Snapchat is eliminating its speedometer filter due to legal concerns

Snap is deleting its popular “speed filter” from Snapchat this week. The in-app effect displays your current speed in miles or kilometers per hour, and many opponents argue the function encourages reckless driving, with some claiming Snap should be held liable after the speed filter was linked to fatal car accidents.

Several lawsuits have been filed over the years linking Snapchat to traffic accidents. One involving a car accident in Georgia in 2015 emerged only a few years after Snapchat was initially updated to add the filter. After the incident occurred, the company downgraded the filter to the position of a sticker. They also buried it in a separate menu, and made it a little more difficult to use.

The case, Lemmon v. Snap, involves another crash in Georgia in 2017 that killed three men. After the case was initially dismissed in 2020, the Ninth Circuit court stated that the men’s families could sue Snap.

Snap’s spokesperson told media, “Nothing is more important than the safety of our Snapchat community, and we had previously disabled the filter at driving speeds.”

“Today the sticker is barely used by Snapchatters, and in light of that, we are removing it altogether.”

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