The Brief
The EU is investigating Snapchat over its child safety policies and illegal content.
The probe focuses on weak age checks and harmful activity risks.
Snapchat could face fines of up to 6% of its global revenue.
Snapchat is under investigation by the European Union over the app’s alleged failure to prevent child grooming and the sale of illegal goods.
The EU is conducting the probe under the Digital Services Act.
This requires online platforms to mount efforts to prevent illegal and harmful content or risk facing fines as much as 6% of their global annual sales.
Probe focuses on 5 factors
Dig deeper
The European Commission will be focusing on five areas in their investigation:
Grooming recruitment of minors for criminal activities
Inadequate default account settings
Dissemination of information on the sale of prohibited products
Reporting illegal content
Big picture view
The EU accused Snapchat of allowing the advertisement of illegal products such as vapes, alcohol and other age-restricted items on the app.
Additionally, officials alleged that Snapchat has an ineffective age-verification system.
The current mechanisms in place to notify Snapchat of illegal or harmful content are not adequate, the EU claimed.
What’s next
Snapchat said it was cooperating with EU regulators.
What they’re saying
“Snapchat is designed to help people communicate with close friends and family in a positive, trusted environment, with privacy and safety built in from the start — including additional protections for teens,” the company said in a statement to The New York Times. “As online risks evolve, we continuously review, strengthen and invest in these safeguards.”
The Source
Information for this article was taken from a news release from the European Union’ European Commission and reporting by Reuters and The New York Times. This story was reported from San Jose.