VKontakte (VK)

Despite calls for expulsion, Mizzou will not expel MU student Meg Miller over a racist Snapchat post, citing First Amendment rights.

SEATTLE (AP) — The public school district in Seattle has filed a novel lawsuit against the tech giants behind TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and Snapchat, seeking to hold them accountable for the mental health crisis among youth.Seattle Public Schools filed the lawsuit Friday in U.S. District Court. The 91-page complaint says the social media companies have created a public nuisance by targeting their products to children.It blames them for worsening mental health and behavioral disorders including anxiety, depression, disordered eating and cyberbullying; making it more difficult to educate students; and forcing schools to take steps such as hiring additional mental health professionals, developing lesson plans about the effects of social media, and providing additional training to teachers. “Defendants have successfully exploited the vulnerable brains of youth, hooking tens of millions of students across the country into positive feedback loops of excessive use and abuse of Defendants’ social media platforms,” the complaint said. “Worse, the content Defendants curate and direct to youth is too often harmful and exploitive ....”Meta, Google, Snap and TikTok did not immediately respond to requests for comment Saturday.While federal law — Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act — helps protect online companies from liability arising from

Seattle’s public school district is suing some of the biggest social media companies, demanding the platforms pay up for poisoning kids’ brains and making it harder to teach. The lawsuit filed Friday by Seattle Public Schools against companies behind TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, SnapChat and YouTube is seeking compensatory damages to expand the district’s mental health resources.  The school district argues the apps worsen a growing youth mental health crisis — interfering with teachers’ ability to do their jobs and providing grounds for the suit. “Defendants have successfully exploited the vulnerable brains of youth, hooking tens of millions of students across the country into positive feedback loops of excessive use and abuse of Defendants’ social media platforms,” the lawsuit said. In a statement Saturday, Seattle Public Schools lamented students “are struggling with anxiety, depression, thoughts of self-harm, and suicidal ideation.” “This crisis was already growing before the pandemic and research has identified social media as playing a major role in causing mental health problems in youth,” the school said, asserting more than 90% of U.S youth are on social media.  Seattle Public Schools filed a lawsuit against the companies behind social media apps like Snapchat, Instagram and TikTok.REUTERS “Research tells us

By ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: 7:14 pmUpdated: 7:32 pm This combination of 2017-2022 photos shows the logos of Facebook, YouTube, TikTok and Snapchat on mobile devices. On Friday, Jan. 6, 2023, Seattle Public Schools filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court, suing the tech giants behind TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and Snapchat, seeking to hold them accountable for the mental health crisis among youth. (AP Photo) SEATTLE (AP) — The public school district in Seattle has filed a novel lawsuit against the tech giants behind TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and Snapchat, seeking to hold them accountable for the mental health crisis among youth. Seattle Public Schools filed the lawsuit Friday in U.S. District Court. The 91-page complaint says the social media companies have created a public nuisance by targeting their products to children. It blames them for worsening mental health and behavioral disorders including anxiety, depression, disordered eating and cyberbullying; making it more difficult to educate students; and forcing schools to take steps such as hiring additional mental health professionals, developing lesson plans about the effects of social media, and providing additional training to teachers. “Defendants have successfully exploited the vulnerable brains of youth, hooking tens of millions of students across

... public school district in Seattle has filed a novel lawsuit against the tech giants behind TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and Snapchat, ...

A Del Rey man has pleaded guilty to federal charges after using websites and apps like Snapchat to meet and entice children to engage in sexually explicit content via video chat and then take screenshots of them, officials announced Friday. Mark David Wallin, 42, pleaded to one count of production of child pornography and one count of enticement of a minor to engage in criminal sexual activity, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. According to his plea agreement, from 2019 to August 2022, Wallin used the internet to meet pre-teen boys and girls in the U.S. and abroad. He would develop romantic relationships with the victims online with the intent to get sexually explicit images and videos from them. Wallin also convinced the victims to engage in sexually explicit conduct via video chat, which allowed him to take his own pictures and videos, court documents showed. After the victims sent Wallin the explicit content, he would demand additional images and videos from them, officials said. In one example from 2020, Wallin enticed a victim, who was 9 or 10, at the time to engage in sexually explicit conduct to be shown to him on Snapchat, officials said. Wallin admitted

A class-action settlement involving Snapchat in Illinois was approved just before the Thanksgiving holiday, paving the way for checks to be distributed, but when will residents receive their money? The law firm representing plaintiffs in the settlement told NBC 5 Friday that checks could begin being distributed "within the next 30 days." According to the settlement website, the social network is accused of violating Illinois' Biometric Information Privacy Act by illegally collecting users' biometric information like unique facial features -- through the use of features like "Lenses" and "Filters" -- without their consent. It was filed in May in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. At the center of the allegations is Snapchat's Lenses features, which allows users to take a "Snap," and then select a particular lens and modify their facial features with special effects, according to court documents. The lawsuit claims Lenses involves the use of technology to create a face scan and "creating, obtaining and storing" a user's unique biometric identifiers. The feature obtained the plaintiffs' biometric information without obtaining informed written consent each time it scanned their faces, the suit alleges. Illinois’ Biometric Privacy Act prohibits private sector companies and institutions from

Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, dating apps, mobile app games, and even education apps are also often “privacy-invasive,” Levin said.

Dark mode is one of the first things people typically look for in an app. It makes reading content for longer sessions more manageable, especially on smaller screens. Now, Snapchat doesn’t have a dark mode for its Android app. It does have a dark mode option on its Apple app, though. This is how to turn on dark mode on Snapchat. Read more: How to create and manage a group chat on Snapchat QUICK ANSWER To turn on dark mode on Snapchat, go to Settings > App Appearance > Always Dark. This feature is currently only available on iOS. First things first, you must have an Apple device. Snapchat currently does not offer a dark mode option on its Android app. Launch the Snapchat app for iOS. Tap your profile picture in the top left. On your Snapchat profile, tap the gear-shaped Settings button in the top right. Under MY ACCOUNT, tap the App Appearance tab. Select Always Dark. FAQs This is a pretty commonly asked question. The answer, for now, is yes — but only on iPhones. It’s an iOS-exclusive feature.

Back in 2011, Snapchat was brand new and augmented reality was just beginning to generate buzz as a potential tool to drive consumer engagement. Yet with the launch of Pokémon GO in 2016 and IKEA’s introduction of an AR-powered app in 2017, new consumer-facing applications for AR took center stage.  Today, AR has been adopted by the world’s largest retailer, Walmart, through Snapchat’s Catalog-Powered Shopping Lenses, which resulted in 161 million product trials for the brand. “We’re always looking to create moments of product discovery on the channels where our customers spend their time,” notes Amanda Mulligan, Walmart’s director of social commerce. “AR adoption is growing, and Catalog-Powered Shopping Lenses allow us to keep pace by enabling lens creation at scale and in an always-on capacity,” she said in Snapchat’s article, assessing the partnership’s success. We spoke with Matt McGowan, Snap’s general manager, about how providing user-friendly AR tools has presented an opportunity for brands and creators. Snap has come a long way in just over a decade. Can you tell us why the company has moved into developing these brand marketing tools? Is Snap still a social media-focused company? It’s been a fun and educational three-plus years for me as