Snap has accused New Mexico’s attorney general of intentionally looking for adult users seeking sexually explicit content in order to make its app seem unsafe in a filing asking the court to dismiss the state’s lawsuit. In the document shared by The Verge, the company questioned the veracity of the state’s allegations. The attorney general’s office said that while it was using a decoy account supposed to be owned by a 14-year-old girl, it was added by a user named Enzo (Nud15Ans). From that connection, the app allegedly suggested over 91 users, including adults looking for sexual content. Snap said in its motion to dismiss, however, that those “allegations are patently false.”

It was the decoy account that searched for and added Enzo, the company wrote. The attorney general’s operatives were also the ones who looked for and added accounts with questionable usernames, such as “nudenude_22” and “xxx_tradehot.” In addition, Snap is accusing the office of “repeatedly [mischaracterizing]” its internal documents. The office apparently cited a document when it mentioned in its lawsuit that the company “consciously decided not to store child sex abuse images” and when it suggested that it doesn’t report and provide those images to law enforcement. Snap denied that it was the case and clarified that it’s not allowed to store child sexual abuse materials (CSAM) on its servers. It also said that it turns over such materials to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

The New Mexico Department of Justice’s director of communications was not impressed with the company’s arguments. In a statement sent to The Verge, Lauren Rodriguez accused Snap of focusing on the minor details of the investigation in an “attempt to distract from the serious issues raised in the State’s case.” Rodriguez also said that “Snap continues to put profits over protecting children” instead of “addressing… critical issues with real change to their algorithms and design features.”

New Mexico came to the conclusion that Snapchat’s features “foster the sharing of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and facilitate child sexual exploitation” after a months-long investigation. It reported that it found a “vast network of dark web sites dedicated to sharing stolen, non-consensual sexual images from Snap” and that Snapchat was “by far” the biggest source of images and videos on the dark web sites that it had seen. The attorney general’s office called Snapchat “a breeding ground for predators to collect sexually explicit images of children and to find, groom and extort them.” Snap employees encounter 10,000 sextortion cases each month, the office’s lawsuit said, but the company allegedly doesn’t warn users so as not to “strike fear” among them. The complaint accused Snap’s upper management of ignoring former trust and safety employees who’d pushed for additional safety mechanisms, as well.

SANTA FE, N.M. – The Old Gumby’s Country Store in Santa Fe has a lot to offer, not only to shoppers, but the products’ creators too.

“This could be the first opportunity for them to feel confident about something,” New Mexico Corrections Department’s Public Information Officer, Brittany Roembach. 

That’s because all the people who handmade these things are serving time in New Mexico prisons. 

“Welding, woodworking, we have a print shop, we have an embroidery shop,” said Ron Martinez, an administrative manger for Correction Industries.

The inmates have to apply for the program like a job. The proceeds from what they sell at the store goes back into the program and others like it. 

The inmates even make an hourly wage.

“Varies on the jobs based on what they’re doing, it’s a dollar up to two dollars,” Martinez said. 

But to be able to share their work with the community is priceless.

“They’re learning that skill, OK? They’re building products that are being sold and that builds a lot of self-worth for them,” said Martinez. 

Not only does it build self-worth, but it helps them start fresh once they are released. 

“One of the inmates who makes these he’s getting out soon and his family wants, he told me that his family is helping him to potentially start his own studio to sell rugs. So they can truly take it and turn it into a career,” said Roembach.

The store will open its doors Friday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. It is cash only, so make sure you hit the ATM before you head out. It’s going to be open once a month to give the inmates some time to replenish their stock. 

For more information on Old Gumby’s Country Store, click here. 

By Sheila Dang

(Reuters) – Snap on Thursday filed a motion to dismiss a New Mexico lawsuit that alleged the tech company enabled child sexual exploitation on its messaging app Snapchat, arguing there were inaccuracies to the state’s investigation.

The lawsuit, brought by New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez in September, is among a series of efforts by U.S. lawmakers to hold tech companies accountable for harm to minors who use their services. In January, U.S. senators grilled the CEOs of Snap, Meta Platforms, TikTok, X and Discord, accusing the companies of failing to protect children from abuse and “sextortion,” in which predators coerce minors into sending explicit photos or videos.

As part of a months-long investigation, New Mexico set up a decoy account for a 14-year-old girl, which investigators said did not add any friends but quickly received suggestions from Snapchat to add users with explicit account names.

In a filing in the first judicial court of New Mexico, Snap said the allegations were “patently false” and that the decoy account proactively sent many friend requests to certain users, contrary to the state’s claims.

New Mexico’s lawsuit also accused Snap of failing to warn children and parents of the dangers of sextortion on Snapchat. The Santa Monica, California-based company responded that the claims were barred by the First Amendment because Snap cannot be compelled to speak.

“Not only would Snap be required to make subjective judgments about potential risks of harm and disclose them, but it would have to do so with virtually no guidance about how to avoid liability in the future,” Snap said in the filing.

The state’s lawsuit is also a clear violation of Section 230, a portion of a 1996 law that protects online platforms from civil liability over content posted by users and third parties, Snap said.

The company added it has doubled the size of its trust and safety team and tripled its law enforcement operations team since 2020.

(Reporting by Sheila Dang in Austin, Texas; Editing by Matthew Lewis)