A 2016 lawsuit over Snapchat's speed filter and a car crash is credited with starting a legal fight over whether apps are responsible for how they are built.
A lawsuit filed in 2016 over a car crash and a Snapchat feature is now seen as the start of a much bigger legal fight. Bloomberg reporter Olivia Carville traces how the case, Maynard v. Snapchat, helped set off a wider reckoning over user safety on social media.
The lawsuit was tied to a crash involving Snapchat's speed filter. That was a feature that showed how fast you were moving. Bloomberg's story opens on a rainy night in Lovejoy, Georgia, as a shift ended at the Bay Breeze Seafood Restaurant.
The big question is about design. Instead of asking only what users post, courts may ask whether an app's own features put people at risk. If that view grows, companies could be held responsible for how their products are built.
That touches anyone who uses social apps, including parents of teens and businesses that rely on these platforms to reach customers.
The full Bloomberg article was not available for this report, so details of the crash and the court outcome are not covered here. Only the case name, the year, the speed filter link and Bloomberg's framing are confirmed.
Readers who want the full account can read Carville's piece at Bloomberg.
Courts may increasingly treat an app's design as the company's responsibility, a idea that Bloomberg says traces back to a 2016 Snapchat case.
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