Snapchat Discover: A Case Study in Digital Misinformation
Exploring Snapchat’s misinformation dilemma
Photo by Alexander Shatov on Unsplash
When I was younger, I remember seeing Tabloid magazines as my parents and I would wait in the checkout line at the grocery store. With headlines like “”Elvis Presley Is Alive! — And He’s Living As A Federal Agent In Arkansas!” and “Kim Kardashian Gives Birth to Martian Baby!” it was hard even as a child to take them very seriously.
But alongside the advent of the internet has been a seemingly unstoppable proliferation of bad information. Tabloid magazines have found a new life online. What seemed like outrageous reporting back when it only lined the least important shopping aisle of your local Acme has turned into a focal point of internet profiteering.
As profit has become more and more of the impetus behind all internet content, so many of the most earnest attempts to provide real services have been soured. Perhaps nowhere is this more apparent than with Snapchat.
In early 2015, Snapchat launched a feature called “Discover” that aimed to connect users with news from brands like CNN, Vice, ESPN, and Warner Music. But by 2017, many users complained that the service had all but completely given way to clickbait, violence and profanity. Snapchat voiced regret over the transition and said it would do its part to address the influx of bad content it was distributing.
“We take the responsibility of being a source of news, entertainment and information for our community of more than 150 million daily active Snapchatters very seriously,” a Snap spokesperson said in an emailed statement sent to Mashable in 2017. “Our updated Content Guidelines will help our editorial partners tell these stories.”
But as years went by, little changed. Each time I even glanced at the page I was bombarded by the same conspiratorial nonsense, the same stories about celebrity cleavage and all of the repetitive non-information it promised to crack down on. It rarely even bordered on real news. And those few times it did, it was so punctuated by advertisements that the information would have been best found just about anywhere else.
Surrounding the 2020 election, Snapchat announced again that it would attempt to crack down on misinformation and violent rhetoric. The company even went as far as excluding Donald Trump from Discover recommendations following a few statements he made inciting violence.
Now in 2023, one might expect that Snapchat’s various efforts to drift away from clickbait and misinformation would have amounted to real change. Perhaps nearly a decade after the feature’s unveiling, it would be offering something almost akin to real news. But that could hardly be further from the truth.
Visiting the Discover page now, I’m confronted with headlines like “Kai And Teanna Are Official,” “Jame Charles exposed for creepy dm’s again! ” and “‘Certified Baddie’ Responds To The Roasts.” On the more innocuous end, there are headlines like “New Terrifying Discovery Under Sahara Desert,” “Strange Portal Caught on Camera!” and “This activity isn’t masculine .”
To spare the reader the time, I’ll simply say that the videos feature no terrifying discoveries, no strange portals and no keen insight into masculinity.
Snapchat has turned into a veritable hub for bad information. It offers political misinformation, and celebrity gossip, and videos woefully irrelevant to their headlines and title images.
Since Andrew Tate’s arrest a few months ago, Discover has been a cesspool of Tate-related conspiracies. Whether the notorious misogynist has escaped prison and is living in Cuba, is sending his fans cryptic messages from house arrest, or is an astronaut in cahoots with martians, rest assured you won’t find any meaningful clarification on Snapchat.
“Police Raid Tate House While Livestreaming,” “Tate Claims New Identity,” “How Andrew Tate Was Almost Killed,” “Tate Disgusted by Haters,” and “Andrew Tate Is Hospitalized! ” are only the ones in my feed right now.
In a video titled “Tate’s Take On His Divorce” users are asked to wade through about 10 cycles worth of ads to find out that Tate isn’t married and isn’t getting a divorce. Misleadingly, what the video does offer is Tate’s take on the divorce of some professional athlete I’ve never heard of. His take, you ask? “My g.”
The sheer surplus of bad and useless information available through Discover is staggering. In a video titled “Belle Delphine Did *What* With Twomad? ” the speaker explains after a couple of ad breaks, “Here’s how it all went down.” He then details some innocuous meeting between the two people I’d never heard of before clicking on the video.
In another video called “Miley’s Meltdown Is Going Viral!” users open to a countdown list of the worst celebrity breakdowns of recent months. From Sean Penn to Alec Baldwin, Tobey Maguire and Lindsay Lohan, there’s not even a mention of Miley Cyrus until people have sat through five minutes of menial gossip and ten cycles of advertisements. If they can muster the patience to last that long, they’ll see a video of Miley Cyrus acting reasonably toward a pestering paparazzo.
Discover even has tech misinformation. The content that surrounds Apple’s new products is a particularly strange case study. There’s now a plethora of content creators on Snapchat providing baseless speculations about the next three iPhones.
One creator, Jon Rettinger, posts a new video on a near-daily basis detailing all of the unbelievable new features the iPhone 15 and 16 will offer. He speaks with the confidence of a psychic and faces no consequences when all of his predictions are wrong, as they were with the iPhone 14. And yet, almost every day he’s paid to publish a new spinning graphic of a non-existent phone and tally off a list of specifications he — by all appearances — just makes up on the spot.
In a video titled “Apple is finally doing this,” he states firmly that “the iPhone 16 Pro will boost up to 6.4 inches and the Pro Max is going to go to 6.9!” He talks about the screens, and the cameras and the ports down to the minute detail, yet provides no citations for any of it. That anyone could know these details so far in advance of the product’s launch is dubious. What’s practically guaranteed, though, is that tomorrow will arrive with a fresh speculation video capitalizing on peoples’ curiosity about this product that won’t exist until the end of 2024.
I don’t think there’s anywhere I’ve found on the internet that routinely posts anything as valueless as Snapchat. It’s certainly true that news organizations like Fox News, NewsMaxx, OAN and Occupy Democrats each deserve some blame for publishing their share of fallacious content. They can be prone to exaggeration and even outright lies. But in each case, there are at least some stories being told and cogently presented.
I think it’s possible that Snapchat’s role on the internet is even more deleterious than the worst news networks. Not only does it do nothing to limit the misinformation it publishes, but it’s responsible for the systematic cheapening of digital information as a whole. The number of young people who use this app — and turn toward it for information — is simply enormous. As of 2022, it has 363 million daily active users.
It’s one of the greatest purveyors of internet clickbait, and it’s a walking, talking embodiment of what can happen to a platform when profit completely trumps the user experience.
To consider the intent Snapchat had in releasing the “Discover” feature, and to see where it’s ended up today… it’s a failure of spectacular proportions. YouTube, Facebook and Instagram have each made more and more room for advertisers and content creators to profiteer, it’s true. But Snapchat’s approach has been so profit-centered that enhancing the user experience no longer even appears to be their focus.
Snapchat’s rapid transition into a mecca of clickbait and misinformation is a stark reminder of the potential pitfalls of digital innovation. From its inception as an app for friends sharing fleeting moments, to its current status as a breeding ground for unverified gossip and misinformation, the evolution of Snapchat serves as a case study in the hazards of prioritizing profit over meaningful content. As we move forward in this digital era, it is crucial for platforms and users alike to demand better — to insist on a digital landscape that values context, quality, and a semblance of truth over sensationalism and profit.