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Facing snap chat A major legal challenge in California, as a group of families of teenagers and children who overdosed on… alfentanil A lawsuit accuses the social media platform of facilitating illicit drug deals involving fentanyl, a synthetic opioid many times more deadly than heroin.
Fentanyl is lethal even in very small doses, is cheap to produce and is often sold disguised as other substances.
This lawsuit, which blames the platform for a rash of drug overdoses among young people, could have profound implications for how social media platforms operate and are held accountable.
According to a report by ABC, more than 60 family members of the children and teenagers who are part of the lawsuit claim that they obtained illegal drugs through Snapchat, and in all but two cases, the child or teenager died after taking the alleged drugs. Which he got via an ad on Snapchat.
The lawsuit alleges that company officials knew that the platform’s design and unique features created a safe haven for the sale of illegal drugs.
Traditionally, technology companies, such as Snapchat, have been protected under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. Snap previously tried to dismiss the lawsuit last October, but Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Lawrence B. Reeve ruled Tuesday that the families’ lawsuit would continue.
The lawsuit alleges that some of Snapchat’s features over other apps – such as automatically deleted messages, geolocation functionality and the My Eyes Only privacy feature – make it difficult to track illegal activities and are particularly attractive to drug dealers.
The lead plaintiff in the lawsuit, Amy Neville, told Good Morning America last October that her son, Alexander, was 14 years old and preparing for his first year of high school when he died in 2020 after taking an oxycodone pill containing fentanyl, which she said He got it from someone he met on Snapchat.
Snapchat previously said the company uses “cutting-edge technology” to try to keep users safe, and also pointed to its work supporting law enforcement investigations into drug traffickers, and its work to create a Family Center to help provide parents with a clearer view of their children’s actions on Snapchat, according to the company. the report.
