictures. “We also have discovered that this is a place where a lot of people who have a sexual interest in children are trading sexually explicit material, sexually exploitive material. They are trying to target, groom, and identify potential victims,” said AG Torrez.

The lawsuit claimed that “Snapchat by far is the largest source of leaked videos and images.”

Torrez said he hopes the effort will help reign in the popular app. “To design these products with an intention that places safety in front those most vulnerable users front and center rather than as an afterthought,” said Torrez.

Along with its ongoing lawsuit against Facebook’s parent company Meta, the NMDOJ said they have another investigation underway regarding illegal gun buying and drug dealing within online platforms.

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