'Speed filter' involved in several deadly car crashes 'We look forward to our day in court and pursuing justice for those who suffered unnecessary losses.' '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,' Neff said. Lawyer Michael Neff, who has represented the families of those involved in car crashes linked to the filter, said the change does not undo the pain of his clients. She said the company started removing the feature this week, but it may be a couple weeks before it disappears from the app for all of its 500 million monthly active users.

'And in light of that, we are removing it altogether.' The feature 'is barely used by Snapchatters,' she said on Thursday. A company spokeswoman told NPR, 'Nothing is more important than the safety of our Snapchat community.'Ī month later, the same spokeswoman confirmed the speed filter would soon be gone. Over several weeks, NPR asked Snap a series of questions about why it had stood by the speed filter for so long. What exactly led Snap to scrap the feature now is unclear. Crashes will be prevented, but the lawyer in me says, 'My God, why did it take so long?' ' said Joel Feldman, the co-founder of the nonprofit End Distracted Driving, one of the groups that urged Snapchat to remove the speed filter. The company has also faced lawsuits from the families of those who have been injured or killed in car crashes where drivers were moving at excessive speeds, allegedly to score bragging rights on the app.Ĭritics of the speed filter welcomed the news, while also questioning the delay. Since then, Snap has defended the feature in the face of warnings from safety advocates who have argued that it encourages reckless driving.

The move is a dramatic reversal for Snap, Inc., which introduced the feature in 2013. The maker of the Snapchat app is eliminating a feature known as the 'speed filter' that lets users capture how fast they are moving and share it with friends, NPR has learned.

Snap told NPR that it is eliminating the tool. An iPhone screengrab of Snapchat's speed filter, which allows users to record and share how fast they are moving.

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