Snap Wants to be a State Actor??–Kansas v. Snap

Discussion (7 Comments)Read Original on HackerNews

Marchant_hq•7 minutes ago

Wild move for Snap to try claiming state actor status. Definitely sets a strange precedent for corporate liability and user data.

Mugshelf•10 minutes ago

Snap aiming for sovereign immunity? Next they'll be issuing passports. That's a truly wild legal argument.

Terr_•25 minutes ago

If we assume Snap's legal department is competent and sane, does that suggest any interesting hidden motives?

For example, is it possible that they were coerced into doing something for the federal government, and they're not allowed to mention it because their speech was stifled with a National Security Letter?

cremp•44 minutes ago

As someone whose seen first hand how addictive it can be among adults with type A personality, and how it causes relationship issues because they can't stop consuming the content - it feels to me true about the lawsuit itself, but all other social media is doing the same doom-scrolling.

Why Snap is choosing to list it's ties with DHS to get into federal court is confusing - what benefits would Snap get by going to federal?

Ellis_dev•about 2 hours ago

Guess Snap's data collection became so comprehensive that states are comparing them to a government entity. Wild times.

xethos•41 minutes ago

> states are comparing them to a government entity

You've got it backwards: Snap said they were doing the bidding of the DHS and the FDA, and as such, their case belongs in Federal court. It was the court that said "No, you aren't, this is going back to state-level court". Per TFA (quoting State v. Snap, Inc., 2026 WL 2525593 (D. Kansas Aug. 27, 2026)):

> "No doubt, Snap performed some services for federal officers. Some of those services—like advertising on Snapchat—reflect no more than a standard arms-length commercial transaction. Other services, like lens production and custom research, didn’t involve a federal officer’s “strict guidance or control” over Snap. Snap thus has failed to identify any conduct that qualifies it as acting under a federal officer"

sky2224•about 2 hours ago

Huh, this explains why I've seen some pretty wildly obtuse far right posts being promoted to the top of the discover page on Snapchat.

Snap Wants to be a State Actor??–Kansas v. Snap

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Discussion (7 Comments)Read Original on HackerNews