Show Notes: Dangers of Snapchat, EGLE and the Mundy Mystery Buyer

SnapChat Is Causing Significant Harm in Children

https://www.afterbabel.com/p/industrial-scale-snapchat

On October 1, 2024, investigative journalist Jeff Horwitz reported a startling statistic from an internal Snap Inc. email quoted in a court case against Snap Inc., the company which owns Snapchat. The email noted that the company receives around 10,000 reports of sextortion each month—and that figure is likely “only a fraction of the total abuse occurring on the platform.

The authors were able to obtain legal filings from court cases involving SnapChat.  These communications, including emails, reports, memos, and internal chat logs, were obtained through various legal proceedings filed against Snap Inc..

Specifically, the authors of this post examined:

• Multiple court cases filed against Snap Inc. between 2022 and 2025, including those part of the Multidistrict Litigation (MDL) and Judicial Council Coordinated Proceedings (JCCP).
• Over 6000 such lawsuits named Snap Inc.
• Significant cases brought by state attorneys general from Nevada and New Mexico. The authors explicitly state they draw heavily from the complaints filed by these attorneys general.
• The civil action second amended complaint, Neville et al. v. Snap.
• Haidt’s team created annotated versions of the New Mexico, Nevada, and Neville et al. briefs to show the context of the selections they chose. The post clarifies that bolded text within the harm cluster sections represents direct quotations from company employees, consultants, executives, and internal memos, while the surrounding non-bolded text often comes directly from the indicated Attorney General briefs, providing context for the internal Snap quotations. Therefore, the email quotes are pieces of evidence disclosed during these legal processes, revealing internal discussions and awareness within Snap Inc. regarding the harms associated with their platform.

Mental Health And Addiction

• Snapstreaks: Internal communications reveal that Snap employees recognized the addictive potential of Snapstreaks. An internal email in 2017 noted, “Wow, we should add more addicting features like this”.  There was also an internal investigation into whether streaks were a driver of engagement, with the hunch being that they start as a byproduct but eventually become a driver.  A 2018 presentation acknowledged that “Streaks have become pressure filled…” and highlighted users’ fear of missing out (FOMO) associated with them. By 2019, a presentation recognized that “Streaks make it impossible to unplug for even a day” and that maintaining them “causes pressure”. Internal research in 2018 found that over a third of users reported keeping a Snap Streak alive was “extremely” or “very important” and that the stress level was “large” or even “intolerable”.
• Push Notifications and Snap Stories: The briefs allege that features like push notifications and Snap Stories are part of the design to maximize engagement and drive problematic social media use among minors.
  
  
• Constant Accessibility: A 2018 presentation noted that “Gen Zs see their mobile devices as an extension of themselves, and while this allows constant access, it also creates constant pressure. There is never a break from the very real FOMO that exists”. This constant connectivity, facilitated by Snapchat’s design, contributes to compulsive checking and use.
  
  
• Quick Add: While discussed more in the context of connecting users with harmful content, the Quick Add feature also serves to expand users’ networks and potentially increase engagement by suggesting new accounts to add.
  
  
• Engagement-based Algorithms: The authors of the source suggest removing engagement-based algorithms, at least for underage users, indicating their belief that these algorithms contribute to problematic use.
  
  The real-life example of Jack McCarthy illustrates the consequences of this design. According to the complaint Neville v. Snap, Jack’s Snapchat use coincided with a decline in his mental health, and he became “locked into Snap’s social media product, as intended, causing him to feel like he couldn’t sleep without it”. His agitation when his parents limited his access further highlights the addictive nature of the platform for him. Tragically, he eventually obtained fentanyl-laced drugs through an anonymous dealer on Snapchat who had added him via the Quick Add feature, leading to his death

Locating Your Children & Drug Dealing on Snap Chat

Drug Dealers Dream

“per our analysis, on average at least ~700,000 Snapchatters are exposed to drug content daily in the areas we scanned“. This information was part of a presentation by the security firm Crisp that advised Snap on the ease of accessing illegal substances on the platform. The slide in the presentation was even headed “Enabling Easy Access to Illegal Substances” and stated that “It takes under a minute to use Snapchat to be in position to purchase illegal and harmful substances

Snapchat has been used in half of all online grooming activities

• Snap Map can be used to track down users in real-time: The source provides a real-life example where a 25-year-old man allegedly used Snap Map to track down and sexually assault a 16-year-old girl in Florida. Law enforcement officials stated that the suspect used Snap Map to track the victim based on the metadata in her “life story” post, knowing exactly where she posted it from. They warned that if users don’t hide their location when posting, the data hidden in the photo can be used to track them down.
  
  
• Snap was aware of privacy concerns regarding Snap Map: As early as June 2017, Snap’s Trust and Safety (T&S) Team Leads discussed “Snap Map Privacy Concerns”. One user reported that a group of older men found them on Snap Map at a party and tried to enter, threatening to hurt them. Another user reported their account was hacked and was worried the hackers could see their location on Snap Map. This user felt the feature was unsafe, even if Ghost Mode was enabled, as Snaps submitted to “Our Story” could still appear on the heat map.
  
  
• Experts warned about the risks of Snap Map: In July 2017, an article circulated among Snap employees included an interview with the Chief Executive of Parent Zone, who warned that Snap Map added nothing to users’ lives and was a threat to their security, advising users to turn it off. The article also noted the danger of “strangers or online acquaintances [users] have never met in real life” being able to see children’s exact locations. It was mentioned that police had used a decoy account to pinpoint locations from videos of potentially harmful activities.
  
  
• Snap acknowledged that Snap Map could lead to unwanted “Friend Requests”: In a November 2020 internal document, Snap admitted that “Previously public content (e.g., posts to the Map) could generate ‘Friend Requests’ from illegitimate friends (people who the account holder did not know and may not have wanted to be connected with)”. This suggests that Snap Map could not only reveal location but also facilitate contact from strangers.
  
  
• Employees proposed additional safety controls for Snap Map due to vulnerability to predators: In September 2022, Snap employees suggested more safety controls for Snap Map, acknowledging that it made young users more vulnerable to predators through friend requests from strangers. They noted that “Underaged users become even more vulnerable if the predators make friends with them and see their trail on the map”. The suggestion was to consider requiring users to accept friend requests from those outside their normal friend network, as predatory behavior often involves adults trying to add many kids
  
  
• A “Sextortion handbook” identified Snap Maps as a tool for targeting minors: Snap’s internal documents reportedly contained a “Sextortion handbook” showing how predators could use Snap Maps to target schools by viewing Snap Stories shared with the “snap maps” option enabled
  
  
• Quick Add: This feature allows adult strangers to easily connect with minors, which can be a starting point for grooming and subsequent sextortion
  
  
• Ephemeral Nature of Messages: The disappearing messages create a perceived sense of privacy, which can embolden both predators and victims in engaging in risky behaviors like sending nude images, a common precursor to sextortion.  The company itself recognized that some bad actors prefer Snapchat due to the ephemerality of communications

Ignoring Reports

Snap’s internal documents reveal a reliance on user reporting for illegal activity in private communications, and they acknowledge that they do not actively monitor or scan these communications like private phone calls or SMS messages. Furthermore, even when reports are made, they were often ignored, with one internal chat in January 2022 discussing that “by design, over 90% of account level reports are ignored today”

An internal Snap Inc. email from October 2024 which stated the company receives around 10,000 reports of sextortion each month