LOS ANGELES – Singer, songwriter, and actress Rihanna took to her Instagram to criticize Snapchat over promoting domestic violence with an offensive advertisement that trivializes the issue.
The advertisement showed Rihanna and her ex boyfriend Chris Brown, asking people what they would rather do: slap Rihanna, or punch Chris Brown.
Rihanna said: “Now SNAPCHAT I know you already know you ain’t my fav app out there! But I’m just trying to figure out what the point was with this mess! I’d love to call it ignorance, but I know you ain’t that dumb! You spent money to animate something that would intentionally bring shame to DV 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. Throw the whole app-oligy away.”
Snapchat apologized to the singer, revealing in a statement that the ad. must have been ‘reviewed and approved in error’ and that it ‘violates our advertising guidelines.’
Since then, shares in parent company Snap Inc. have fallen about 3.64% on Wall Street.
In February, Snapchat suffered around 5-6% loss in its shares when Kylie Jenner pronounced it dead on social media.
Chris Brown was convicted of beating Rihanna, his then girlfriend, back in 2009.
