Dutch lawsuit targets Snapchat over streaks and addictive design
Keeping a Snapchat streak alive might get a little more complicated.
Addictive Snapchat use. Image by by Cybernews/Unsplush/Andrej Lišakov
- A Dutch consumer group sued Snap over Snapchat streaks, autoplay, disappearing content, and other allegedly addictive features.
- The group says Snapchat has over 6 million active users in the Netherlands and reaches most young people.
- The lawsuit asks the court to make addictive features off by default unless users choose them.
Key Takeaways by nexos.ai, reviewed by Cybernews staff.
Dutch consumer group Stichting Massaschade & Consument (SMC) has filed a class-action lawsuit with the district court of Amsterdam against Snap, the parent company of Snapchat, for its addictive design and interface.
According to the SMC, Snapchat has over 6 million active users in the Netherlands and reaches over 90% of all 13- to 24-year-olds.
The consumer group alleges that Snap’s chat app pulls all the stops to get the undivided attention of teenagers, including adding addictive features like streaks, autoplay, and disappearing content.
In doing so, the company deliberately targets teenage users, who are far more susceptible to these features than adults.
And the approach is successful. According to the SMC, on average, users open Snapchat 40 times a day, which is way more often than any other social media app. Thanks to these addictive features, Snap earned over $5 billion in advertising revenue last year.
“Addiction isn’t a side effect – it’s a business model,” SMC Chair Lucia Melcherts says in a statement.
“Of course, Snapchat is also an easy and fun way to stay in touch with friends every day. But Snap has built an extra layer on top of that, one that rewards those who send something every day, penalizes those who skip a day, and immediately shows that to your friends. That turns staying in touch into an obligation with a counter attached: the friendship may be real, but the streak is something created by Snap,” she continues.
In an interview with Dutch news outlet AD, Melcherts claims that Snapchat is also used on a large scale for grooming minors and selling drugs and vape cigarettes.
That’s why the consumer group, on behalf of 6 million Dutch Snapchat users, has filed a class-action lawsuit with the district court of Amsterdam.
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The SMC is asking the court to order Snap to redesign the app to make it less addictive. For example, all addictive features should be disabled by default, unless users choose otherwise.
On top of that, the SMC is demanding compensation on behalf of all users, ranging from €425 to €1,850 ($493 to $2,148), depending on the user’s age and the intensity with which they used the app.
It could take years before the judge lays down his ruling. The first court hearing will take place in 3 months.
“Snap remains committed to ensuring that Snapchat is a safe, positive, and authentic place,” a Snap spokesperson told AD in a response. He also claims that the company is doing everything it can to keep dealers off the platform.
Recently, Meta agreed to pay $16.7 billion as part of a settlement to resolve claims brought by 29 states across the United States that the company designed Facebook and Instagram to addict children, misled consumers about their safety, and improperly collected personal data of children who used its platforms.
