Introduction & Overview
Snapchat have released their latest transparency report for the last 6 months of 2021 (1 July 2021 to 31 December 2021). Since 2015, Snapchat have released transparency reports twice a year in order to provide insight and visibility into the nature and volume of content reported to their platform. The next report for January 2022 until June 2022 will be published in the second half of 2022. The content of these reports include; the global number of in-app content and account reports received and enforced against across different categories, how Snapchat responded to requests from law enforcement and governments and their enforcement actions broken down by country. The current report also includes the violative view rate of Snapchat content (amount of snaps with content that violate guidelines), potential trademark violations and the prevalence of false information.
This report is also the first report to include a new suicide and self-harm reporting category in order to provide an insight into the amount of content and account reports Snapchat takes action on when a user is determined to be in crisis. When a Snapchat user is determined to be in crisis by the Trust and Safety team, they have an option to forward self-harm prevention and support resources and to notify emergency services where appropriate. Snapchat reported that their data shows a decrease in the amount of content that violates their community guidelines, compared to the first half of 2021.
Out of 12,892,617 content and account reports, Snapchat enforced 6,257,122 reports around the world that went against their policies. Enforcement included removing the content or terminating the account from which the content came from. On average, out of 10,000 snaps, 8 snaps contained content that violated their guidelines.
Total Reports Globally July-Dec 2021
| Total Content & Account Reports | Total Content Enforced |
| 12, 892, 617 | 6, 257, 122 |
Numbers in Ireland
In Ireland, a total of 49,648 reports of violating content and accounts were made to Snapchat in the second half of 2021. Out of these reports, Snapchat acted on 19,491 of them by either deleting the offending content or the account.
There was a total of 878 accounts deleted in Ireland that were relating to Child Sexual abuse Materials (CSAM).
Total Reports in Ireland July-Dec 2021
| Total Content & Account Reports | Total Content Enforced |
| 49,648 | 19,491 |
Reports of Bullying and Harassment
Reports of bullying and harassment made to Snapchat were 988,442 globally, with 346,624 of those reports being enforced by Snapchat. The median time it took snapchat to detect and enforce these reports was 12 minutes.
In Ireland, there were 7,274 reports of content relating to bullying and harassment reported to Snapchat. Out of these, 2,929 reports were enforced.
Total Bullying & Harassment Reports July-Dec 2021
| Total Content & Account Reports | Total Content Enforced | |
| Worldwide | 988,442 | 346,624 |
| Ireland | 7,274 | 2,929 |
2020 vs. 2021
Overall, the number of global reports relating to bullying and harassment, made in the second half of 2021, are higher than the amount of reports made to Snapchat at the end of the previous year. This does not necessarily mean that there was a higher incident of bullying and harassment in 2021, it may mean that Snapchat has improved their reporting tools or their reports are more comprehensive. The outbreak of COVID-19 also has to be taken into account as people may have spent more time online as regions went in and out of lockdown. This pattern is mirrored in Ireland’s transparency report as there was an increase in reports from the end of 2020 to the end of 2021. Alongside the higher levels of reporting, there has also been more content and accounts that violate Snapchat’s guidelines deleted.
How to report inappropriate content on Snapchat
In app reporting – just press and hold down on a snap and press ‘Report Snap’ button to report it.
You can find safety advice on Snapchat’s Safety Centre – https://snap.com/en-US/safety/safety-center
Tacklebullying.ie also has a comprehensive guide for parents and guardians for social media and an App Watch section that provides information on all popular social media and online gaming platforms.
To read Snapchat’s full transparency report, visit https://snap.com/en-US/privacy/transparency/2021-12-31.