Snapchat In A Battle With Porn Site After Removing NSFW AR Lenses

Two days ago, news broke out that Adult entertainment company, Naughty America, was using augmented reality to get the word out about its paid services. The company began making Snapchat filters featuring 3D holograms of some of its models, as well as teaching their audience how to do the same.  

They proceeded to share three of these lenses for free on their site (one including adult performer Stephanie West in lingerie, and the other two, decidedly more x-rated, featuring full-frontal nudity). Paying members of the site are given access to a number of additional lenses, as well as holographic source files necessary to make AR filters. 

 Lisa Lake/Getty Images

Snapchat quickly removed the lenses – which allowed Snapchat users to super-impose porn stars in various states of undress into their pictures – upon discovery on Tuesday, however, the porn studio doesn’t seem to be quite done with Snapchat just yet, as it is still distributing the source data that allows Snapchat users to build their own naughty lenses – complete with a manual on how to do so.

Naughty America CEO Andreas Hronopoulos told Variety this week that he understood these lenses to be in compliance with Snapchat’s policies, arguing that he wasn’t making them publicly available, and paralleling it to sharing personal photos with friends on Snapchat. “We are just privately sharing these,” he said, defending their actions.

Snapchat did not agree though, and took down the lenses, citing them as a violation of their terms of service and community guidelines, as well as the company’s lens studio submission guidelines (which prohibit the use of content that includes “obscene language or imagery, depictions of nudity, sex acts, or profanity.”) This could prove to be the start of a cat-and-mouse game, with Naughty America users creating lenses and Snapchat taking them down.