Snap Faces Car Crash Suit After Online Publisher Defense Fails

Two sets of Wisconsin parents alleging that Snap Inc. negligently designed its smartphone app Snapchat to include a speed-recording function may proceed with their suit over their sons’ deaths in a high-speed crash, the Ninth Circuit ruled Tuesday, reinstating the case.

Snap isn’t entitled to immunity from suit under the Communications Decency Act of 1996, Judge Kim McLane Wardlaw said for the appeals court.

The families alleged Snapchat’s architecture was at fault because it created an incentive for users to drive very fast, Wardlaw said. They didn’t rest their claims on Snap’s “publication” of information provided by users, such as ...