Snapchat: Without consent, taking a screenshot of and is sending screenshots of a conversation illegal, a ministry claims

According to the government’s culture minister, without consent, taking a screenshot of and sending screenshots of a conversation illegal to others without their permission.

A Snapchat message’s original sender may sue the person who screenshotted it and shared it with others, according to Ed Vaizey, and they may also go to jail.

A messaging app and social network, Snapchat. Sending pictures and videos that vanish after a predetermined amount of time is its key differentiating feature. However, using the screenshot feature on a phone makes it simple to store such communications in a permanent way.

The minister stated: “Under UK copyright law, it would be illegal for a Snapchat user to capture a photo and make it publicly available without the image owner’s approval.”

“Anyone who does this violates the image owner’s copyright and could be sued.

“After 10 seconds, Snapchat photos are automatically destroyed. According to Snapchat’s privacy guidelines, the company will attempt to contact the original poster if it can be determined that a recipient has taken a screenshot of an image.

Snapchat does caution users against sending messages they do not want to be saved or shared, though.

The minister, whose role includes “culture and the digital economy,” added that in addition to violating copyright, anyone who shared particularly pornographic photographs without permission risked receiving a second prison sentence.

The Criminal Justice and Courts Act of 2015’s Section 33 defines an offense as the “publication of private sexual images or films without the agreement of an individual who appears in them and with a purpose to cause that individual grief.”

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The maximum term for those found guilty is two years in prison.

Although copyright infringement itself carries a 10-year prison sentence and/or an “unlimited” fine, magistrates’ courts only have the power to impose a six-month sentence and a fine of £50,000.

Jim Shannon, a DUP MP, had queried Mr. Vaizey, a Conservative, about the steps the government was taking to make sure that Snapchat photos weren’t “made public without the consent of the image owner.”

Contrary to what the minister claimed in a written parliamentary response, Snapchat photographs can be configured to vanish after a variety of times other than 10 seconds.

Snapchat is frequently used to share graphic images because of the messages’ short expiration times.

So, According to the government’s culture minister, without consent, taking a screenshot of and sending screenshots of a conversation illegal to others without their permission. The app processes billions of images and videos each day, according to its developers.