After its CEO Evan Spiegel's “India is poor” remark, Snapchat is finally doing some damage control. The company completely refuted the reported claims of a former employee who alleged that Spiegel made negative comments about the Indian market by saying that the multimedia mobile app is for everyone and the company is “grateful” to its Indian users.
Snapchat has strongly denied allegations by Anthony Pompliano, who claimed in a lawsuit that the CEO had once shot down his suggestion to pursue growth in certain international markets. Pompliano alleged that Snapchat was “only for rich people” and that he didn't want to “expand into poor countries like India and Spain.” A company spokesperson said, “These words were written by a disgruntled former employee. We are grateful for our Snapchat community in India and around the world.” Pompliano was fired in 2015 just three weeks after joining. His claims provoked an uproar in India, with users taking offense and uninstalling the app. However, in unfortunate circumstances, a case of mistaken identity made several people downgrade and uninstall the e-commerce platform Snapdeal instead of Snapchat.
A group of hackers claimed to have leaked data of 1.7 million users, a move that came in retaliation to the remark. Indian hackers said they had found vulnerability in the Snapchat database last year and had siphoned details of 1.7 million users. They leaked and made the database available on the darknet to mark their resentment towards Spiegel's remark. The claimed that they had never used the data before, but the CEO's “arrogance” had miffed them. They have also further threatened to carry out intensive strike against the company on the virtual world till the CEO apologises.
