Rihanna recently denounced Snapchat after an advertisement made light of her beating by fellow pop star Chris Brown, sending the company’s share prices tumbling.
The social media platform had featured an advertisement of a pop up quiz which read “Would You Rather?,” a game app that sometimes asks provocative questions.
The commercial showed Fenty and Brown and asked Snapchat users whether they would rather “slap Rihanna” or “punch Chris Brown.”
The company immediately pulled the advertisement and apologized, but Rihanna took to Instagram to denounce Snapchat.
The Work hitmaker wrote, “You spent money to animate something that would intentionally bring shame to DV (domestic violence) victims and made a joke of it!!!! This isn’t about my personal feelings, cause I don’t have much of them…but all the women, children, and men that have been victims of DV in the past and especially the ones who haven’t made it out yet….you let us down! Shame on you.”
As for their apology, she said, “Throw the whole app-oligy away.”
After Rihanna denounced Snapchat, the shares in the parent company Snap Inc. fell 3.64%.
Snapchat further came under fire from activists and social media users who questioned how the post made it past the platform’s review process.
A Snapchat spokesperson asserted, “This advertisement is disgusting and never should have appeared on our service. We are so sorry we made the terrible mistake of allowing it through our review process. We are investigating how that happened so that we can make sure it never happens again.”
The spokesperson further confirmed that the ad was purchased through its self-serve advertising platform, all of which are subject to review, and added that the advertiser was unaffiliated with Snapchat/Snap Inc and that, ‘Would You Rather’ has been blocked from the platform as well.
