Snapchat hit with EU probe into alleged failure to prevent child grooming, illegal goods sales

Social media platform Snapchat, owned by U.S. tech ​company Snap, was hit with an EU investigation on ‌Thursday as regulators warned it appears not to ​be doing enough to prevent child ⁠grooming and the sale of illegal goods.

The EU is conducting the probe under the Digital Services Act, which requires big ‌online platforms to do more to tackle illegal and harmful content or risk fines ‌of as much as 6% of their global ‌annual ⁠sales.

“From grooming and exposure to illegal ⁠products to account settings that undermine minors’ safety, Snapchat appears to have overlooked that the Digital Services Act demands high safety standards ​for all users,” EU ‌tech chief Henna Virkkunen said in a statement.

Snapchat said it continuously reviews and strengthens its safeguards.

“We have fully cooperated with the Commission to date – engaging ‌proactively, transparently and working in good faith ​to meet the DSA’s high safety standards – and we will continue to do so throughout ⁠this investigation,” a spokesperson said.

The European Commission, charged with enforcing the act, said it suspected that Snapchat ‌does not have sufficient safeguards to prevent children from being contacted by users looking to exploit them sexually or for criminal activities.

It said the company’s content moderation tools were ineffective in preventing the spread of information pointing users to the sale of ‌illegal products such as drugs or age-restricted products such as ​vapes and alcohol. The Commission said it will take over an investigation opened by Dutch ⁠regulators last September into the sales of vapes to children ⁠on Snapchat.

Other areas of EU concern include Snapchat’s self-declaration age assurance tool which regulators ‌said is insufficient, its inadequate default account settings, and its mechanisms to allow users to report dark ​patterns in its design.