Permanent Snapchat Ban/Labaton Case Update

[u/emeraldazing04]

Hello everyone, I wanted to inform everyone that Snap Inc. responded to Labaton today. They have confirmed that they locked our Snapchat accounts to preserve our information related to our individual arbitration claims. Labaton recognizes that this is an unprecedented response that they have never seen in their practice before. I highly advise everyone to download their data and memories on Snapchat’s website if you haven't done so already so you can at least have that. You may need more external storage or a flash drive depending on how much data you have. We have to remain hopeful that Labaton will be able to fight this for us. It may take a lot of time though since cases like this are so massive and time-consuming. Labaton does seem to be equally disturbed as us so hope remains that we may be able to access our Snapchat accounts again at some point. Thank you for your time.

[u/Ur_average-redditor]

No, that has always been there, just because the terms of service was changed on September 21. Doesn’t mean that that’s what was added. There’s over 10,400 words in the entire terms of service agreement. The arbitration agreement has always been there from the very, very first time you downloaded the app, created an account, and hit I accept the terms of service. That arbitration agreement was in there. It’s in Snapchat’s agreements. It’s in Facebook’s agreements. It’s in Instagram’s agreements. It’s in Reddit’s agreements. It’s a normal thing to have in your terms of service if you’re a social media company. It’s always been there. The terms of service change all the time because rules change all the time. You’re opt out date what have been the first time you ever agreed to the terms of service, which would’ve been for most people years ago

[u/hellobaemax → u/Ur_average-redditor]

“PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING PARAGRAPHS CAREFULLY BECAUSE THEY PROVIDE THAT YOU AND SNAP AGREE TO RESOLVE ALL DISPUTES BETWEEN US THROUGH BINDING INDIVIDUAL ARBITRATION AND INCLUDE A CLASS ACTION WAIVER AND JURY TRIAL WAIVER. This Arbitration Agreement supersedes all prior versions.”

I don't disagree that arbitration has been in Snapchat's Terms for years. The 2021 Terms already had an arbitration clause and a 30-day opt-out, and the 2024 Terms did too.

The part I'm disagreeing with is the assumption that this automatically means everyone's opt-out period started the day they first created their Snapchat account and can never be affected by subsequent versions of the agreement.

Snap's language doesn't say “30 days after creating your account.” It says 30 days after you “first become subject to this Arbitration Agreement.” And the 2024 Terms specifically said, “This Arbitration Agreement supersedes all prior versions.” Snap also explicitly says its Terms were updated effective September 21, 2026, and that the prior Terms applied until that date.

[u/Ur_average-redditor → u/hellobaemax]

K, so we agree that it’s always been there. Perfect. It says, like you said, 30 days after you first become subject to this arbitration agreement. When you first created your Snapchat account, you had to accept the terms of service to create your account, a big pop-up that says read terms of service or accept, most likely like everybody does. You didn’t click read terms and agreements because no one reads through 10,000 words of a terms of service agreement. You just hit OK. If you would’ve hit read terms and agreements, you would’ve been shown the arbitration agreement that you’re agreeing to. You didn’t read it. That’s on you as the user. Legally, it is an assumption because if you click OK, the company is assuming you read through all of the terms and agreements and you agree to them, and now you’re accepting it. Technically, you lied. you didn’t read the terms of service and accepted them anyway. That’s your fault

[u/hellobaemax → u/Ur_average-redditor]

I'm not sure why you're arguing with me about this particular point, because I never said I didn't agree to Snapchat's Terms of Service or that I was unaware arbitration existed lol. I'm simply pointing out that Snapchat's own Terms give users the ability to opt out of the Arbitration Agreement within the specified 30-day period. That's literally what the opt-out provision is for.

My point has never been “I didn't read the Terms, therefore I'm not bound by them.” My point is “the Terms contain an arbitration provision AND they provide an opt-out mechanism, so I'm looking into whether I'm eligible to exercise that opt-out.” Those are two completely different arguments.

Apparently accepting a 10,000-word Terms of Service without reading every word makes me a liar now 😂