The families of more than 60 young people who died of fentanyl overdoses said Snapchat’s algorithm helps connect children with drug dealers.
Expanding arguments from a lawsuit filed against Snapchat’s parent company, Snap, in October in Los Angeles, the victims’ families now say the company was too busy chasing profits to recognize their social media app became known as an “open-air drug market,” according to an update to the suit filed Tuesday.
“Snap and Snapchat’s role in illicit drug sales to teens was the foreseeable result of the designs, structures, and policies Snap chose to implement to increase its revenues,” the updated lawsuit states.
“Snapchat is the go-to means to distribute drugs to children, teens, and young adults through social media, and is involved in a far greater number of fentanyl poisoning deaths of U.S. teens than other social media apps.”
The lawsuit points to Snapchat’s key feature — where messages between users are automatically deleted — as a design drug dealers are abusing. The families argue the feature is clearly marketed for those engaging in crimes they want to keep hidden.
“A motivation for Snapchat’s disappearing feature — not just disappearing between users but permanently destroyed on the back end as well — was to … provide cover for those engaged in illicit and illegal conduct,” the lawsuit claims.
Sam Chapman, whose son died of fentanyl poisoning in 2021, told Fox 11 the app’s features created the perfect environment for his child and others to be preyed upon by drug dealers.
“This is 65 people with a lot of tragedy in common with the one platform that was the gun, if you will, that shot the fentanyl bullet at our children,” Chapman said.
The suit also claims Snap acts as the perfect home for drug traffickers as the company allegedly “frustrates law enforcement’s efforts” to prosecute suspects.
“First, Snap notifies drug dealers when they receive a subpoena or other legal requests for their account information, giving them time to alter their action,” the suit claims. “Second, in some instances Snap takes months to respond to requests for account information, resulting in material evidence being inaccessible due to Snap’s automatic deletion design.”
In a statement, Snap slammed the lawsuit, claiming it “is riddled with false claims about how the Snapchat app works” and fails to recognize the company’s work to combat drug activity on its platform.
“While we don’t typically comment on active litigation, unfortunately this amended filing is riddled with false claims about how the Snapchat app works,” the statement read.
“Our ongoing efforts to aggressively combat drug activity on our platform and shut down drug dealers, and our team members’ statements. We remain deeply committed to doing our part to fight this urgent crisis.”
Snap launched an informational campaign on the dangers of fentanyl in October. The company boasts it had about 375 million uses in 2020.
In 20 countries in North America, the company says Snapchat reaches 90% of the 13 to 24-year-old population.
