CEO Evan Spiegel reveals how Snapchat's safety measures led to over 1,000 arrests

In a testimony submitted to the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Evan Spiegel, co-founder and CEO of Snap Inc., detailed the company’s ongoing efforts to safeguard the Snapchat community, particularly its younger users. Snapchat, a platform boasting over 100 million American users, including more than 20 million teenagers, faces a responsibility to ensure the safety and well-being of its expansive user base.

As per him, Snapchat’s unique design choices, including focusing on real moments, ephemerality, and opt-in communication, aim to foster genuine connections while minimizing social pressures. The company is committed to safety, investing in tools and resources to combat the evolving threat landscape, with additional protections for minors and financial incentives for creators and publishers.

Spiegel pinpointed three major threats that Snap Inc. is actively combating on its platform:

1. Extortion

Highlighting the concerning rise in financially motivated sextortion. Including criminals posing as potential love interests and convincing victims to send compromising images.

• New tools have been developed to proactively detect and intervene before conversations escalate to extortion.
• Swift action, usually within 15 minutes, is taken when harassment or sexual content is reported.

2. Child sexual abuse material

Identification of criminals seeking to re-victimize children by sharing explicit content on the platform.

• Snapchat scans images and video uploads for known child sexual abuse material and reports it to authorities.
• In 2023, 690,000 reports led to over 1,000 arrests.
• Commitment to not implement encryption in a way that hinders the scanning of uploads for known child sexual abuse imagery.

3. Illicit drugs

Addressing the devastating fentanyl epidemic that claimed over 100,000 American lives in the previous year.

• Proactive scanning for illegal drug content on the platform.
• In 2023, over 2.2 million pieces of drug-related content were removed, 705,000 related accounts were disabled, and associated devices were blocked.
• Users searching for drug-related terms are redirected to educational material about counterfeit medication.

Spiegel supported legislative initiatives such as the Kids Online Safety Act, the Cooper Davis Act, and the Stop CSAM Act. Additionally, he advocates for a comprehensive federal privacy bill to establish consistent privacy standards for all online services.

Here is the official statement.