Roommates, Snapchat has taken down its Juneteenth filter, after users called the platform out for not reading the room in regards to today’s festivities.
The filter, meant to celebrate Juneteenth, featured a Pan-African flag as the background, and asked users to smile, which then caused chains to appear behind them and break.
Snapchat has also issues an apology, saying the version of the filter that went out was not approved.
“We deeply apologize to the members of the Snapchat community who found this Lens offensive. A diverse group of Snap team members were involved in developing the concept, but a version of the Lens that went live for Snapchatters this morning had not been approved through our review process. We are investigating why this mistake occurred so that we can avoid it in the future,” a spokesperson told CNBC in a statement.
Criticism of the filter started to go around after Mark Luckie, a former journalist, shared the filter on Twitter and called it “interesting”.
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This SnapChat #Juneteenth filter is…um…interesting.
Smile to break the chains? Okay then. pic.twitter.com/Wyob3kT3ew
— Mark S. Luckie (@marksluckie) June 19, 2020
We deeply apologize for the offensive Juneteenth Lens. The Lens that went live hadn’t been approved through our review process. We are investigating so this doesn’t happen again.
— Snapchat (@Snapchat) June 19, 2020
yoooooo, I barely get on Snapchat but I had to see what the tea was… yalll .. wtf 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 smile you break the chains ???? Deadass ? 🤣 pic.twitter.com/GWdvpmsAkv
— Friendly Black Mami🤎 (@_BodyBySunny) June 19, 2020
The uproar comes just after Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel said the company will continue to keep its diversity private, according to Business Insider. Spiegel said that releasing the data. Spiegel said that releasing the data would heighten the idea that minority groups are not represented in the technology industry.
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