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New Mexico Sues Snapchat Over Sextortion Allegations: The Dark Side of Disappearing Messages
Edited by: TJVNews.com
Snapchat, the popular photo-sharing app known for its disappearing messages, is at the center of a new lawsuit filed by New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez, who alleges that the platform has become a primary tool for online predators engaging in “sextortion” schemes, according to a recently published report in The New York Post. The lawsuit, which comes after a months-long investigation, accuses Snapchat’s parent company, Snap, of facilitating the sharing and distribution of child sexual exploitation material through the app’s design and policies, which are particularly appealing to minors.
Snapchat, launched in 2011, rapidly gained popularity among young users for its unique feature of sending photos and videos that disappear after a short time. With over 750 million monthly active users, many of them teenagers, the app has become a dominant social media platform for Generation Z, as per the information provided in The Post report. However, its signature feature—ephemeral messages—has raised serious concerns about the safety of its youngest users.
The New Mexico Attorney General’s lawsuit claims that Snapchat’s disappearing message feature gives predators a sense of security, believing that their illicit activity will vanish without a trace. But in reality, the lawsuit contends that many predators exploit the app to coerce minors into sending explicit content, which can then be saved, shared, and even sold on the dark web, as was indicated in The Post report.
“Sextortion” is a form of online exploitation where predators blackmail victims—often minors—by threatening to release private or explicit images unless they comply with further demands, which may include sending more graphic content or even money, according to the information contained in The Post report. Noted in the lawsuit was that Snapchat is particularly prone to this type of exploitation due to its large user base of teens and its features that give users a false sense of security.
The report in The Post said that Attorney General Torrez stated, “Snap has misled users into believing that photos and videos sent on their platform will disappear, but predators can permanently capture this content, and they have created a virtual yearbook of child sexual images that are traded, sold, and stored indefinitely.” The lawsuit paints a grim picture of Snapchat as a major source of child sexual exploitation material.
Torrez’s office launched an investigation into Snapchat’s role in these crimes, creating a decoy account for a fictitious 14-year-old girl named “Heather.” The decoy account quickly attracted attention from disturbing accounts such as “child.rape” and other explicitly named users. As per The Post report, this experiment revealed the extent to which predators target young users on the platform, using Snapchat’s disappearing messages as a cover to engage in illegal activities.
The investigation also uncovered over 10,000 records on dark websites linked to child sexual abuse content that originated from Snapchat. The Post reported that investigators found that Snapchat was “by far the largest source of images and videos among the dark web sites investigated,” suggesting that the app is a significant contributor to the global problem of child sexual exploitation online.
These findings have shocked many and raised serious questions about the platform’s responsibility in protecting its users, particularly minors, from such exploitation. The report in The Post indicated that the lawsuit claims that Snapchat’s design and policies have inadvertently created an environment where predators can operate with relative ease, exploiting the trust that young users place in the app’s disappearing messages.
In response to the lawsuit, a spokesperson for Snap confirmed that the company had received the New Mexico Attorney General’s complaint and was “reviewing it carefully,” The Post reported. The spokesperson emphasized that the company shares the public’s concern for online safety and is committed to making Snapchat a safe and positive space, especially for younger users.
“We share Attorney General Torrez’s and the public’s concerns about the online safety of young people and are deeply committed to Snapchat being a safe and positive place for our entire community, particularly for our younger users,” the company representative stated, according to The Post report. Snap has also highlighted its efforts to find, remove, and report bad actors on the platform, while educating users and providing safety tools for teens, parents, and guardians.
Snap has introduced various safety features over the years, including parental controls, content moderation, and partnerships with child safety organizations. However, the lawsuit suggests that these measures may not be enough to counter the growing threat of predators who are taking advantage of the platform’s design to target minors.
These lawsuits mark a critical moment in the ongoing debate about the responsibility of social media companies to safeguard vulnerable users, particularly children and teens, from exploitation and abuse.
In response to the lawsuit, a Snap spokesperson stated, “We understand that online threats continue to evolve, and we will continue to work diligently to address these critical issues. We have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in our trust and safety teams over the past several years and designed our service to promote online safety by moderating content and enabling direct messaging with close friends and family,” The Post report said.
Snapchat is not the only platform under scrutiny. Last December, New Mexico filed a similar lawsuit against Meta Platforms, accusing Facebook and Instagram of failing to protect underage users from adult predators, according to The Post report. The lawsuit alleged that both platforms allowed the distribution of inappropriate content, including explicit images and videos, as well as disturbing messages from child predators. According to the complaint, investigators found that Meta’s platforms had become a “marketplace for predators” seeking to exploit children.
New Mexico investigators used a methodical approach to investigate Meta’s platforms, creating decoy accounts for fictitious children aged 14 or younger. These accounts quickly attracted attention from adult users sending explicit content and making disturbing propositions, such as offers to appear in pornographic films. The state’s lawsuit blasted Meta for its inadequate moderation of harmful content and accused the company of engaging in conduct that was “unacceptable” and “unlawful.”
Meta, much like Snap, has defended its efforts to safeguard young users, stating that it employs sophisticated technology and partners with law enforcement and organizations like the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) to combat exploitation. The Post reported that in response to the lawsuit, Meta said, “We use sophisticated technology, hire child safety experts, report content to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and share information and tools with other companies and law enforcement, including state attorneys general, to help root out predators.”
The legal action against Meta comes amid a growing awareness of the global nature of sextortion schemes. As was pointed out in The Pos report, in July, Meta disclosed that it had removed approximately 63,000 Instagram accounts in Nigeria that were attempting to engage in sextortion scams targeting both adult men and children in the U.S. Among these accounts, Meta identified a network of 2,500 accounts operated by a group of 20 individuals, who primarily targeted adult men using fake identities.
This revelation illustrates the complexity of the challenge facing social media companies, as sextortion schemes are not limited to minors. Predators worldwide use sophisticated networks to exploit victims across borders, making it difficult for companies and law enforcement agencies to keep up with the growing threat.
