Days After Getting ‘Woke’ On Trump, Snapchat Refuses To Release Diversity Report Amid Racism Complaints
Tyler Durden
Thu, 06/11/2020 – 22:25
Last week, Snap announced they would no longer promote President Trump’s account, claiming the company “will not amplify voices who incite racial violence and injustice.”
Today, Business Insider reports that CEO Evan Spiegel told employees at an all-hands meeting on Tuesday that the company would not release its diversity report – which Spiegel argued would only reinforce the notion that minorities are underrepresented in Silicon Valley.
The implication, of course, is that Snapchat is simply another ‘woke’ Silicon Valley company run by virtue signaling hypocrites.
Spiegel told employees that the company’s diversity numbers are in line with those at other tech companies, which have long skewed white and male. –Business Insider
Spiegel’s comments come days after former employees said they experienced and witnessed racism at Snapchat.
LMFAO at @applegatetv retweeting this. Liz, my ex manager, asked me to remove snaps of black people from a Snapchat Story & replace them w/snaps of white people bc the story was too “black-heavy” & “they all look the same.” This is who leads entertainment stories at @Snapchat https://t.co/4OFtj7aTu5
— ✨diana baik 🐰 (@dinobakes) June 5, 2020
Founded in 2011, Snapchat parent Snap hired its first head of diversity and inclusion in 2019, and has never made its diversity report public – while most major Silicon Valley companies began making such reports public in 2014.
In 2019, Google reported women made up only 32% of its employees, and that only 9.6% were Black or Latinx. The situation is similar at Facebook, where only 9% of its workforce is Black or Latinx. Twitter’s Latinx and Black employees are just nearly 11% of Twitter’s workforce, while Apple is one of the most diverse tech companies with more than 22% of workers identifying as Black or Latinx.
Spiegel also took time during the Q&A session to refute the allegations of racism and “shrinking diversity” that were made on Twitter and earlier reported by Mashable, the employees said. Former employees who identify as people of color told Mashable they experienced a racist culture, including from leadership, while working for Snapchat between 2015 and 2018. Managers censored or minimized coverage of predominantly Black content, like that from the 2016 Black Lives Matter movement and the hip-hop music festival Rolling Loud, according to the report. –Business Insider
How much of Evan Spiegel’s estimated $4 billion net worth should he donate to minority causes in order to atone for his company’s lack of diversity? After all, it would be the progressive thing to do, wouldn’t it?
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