Credit: Canva
Pennsylvania has sued Snap over Snapchat. The case rests on a 13-year-old account, opened on a new iPhone by an investigator in the attorney general’s office before the filing. What that account could reach is the evidence.
Attorney General David Sunday filed the complaint on 25 August in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas. It runs to three counts under the state’s Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law.
Miranda Nazzaro reported the filing for The Hill, and the complaint is public. Snap says the allegations fundamentally misrepresent its platform.
The age rating is the first count
When Snap lists Snapchat in Apple’s App Store, it answers a rubric of questions Apple provides. Those answers produce a 13+ rating, up from 12+. They also produce a description saying the app contains only infrequent profanity and crude humour, sexual content or nudity, drug and alcohol references, and mature themes.
The same process gives Snapchat a T for Teen rating in the Google Play and Microsoft stores. Pennsylvania says all of it is false.
The complaint sets out what the investigator’s account found in each of Apple’s categories, quoting the examples in full. They include videos of young men rolling cannabis and a man mixing and drinking spirits on camera. One caption uses opioid slang and frames the user as 15 years old, another frames him as 14.
On sexual content, the complaint lists paid advertisements for a streaming app running explicit clips, alongside creator videos. We have not reproduced the language, which is graphic throughout.
Four paragraphs are blacked out
The version filed publicly is marked Public Redacted, and four numbered paragraphs are empty: 56, 57, 61 and 68.
All four sit inside the content sections. Two follow the drug examples and two follow the sexual content examples, in the places where a complaint would normally set out what the company knew internally.
The second and third counts are about design
Count two says Snap failed to disclose that Snapchat is addictive. Count three says the design itself is unfair, whatever Snap disclosed.
The features named are ephemeral content, infinite scroll, push notifications, autoplay, Snapscores, Snapstreaks and Charms. Disappearing content drives return visits because users risk missing something, the complaint argues. Push notifications arrive through the night.
Snapstreaks count consecutive days two people have exchanged Snaps, and the streak dies after 24 hours of silence. Snap sells a one-time fee to restore a lost one.
“We allege this streak feature puts a tangible value on friendships and influences a child’s feelings of self-worth,” Sunday said at a press conference.
The Friend Solar System
One feature gets singled out. The complaint calls the Friend Solar System “perhaps Snapchat’s most extreme method of user manipulation”.
It comes with a paid Snapchat+ subscription. Subscribers see a Best Friends badge on a friendship profile, meaning that person is among the eight they Snap and chat with most. Tapping the badge shows which planet you are in that person’s solar system.
The complaint spells out the consequence. A young person can see whether they are as valuable to a friend as that friend is to them. Someone who is Mercury in your system might have you down as Jupiter or Neptune.
What Pennsylvania is asking for
Each count carries the same prayer for relief. The state wants a declaration that Snap broke the law, temporary and permanent injunctions, and civil penalties for willful violations. It also wants its costs, including expert-witness expenses and interest.
There is no damages figure. The case was filed by Jonathan Burns, the senior deputy attorney general who runs the office’s Technology and Privacy Protection Unit.
The complaint puts Snap’s North American revenue above $5.3bn in 2024 and the company’s value above $12bn. Snap has millions of users in Pennsylvania, it says, including tens of thousands under 16. It also notes that Snap pays some Pennsylvania users for content they post.
What Snap says
“The allegations against Snap fundamentally misrepresent our platform and our approach to teen safety,” a spokesperson said. “Snapchat was designed differently from the beginning: it opens to a camera, not a feed of content, and was built to encourage self-expression and authentic connection with friends.”
The company added that it shares the attorney general’s commitment and is disappointed he chose litigation rather than working together. Snap shares fell 6.75% on Tuesday.
The week this landed in
Sunday filed a comparable case against TikTok earlier this month, on the same statute and the same theory.
Meta settled with 29 states on Wednesday for a maximum of $16.68bn, mid-trial. It agreed to daily limits and nighttime blocks for teenagers, and is holding back $5.3bn unless TikTok and YouTube adopt the same rules.
The Ninth Circuit let 2,400 similar lawsuits proceed this month without touching Section 230.
What it means in Europe
Snapchat is popular with European teenagers and none of this reaches them, because a Pennsylvania consumer statute stops at the state line.
Europe’s route is regulatory rather than litigious. The Digital Services Act bans profiling minors for advertising. Brazil fined TikTok’s owner $29.9m over children’s data this week, and New Zealand is drafting an under-16 ban.
The app-store angle travels further than the rest. Apple, Google and Microsoft apply the same rating systems in Europe that Pennsylvania says produced a false label in America.
What to watch
Snap has 20 days from service to enter an appearance or respond.
The redacted paragraphs are the thing to follow. If the case proceeds, what sits behind those four blacked-out numbers is likely to come out in discovery.
Snap has not said whether it will contest the age ratings themselves. Apple, Google and Microsoft are not defendants.
Get the TNW newsletter
Get the most important tech news in your inbox each week.
