Did Snapchat management issue a warning to all users that there had been an update to the terms of use requiring users to forward a warning message to twenty people in two hours or their account would be deleted? No, that's not true: The viral copy-paste hoax is not real and should not be passed along. There was, at the time this fact check was written, no official announcement from Snapchat to forward this warning, and there has not been an update to the terms of service since April 7, 2025.
One example of the viral hoax appears in a post (archived here) published on Facebook on Oct. 20, 2025. It says:
Official warning from Snapchat managementStarting tonight, all accounts that don't send this message to 20 people within 2 hours will be automatically suspended!Confirmed by the support team due to a new update to the Terms of Use.Send it before you lose your account! Just in case!
This is how the forwarded message appeared on Facebook:
(Image Source: Lead Stories screenshot from facebook.com/funsho.ot.2025/posts/pfbid02eHMbJ4kzuiPvh3oacaUmTT4a1knjYr6c8YJmj6CDQSeVQdHWyu8SRYQaPdZr8zgel)
There has not been a recent update to the Snapchat terms of use, called "Terms of Service" on the Snap Inc. website (archived here). The top of the page carries the effective date of April 7, 2025 (pictured below).
(Image Source: Lead Stories screenshot from snap.com/terms?lang=en-US#inc-terms.)
The Snap Inc. website also has a Newsroom page (archived here). On it, the most recent news posting (pictured below) is an Oct. 16, 2025 entry celebrating "Lens Fest 2025", a virtual symposium celebrating Snap's augmented reality gaming technology.
(Image Source: Lead Stories screenshot from newsroom.snap.com.)
There is no news item regarding an update to the Terms of Service, or a warning that accounts will be suspended if a message is not forwarded to twenty people.
Lead Stories reached out to Snap Inc. and will update this article, as relevant, when they reply.
