Search icon

Life

10th Jul 2016

If you use Snapchat you should be aware of this law

Cassie Delaney

Snapchat is that an image will be deleted after a maximum of ten seconds. 

However, it’s really  easy to screenshot and store the flash image online forever.

But, as one UK government’s culture minister, Ed Vaizey stated recently, it’s completely illegal to redistribute a Snapchat image.

A question was posed to the minister about the legality of Snapchat to which Vaizey replied:

“Under UK copyright law, it would be unlawful for a Snapchat user to copy an image and make it available to the public without the consent of the image owner. The image owner would be able to sue anyone who does this for copyright infringement.

“Snapchat photos are automatically deleted after 10 seconds. The Snapchat Privacy Policy states that if Snapchat is able to detect that a recipient has taken a screenshot of an image, they will try to inform the original poster. However, Snapchat advises users to avoid sending messages which they would not want to be saved or shared.

“The disclosure of private sexual photographs or films without the consent of an individual who appears in them and with intent to cause that individual distress is an offence under Section 33 of the Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015. Those convicted could face a maximum sentence of two years in prison.”

Irish copyright laws differ marginally but users can expect to suffer the same consequences. Perhaps think twice before you screen grab!