“By
November
2022,
Snap
employees
were
discussing
10,000
user
reports
of
sextortion
each
month,
while
acknowledging
that
these
reports
‘likely
represent
a
small
fraction
of
this
abuse’
given
the
shame
and
other
barriers
to
reporting,”
says
a
newly
unsealed
version
of
the
lawsuit
filed
by
New
Mexico’s
attorney
general
against
Snap.
This
less-redacted
version
of
the
filing
we
first
saw
a
month
ago
adds
fresh
details
about
what
Snap
employees
allegedly
knew
about
the
scope
of
the
sextortion
issue
it’s
accused
of
facilitating
on
its
platform.
In
one
alleged
instance,
employees
referenced
a
case
with
75
reports
against
it
“mentioning
nudes,
minors,
and
extortion,
yet
the
account
was
still
active.”
And
in
2022,
Snap’s
internal
research
allegedly
found
that
over
a
third
of
teen
girls
and
30
percent
of
teen
boys
on
its
app
had
been
exposed
“to
unwanted
contact
on
its
platform.”
the
complaint
says.
The
new
details
paint
a
picture
of
a
company
aware
of
its
alleged
shortcomings
when
it
came
to
protecting
kids
on
its
service,
yet
not
sufficiently
focused
on
fixing
them.
“Former
Snap
trust
and
safety
employees
complained
that
‘they
had
little
contact
with
upper
management,
compared
to
their
work
at
other
social
media
companies,
and
that
there
was
pushback
in
trying
to
add
in-app
safety
mechanisms
because
[Snap
CEO]
Evan
Spiegel
prioritized
design,’”
the
complaint
says.
“...
there
was
pushback
in
trying
to
add
in-app
safety
mechanisms
because
[Snap
CEO]
Evan
Spiegel
prioritized
design”
In
a
statement
posted
to
its
newsroom,
Snap
said
its
app
is
designed
“as
a
place
to
communicate
with
a
close
circle
of
friends,
with
built-in
safety
guardrails,
and
have
made
deliberate
design
choices
to
make
it
difficult
for
strangers
to
discover
minors
on
our
service.
We
continue
to
evolve
our
safety
mechanisms
and
policies,
from
leveraging
advanced
technology
to
detect
and
block
certain
activity,
to
prohibiting
friending
from
suspicious
accounts,
to
working
alongside
law
enforcement
and
government
agencies,
among
so
much
more.”
According
to
the
complaint,
Snap
employees
circulated
an
external
report
in
2021
that
included
examples
of
alleged
predators
connecting
with
kids
as
young
as
eight
through
Snapchat
and
obtaining
child
sexual
abuse
material.
But
they
feared
measures
to
catch
this
kind
of
behavior
would
be
unduly
burdensome
on
user
privacy
and
“create
disproportionate
admin
costs,”
the
complaint
alleges.
Employees
also
allegedly
identified
risks
with
certain
Snapchat
features,
like
Quick
Add,
which
suggests
other
users
to
connect
with.
“We
need
to
come
up
with
new
approaches
that
ringfence
our
most
vulnerable
users
(minors)
and
make
it
harder
for
predatory
users
to
find
them
via
quick
add,
search,
etc.,”
an
executive
wrote,
according
to
the
complaint.
“We
believe
we
can
achieve
this
without
meaningfully
degrading
the
product
experience
for
these
users
if
we
pursue
new
strategies
in
inventory
generation/constraints
and
other
techniques
to
more
effectively
silo
minors
from
people
outside
their
networks.”
Snap
later
made
it
so
the
Quick
Add
feature
would
only
show
up
for
13
to
17-year-olds’
accounts
when
they
had
“a
certain
number
of
friends
in
common
with
that
person.”
But
internally,
the
complaint
says,
employees
recognized
that
the
approach
would
still
have
significant
shortcomings.
The
unsealed
complaint
also
includes
more
details
on
how
Snap
allegedly
facilitated
the
illicit
sale
of
guns.
In
one
undated
presentation,
the
company
acknowledged
that
its
platform
sees
“50
posts
related
to
illegal
gun
sales
per
day
and
9,000
views
per
day
of
these
marketed
weapons.”
And
even
when
content
is
reported,
“[r]eported
content
is
usually
viewed
hundreds
of
times
before
report.”
“Streaks
make
it
impossible
to
unplug
for
even
a
day”
It
also
includes
internal
communications
acknowledging
the
addictiveness
of
Snapstreaks,
where
users
are
told
how
many
days
they’ve
continued
communicating
with
another
user.
“Wow,
we
should
have
more
addicting
features
like
this,”
one
employee
allegedly
wrote,
according
to
a
January
2017
email.
“Most
streakers
are
our
core
demographic,”
wrote
another.
An
October
2019
presentation
allegedly
noted
that
“Streaks
make
it
impossible
to
unplug
for
even
a
day.”
(Originally posted by Lauren Feiner)
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