Snap says a scathing lawsuit that shows the company systematically recommended teen accounts to child predators was based on backwards assumptions — and the company is now accusing the New Mexico attorney general of knowingly seeking out such accounts before making recommendations. The company said the attorney general’s case was based on “serious misrepresentations” and culled from internal Snap documents.
Snap said in a motion to dismiss filed Thursday that AG Raúl Torrez’s complaint made “manifestly false” allegations and specifically misrepresented its own undercover investigation in which the AG’s office created a 14-year-old decoy account. Torrez accused Snap of violating the state’s unfair practices and public nuisance laws by misleading users about the security and ephemerality of their “disappearing” messages, which he said enabled abusers to collect and retain for the exploitation of minors. Sexual images.
But Snap alleges that contrary to how the government described it, investigators sent friend requests from the decoy account to “obviously targeted usernames such as ‘nudedude_22’, ‘teenxxxxxxx06’, ‘ineedasugardadx’ and ‘xxx_tradehot’.”
Snap said it was actually the government decoy account that searched for and added an account named “Enzo (Nud15Ans),” which allegedly continued to ask the decoy to send anonymous messages through an end-to-end encrypted service. As the state claims, the opposite is true. The state alleges that after contacting Enzo, “Snapchat referred more than 91 users, including many adult users whose accounts contained or attempted to exchange sexually explicit content.”
Snap also said the state “repeatedly misrepresented” its internal documents, including accusing Snap of choosing “not to store child sexual abuse images” and suggesting it failed to provide those images to law enforcement. In fact, according to Snap, it is not allowed to store child sexual abuse material (CSAM) on its servers under federal law and said it would “certainly” turn over any such content to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children as required .
Lauren Rodriguez, communications director for the New Mexico Department of Justice, said Snap wanted the case dismissed to “avoid liability for the serious harm its platform has caused to children.” She said in a statement, “The evidence we have presented – including internal documents and findings – clearly shows that Snap knew about the dangers on its platform for a long time but failed to take action. Snap did not adopt real changes to its algorithm and design. features to address these critical issues and instead continue to prioritize profits over protecting children.”
We found that Snap’s focus on minor details of the investigation was an attempt to distract from the serious issues raised in the state’s case. We will address these issues through appropriate court filings. The harms detailed in our complaint remain a pressing concern as young users of Snapchat continue to face the same risks outlined in our case.
The company is seeking to have the lawsuit dismissed on multiple grounds, including that the state is trying to enforce age verification and parental control measures that violate the First Amendment and that Section 230 of the Legal Liability Shield should block the lawsuit.
Snap also said the attorney general’s charges against Snap for allegedly misrepresenting its service center around “boast-based ‘buzzwords’ (e.g., that Snapchat is a ‘worry-free’ platform) and ambitious statements about Snap’s commitment to security, while Neither of these remotely guarantees that Snap will (let alone be able to) eliminate all potential risks posed by third parties.”
Updated on November 21st: Added additional statement from Rodriguez.
