Snap removes velocity filter linked to reckless driving lawsuits

Snap is eradicating its controversial “speed filter” from Snapchat this week, NPR reports. The in-app impact shows your present velocity in miles or kilometers per hour, and plenty of critics have claimed the characteristic inspired reckless driving — with some saying that Snap ought to be held liable when the velocity filter was related to lethal automobile crashes.

There have been a number of lawsuits over time connecting Snapchat to automobile crashes. One regarding a 2015 automobile accident in Georgia arrived only a few years after Snapchat was first up to date to incorporate the filter. In the years since, the corporate has demoted the filter to a sticker, burying it in a separate menu, and making it a bit tougher to make use of.

The Ninth Circuit Appeals Court lately dominated that Snap may very well be sued for the velocity filter / sticker’s involvement in automobile accidents. The court docket discovered that Snap isn’t protected right here by Section 230 — a portion of the Communications Decency Act that shields corporations from being sued over the content material customers’ publish on a platform.

The case, Lemmon v. Snap, concerned one other crash in Georgia that resulted within the loss of life of three males in 2017. The Ninth Circuit court docket mentioned that the relations of the boys might sue Snap after the case was initially dismissed in 2020.

Snap confirmed that the sticker is being eliminated and provided the next assertion to The Verge:

Nothing is extra necessary than the protection of our Snapchat neighborhood, and we had beforehand disabled the filter at driving speeds. Today the sticker is barely utilized by Snapchatters, and in mild of that, we’re eradicating it altogether.