American multimedia messaging app Snapchat has now decided to take back its ‘speed filter’ that it had introduced eight years ago in the year 2013. The move comes in response to the criticism to this filter that the company has faced by both the experts as well as the users. Many believe that the filter promotes rash driving and reckless driving behaviour among youngsters and so the company has finally decided to take down this feature from the app on both the android and iOS devices.
Basically, by using this Speed Filter a user is able to find out the speed at which they are moving and they can even send this data to their Snapchat friends on videos or photos and share the speed with them. This has led to several cases in which the teenagers in a bid to boast of a higher speed sometimes as much as 100 miles per hour tend to drive vehicles recklessly and in some of these cases this has led to fatal accidents or serious injuries.
It is to be noted that till now the company had been defending the filter in the court because of the lawsuits filed against them by the families of teenagers who had either been injured or had lost their lives in accidents due to reckless driving behaviour in order to take a snap using this filter. But now due the decreasing popularity of this filter and also the burden of court proceedings it seems that the company has now found the perfect opportunity to take back this much criticized feature.
Earlier, due to the pressure from the users, Snapchat had turned the filter into a sticker with a note ‘Don’t snap and drive’ to warn its 500 million active users of the consequences reckless driving can cause. It had also set up a speed limit of up to 35 miles per hour for users if they wanted to share the snap with others.
Nevertheless, now the company has decided to completely roll back the filter for good as many have suggested. Many believe that this will hopefully be effective in reducing the cases of reckless driving behaviour among youngsters and will make them understand that life is far more precious than some virtual internet points.
