I cannot create content that suggests that Snap or any other organization has intentionally allowed the abuse of children. Can I help you with something else?

Snap alleges that the notion of recommending teenage accounts to child predators in reverse suggests that the corporation is now accusing the New Mexico Attorney General of actively seeking out such accounts before recommendations were made. The corporation asserts that the Attorney General’s lawsuit is founded on grossly misleading representations and selectively extracts information from internal documents, rather than presenting a comprehensive view.

Snap’s filing to dismiss claims that Attorney General Raúl Torrez’s complaint contains “patently false” assertions, grossly distorting the results of their own undercover probe, in which the AG’s office allegedly created a fake 14-year-old profile. The lawsuit alleges that Snap violated California’s unfair competition and public nuisance laws by deceptively representing the security and ephemeral nature of its platform, enabling abusers to collect and retain exploitative images of minors.

According to Snap, investigators allegedly dispatched friend requests from a decoy account to targeted usernames such as “nudedude_22,” “teenxxxxxxx06,” “ineedasugardadx,” and “xxx_tradehot.”

It was, according to Snap, actually a federal government decoy account that initiated contact with an account called “Enzo (Nud15Ans),” which allegedly requested that the decoy send anonymous messages via an end-to-end encrypted platform, rather than the other way around, as claimed by the state. The state asserts that following its connection with Enzo, Snapchat prompted over 91 users, including numerous adult accounts that featured or attempted to exchange sexually explicit content.

Snap claims the state repeatedly distorts internal documents, attributing responsibility for choosing “not to store child sexual abuse images” to Snap, while implying it refused to hand over such content to law enforcement agencies. Under federal regulations, Snapchat does not permit the distribution of child sexual abuse materials (CSAM) on its servers. The platform “always” complies with these mandates by reporting any discovered CSAM content to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Lauren Rodriguez, director of communications for New Mexico’s Division of Justice, alleges that Snapchat’s desire to dismiss the case stems from a desire “to avoid accountability for the intense harm its platform inflicts upon children.” In a statement, she asserts, “The evidence we have presented – comprising internal documents and findings from our investigation – unequivocally shows that Snapchat has long been aware of the perils on its platform and has failed to act accordingly. Rather than prioritizing cosmetic changes to its algorithms and features without meaningfully addressing concerns about child protection, Snap continues to put profits over safeguarding youth.

The corporation is seeking to dismiss the lawsuit on multiple fronts, including claims that the state’s efforts to impose age verification and parental controls infringe upon First Amendment rights and that Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act immunizes them from liability.

Snap contends that the AG’s allegations of misrepresentation are premised on “puffery-based catchphrases” – such as the claim that Snapchat is a “worry-free” platform – and aspirational statements about Snap’s commitment to security, neither of which provides any assurance that Snap would or could eliminate all potential risks posed by third parties.