The controversial speed filter is going following several fatal road accidents that have been said to be caused by the renowned app. This particular Snap chat feature which was introduced in 2013 displays how fast a user is travelling when taking a picture or video footage leading to competitive behaviour. This has led to serious accidents that have victims permanently injured and in some cases death.
Snapchat is which is reported to have about 280 million active users globally. The app claims it reaches 75 percent of millennial and Gen Z all around the world. In other words, Snapchat is aimed and targeted at young people of these ages. The CDC also states that drivers under 20 have the highest number of fatalities in crashes, mostly due to distracted drivers. The social media company which was recently reported to be in its beneficial phase after investing huge resources to achieve a developed Snap chat premium for Android users. The Android users were recorded to have surpassed its closest counterparts, iOS users.
Following a series of lawsuits, Snap first made the speed filter less accessible and included a warning label. The maximum speed at which the user could record was also dropped to 35 mph. According to Snap, the usage of this app hardly registers on their side, and their other filters like face swap and flower crown remained by far more popular.
Since the latest court ruling, Snap has decided to remove the filter. Although the app company did not cite the lawsuit specifically as the reason for this decision, rather choosing to name the low usage numbers of the app feature as a reason for removing it entirely. Snap had this to say – ‘Nothing is more important than the safety of our Snapchat community, and we had previously disabled the filter at driving speed.’ However it will take a few weeks to disappear completely from the app of millions people who use Snapchat.
According to reports, the company is being sued by the parents of two young men, who allege the filter encouraged their sons to drive at dangerous speeds and three deaths were due to “negligent design”. The car began accelerating to a speed significantly above the speed limit and one Snap captured the boys’ speed at 123mph,”
Another case in 2017, three men, two 17-year-olds and a 20-year-old, died when a car crashed into a tree, in Wisconsin, in 2017. According to a court documents it’s reported the car began accelerating to a speed significantly above the speed limit and one Snap captured the boys’ speed at 123mph. The same documents cite two 2015 crashes involving people using the filter – one resulting in a “catastrophic injury”, the other resulting to the death of three young women who ran into a parked lorry in Philadelphia. In 2016, a teenager was left disabled and in need of constant care after using the filter and crashing into another car at over 100mph filed a suit against Snap. Despite the cases recorded before 2021, Snapchat kept the filter active – instead it added a ‘do not Snap and drive’ disclaimer.
“Regardless of whether Snap intended to encourage dangerous speeding or not, Snap should have known that it was, in fact, encouraging speeding.” A user had this to say.
Olagoke Ajibola is a creative writer and content producer with an eye for details and excellence. He has a demonstrated history of telling stories for TV, Film and Online. Aside from being fascinated by the power of imagination, his other interest are travel, sport, reading and meeting people.
