Many of us put our trust in Snapchat to hold onto our photos, our special memories, and expect that they will not be lost or misused. Unfortunately, recently Snapchat has started deleting people’s accounts for things they deem to violate terms of service with no proof or warnings. This has been a common theme that I’ve seen amongst my peers and across the internet in the last few weeks since the latest update. We are, without warning, losing years of memories and photos of loved ones, some of which have passed from this world, without even breaking terms of service. I have started this petition to plead with Snapchat’s creators and support team to please allow us to appeal banned accounts that are terminated by them without warning, as well as implementing a feature which saves all memories to the phone’s camera roll.

This loss can be very traumatic and stressful for those of us who have lost friends and family the last couple of years and our photos of them are the only thing we have left. Loyal snapchat users deserve at least an explanation for why they were deleted instead of just being told “you violated terms of service.” I personally had my account since I got my very first iPod in 2013 have used Snapchat every single day for the last 8 years. Then, 12/21/21 while I was at work, I checked my phone and my account had been terminated and would not let me log in. I have never had a warning or had my account locked, so this was extremely unexpected and honestly it has hurt a lot more than I wanna admit.

Algorithms identifying violations in pictures and text CAN be wrong (just ask Facebook’s “sensitive content” feature!). We at the very least deserve a warning and a service that backs the memories up to the camera roll when an account is permanently terminated. 

Please take a second to sign and share with your friends. This could just as easily be your account one day!