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Journalism of Courage
Snapchat today refuted the reported claims of a former employee who alleged that its CEO Evan Spiegel made negative comments about the Indian market, saying the multimedia mobile app is for everyone and the company is “grateful” to its Indian users.
“Obviously Snapchat is for everyone! It’s available worldwide to download for free,” a spokesperson for Snapchat said in a statement to CNN.
Snapchat is strongly denying allegations by a former employee Anthony Pompliano, who alleged in a lawsuit that Spiegel had once shot down his suggestion to pursue growth in certain international markets. Pompliano alleges that Spiegel said Snapchat is “only for rich people” and that he didn’t want to “expand into poor countries like India and Spain.
“Those words were written by a disgruntled former employee. We are grateful for our Snapchat community in India and around the world,” the spokesperson said.
Also read: Snapchat’s App Store ratings down to one star thanks to ‘poor India’ furore
The claims emerged last week when documents were made public from a lawsuit by Pompliano against Snapchat’s parent company, Snap. Pompliano was fired in 2015 after only three weeks at the company. Spiegel’s remarks caused an uproar in India where users are quickly uninstalling the Snapchat app.
However, in a case of mistaken identity, many people downgraded and uninstalled the mobile application of e-commerce platform Snapdeal instead of Snapchat to mark their protest against the unverified comments of Snapchat CEO about the Indian market.
