Snapchat Discover Says No To Clickbait, Fake News, Sexually Explicit Content

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- Snapchat is cleaning up its act. According to new guidelines, racy, violent or misleading photos, fake news and clickbait should soon vanish from Snapchat's Discover section .

Monday, the image messaging, multimedia app will enforce new rules for Discover publishers prohibiting "sensitive content, including profanity, overly sexualized content, and violent content."

Snapchat will make an exception to the new directives if the content is deemed "newsworthy" and accompanied by a disclaimer.

The ban includes pictures without news value and links to websites that push fake news and "all content must be fact-checked and accurate."

The move aims to "empower our editorial partners to do their part to keep Snapchat an informative, factual and safe environment for everyone," said Snapchat spokeswoman Rachel Racusen.

According to Snapchat, the Discover section is viewed by more than 100 million users each month.

In February, Snapchat will arm its publishers with a tool to filter explicit content from Snapchatters under 18.

The company settled a class-action lawsuit accusing Discover of exposing minors "to harmful, offensive, prurient and sexually offensive content without warning minors or their parents that they would be exposed to such explicit content."

Snap, Inc., the app's parent company is expected to go public early this year. According to the NYT, its anticipated $30 billion valuation would make it the "third-most-valuable technology company at the time of its market debut, after Alibaba and Facebook."