Rihanna has denounced Snapchat for making light of domestic violence after the social media company published an ad that asked users whether they would rather “slap Rihanna” or “punch Chris Brown.” In 2009, Rihanna was hospitalized after Brown, then her boyfriend, assaulted her during an argument. Snapchat had claimed that the ad, which was meant to promote a game called “Would You Rather,” which asks users to make “impossible choices,” was published in error and has since removed it in wake of public outrage.
“We are sorry that this happened,” wrote representatives for Snapchat in a statement.
Is it just me, or is this ad that popped up on my Snapchat extremely tone deaf? Like what were they thinking with this? pic.twitter.com/7kP9RHcgNG
— Royce Mann (@TheRoyceMann) March 12, 2018
Rihanna has previously spoken about her experience with domestic violence, explaining that nobody who’s suffered it “wants to even remember it” or “admit” that it happened. Having constant attention drawn to it and being made to talk about it over and over, she added, was almost another form of punishment. Unsurprisingly, Rihanna declined to accept Snapchat’s apology.
“I’d love to call it ignorance, but I know you ain’t that dumb!” she wrote. “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!”
Rihanna responding to Snapchat's ad. I can't believe they did this. pic.twitter.com/TpHQIXTm4j
— Gennette Cordova (@GNCordova) March 15, 2018
In response, Snapchat issued another apology, acknowledging that the ad had been “disgusting” and promising to take steps to ensure a similar incident never occured again.
Watch video coverage of the story below.
Rihanna isn't accepting Snapchat's apology for a controversial game hosted on its platform, inviting its users to either "slap Rihanna" or "punch Chris Brown" that has since been pulled from the app: https://t.co/cSEAYGyKKu pic.twitter.com/jlG2BbBDCX
— Good Morning America (@GMA) March 16, 2018
Read the full story at The Huffington Post.
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