HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday announced Tuesday that he filed a lawsuit against Snap Inc., accusing the social media company of designing its wildly popular Snapchat app to be addictive and failing to protect minors from viewing content suitable for adults.
The lawsuit asks that a Philadelphia County judge rule that Snap’s business practices violate Pennsylvania Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law and that the company be temporarily and permanently enjoined from continuing the alleged violations.
It also seeks civil damages, the recovery of costs and fees expended by the commonwealth on the lawsuit, and any other relief deemed appropriate by the judge.
The end goal, Sunday said Tuesday at a press conference, is to overhaul how Snapchat is marketed and advertised, change the app’s design to discourage compulsive use and add features to restrict what content minors can access.
The lawsuit is similar to litigation filed against TikTok and its operators earlier this month in Allegheny County Court. Sunday is also engaged in litigation in California filed against Meta, the parent company of Facebook.
Sunday said that Snap is engaged in “two categorical breaches” of state law.
“One, Snapchat’s dishonesty about what material appears on its app, leading to a (age 13-plus) rating on its app store. Two, Snapchat’s highly addictive design and the company’s unwillingness to protect kids from compulsive use,” Sunday said.
“We allege that Snapchat knowingly lies to consumers about how often adult-themed materials such as drug use, suicidal ideation and sexual content appear on its platform. They do so to achieve the 13-plus rating on app stores. … This rating vastly expands and increases Snapchat’s customer base,” he said.
Earlier in August, a federal appeals judge upheld a lower court ruling against major tech firms including TikTok, Meta, Google and Snapchat, ordering them to stand as defendants in an estimated 3,000 lawsuits in federal court accusing them of purposefully making their products addictive for children.
Sunday was joined at the press conference by state Sen. Tracy Pennycuick, R-Berks/Montgomery, who’s spearheaded legislation seeking to protect minors from online predators and child sex abuse material generated with artificial intelligence.
“A 13-plus rating should be a promise to parents, not an advertising loophole,” she said.