Snapchat Discontinues ‘Speed Filter’ That May Have Encouraged Dangerous Driving
Image via Shutterstock
Social media app Snapchat is discontinuing a feature known as the “speed filter,” which had allowed users to capture how fast they were moving at any given time.
The feature was first launched in 2013, and although it has faced criticism over the years, Snapchat had always defended the feature—up until now.
Families have sued Snapchat over the feature, as users have been injured or killed in car crashes where drivers were speeding in order to take a Snap. While critics are glad to see the feature gone, some are questioning why the app took so long to make the decision.
A Snapchat spokesperson told NPR the feature “is barely used by Snapchatters,” and as such, the company would be “removing it altogether.”
Snapchat removing its speed filter is for the best, but I did have fun using it when I was on a plane pic.twitter.com/xqY3O456qH
— ᒎᗴᑎ🦋 (@jenlovescats) June 18, 2021
While Snapchat started deleting the feature last week, it could take a few more weeks before it disappears for all of its 500 million monthly active users.
However, attorney Michael Neff, who represented the families of those involved in car crashes, said the change will not ease the pain of his clients.
“While this will no doubt serve the safety of the motoring public moving forward, it does not remedy Snapchat’s choice to create and distribute the speed filter in the past,” he said.
Most of the crashes tied to the feature involved teenagers at the wheel. As per NPR, in 2015, a driver in Georgia was left with permanent brain damage after a collision involving the “speed filter.” That same year, three young women died in a car accident in Philadelphia, as per ABC.
In 2016, five people in Florida lost their lives in a high-speed collision involving the feature. And in 2017, three young men in Wisconsin crashed into a tree and died while clocking speeds of over 123 miles per hour.
Snapchat had tried to decrease the visibility of the feature in the past, changing it from a filter to a sticker, and adding a “Don’t Snap and drive” warning. The app had also capped the top speed which could be shared at 35 miles per hour. But it did not remove the feature entirely.
In May, NPR reported a federal appeals court ruled that the family of the young men who died in the Wisconsin crash had grounds to sue Snapchat for being negligent in designing a feature that could lead to foreseeable harm, though the lawsuit has yet to reach a conclusion.
As Irina Raicu, Director of the Internet Ethic Program at Santa Clara University puts it: “Sometimes, one of the most thoughtful ways to deploy a product is to never deploy it at all.”
[via NPR, cover image via Shutterstock]
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