Snap says New Mexico intentionally befriended alleged child predators, then blames company

Snap says the basis of a painful case suggesting that it systematically recommended the accounts of teenagers to child predators is backwards – the company is now accusing the New Mexico attorney general of knowingly searching those accounts before the recommendations were made. The company says the AG’s case is based on “gross misrepresentations” and cherry picks from Snap’s internal documents.

In a motion to dismiss filed Thursday, Snap said AG Raúl Torrez’s complaint made “blatantly false” allegations, and specifically misrepresented its own undercover investigation, which the AG’s office created a decoy 14-year-old account. Torrez alleged that Snap violated state unfair practices and public nuisance laws by misleading users about its safety and longevity. “missing” messages which he said enabled abusers to collect and retain exploitative images of minors.

But Snap admitted that contrary to how the state portrayed it, investigators were the ones sending friend requests from the decoy account “to clearly targeted usernames such as ‘nudedude_22,’ ‘teenxxxxxxx06,’ ‘ineedasugardadx, ‘ and ‘xxx_tradehot.’”

And Snap says the government’s decoy account was found and added an account called “Enzo (Nud15Ans)” — which it says asked the decoy to send anonymous messages through an end-to- end service that is encrypted – rather than the other way around, as the state says. The state claimed that after connecting with Enzo, “Snapchat suggested more than 91 users, including many adult users whose accounts included or intended to exchange sexually explicit content.”

Snap also said the state “repeatedly mischaracterized” its internal documents, including blaming Snap for choosing “not to store child sexual abuse images” and suggesting that it failed it is to give them to enforce the law. 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 “of course” transferred any such content to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children as directed.

Lauren Rodriguez, director of communications for the New Mexico Department of Justice, said Snap wants to dismiss the case to “avoid liability for the serious harm the platform has caused to children.” In a statement, he said, “The evidence we presented—including internal documents and findings from our investigation—clearly shows that Snap has long been aware of the dangers of its platform and failed to act. Instead of addressing these critical issues with real changes to their algorithms and design features, Snap continues to put profits into protecting children.

We find that Snap’s focus on the minor details of the investigation is an attempt to distract from the serious issues raised by the State’s case. We will address these matters through appropriate court filings. The harms detailed in our complaint remain a pressing concern, as young Snapchat users continue to face the same risks outlined in our lawsuit.

The company sought to dismiss the lawsuit on several grounds, including that the state attempted to mandate age verification and parental controls in violation of the First Amendment and that the legal liability protections of Section 230 should to block the case.

Snap also said the AG’s claims of Snap’s alleged misrepresentations of its services centered on “puffery-based ‘catchphrases’ (for example, that Snapchat is a ‘carefree’ platform) and wishful statements about Snap’s commitment to safety, even though Snap does not (unlikely) eliminate all potential risks posed by third parties.