Snap sued by New Mexico over 'sextortion' of kids by predators

• The New Mexico attorney general filed a lawsuit against Snap.
• The suit alleges that the design features of the social media app Snapchat create an environment where "predators can easily target children through sextortion schemes."
• "Snap has misled users into believing that photos and videos sent on their platform will disappear, but predators can permanently capture this content," Attorney General Raúl Torrez said.

The New Mexico attorney general has filed a lawsuit against Snap, alleging that the design and algorithmic recommendations of its social media app Snapchat "openly foster and promote illicit sexual material involving children and facilitate sextortion and the trafficking of children, drugs, and guns."

The suit calls Snapchat "a breeding ground for predators to collect sexually explicit images of children and to find, groom and extort them."

New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez, who has a pending lawsuit against Facebook owner Meta alleging the company enables the sexual exploitation of children, in a statement Thursday said, "Snap has misled users into believing that photos and videos sent on their platform will disappear, but predators can permanently capture this content and they have created a virtual yearbook of child sexual images that are traded, sold, and stored indefinitely."

"Through our litigation against Meta and Snap, the New Mexico Department of Justice will continue to hold these platforms accountable for prioritizing profits over children's safety," Torrez said.

CNBC has requested comment from Snap about Torrez's lawsuit, which was filed in the First Judicial District Court in Santa Fe County.

The suit alleges that Snap "repeatedly made statements to the public regarding the safety and