Attorney General Raúl Torrez announced a significant milestone in the ongoing lawsuit against Snap Inc., after a New Mexico court denied the tech giant’s motion to dismiss. The ruling allows the State’s groundbreaking case – aimed at holding the social media platform accountable for its role in facilitating child exploitation, sextortion, and other harms – to move forward.
“Today’s ruling was an important step in our ongoing fight to hold social media companies accountable for the harm they cause to our children,” said Attorney General Raúl Torrez. “We still have a long way to go, but every tech company should be on notice – New Mexico will not permit the exploitation of our children, and we will not stand idly by while corporate leaders place profits over people.”
The lawsuit, filed in January, alleges that Snapchat’s design—including disappearing messages and unmoderated content discovery features—creates a dangerous environment that predators exploit to harm children. New Mexico is among the first states in the nation to take legal action targeting the product design choices that enable these harms.Today’s hearing marked the latest turning point in that effort, as the court rejected Snap’s claims that it is immune from suit under federal law.
The New Mexico Department of Justice will proceed into discovery, allowing the State to more fully examine what Snap knew and did.
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