The entire Snapchat fiasco only shows how easy it is to offend Indians

Snapchat CEO is facing major backlash for his alleged "India too poor" comment. However, is the entire controversy worth outraging over?

By: Priyanka Mukherjee |
April 17, 2017 5:20 pm

Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel created a havoc on social media after he allegedly called India a “poor country”. People from several quarters of the society got extremely offended and came together on social media to gang up against the popular app. Starting from trolling Snapchat to urging others to boycott the app, netizens left no stone unturned to express their anguish over the statement.

#BoycottSnapchat started trending in no time. Millions of Indians came forward to “prove” that India was not as poor as Evan might think. Snapchat’s rating dropped to a single star from an apparent five star on Apple Store. Not just that, people did not even spare Spiegel’s fiancée Australian model Miranda Kerr who had to face the brunt of the entire controversy. People went on a criticising spree and the “upholders of India’s honour” lashed out at Kerr and asked her to keep control her fiancée.

In fact, people who thought of coming out in the defence of the company were trolled too. Because, why not?

For the people who may or may not have used the app but are really angry over the company CEO’s “India too poor” remark, are you sure that Evan Spiegel really made the statement?

Here’s a gentle reminder. The statement was allegedly made in the year 2015 but came into the light only after Snapchat’s former employee, Anthony Pompliano came forward to claim that CEO said, “This app is only for rich people. I don’t want to expand into poor countries like India and Spain.” So basically we are spewing hatred, expressing outrage and dissent over an unverified statement that may or may not be true.

Snapchat CEO has denied all the allegations and have asserted that he never made such a statement and it was only a “disgruntled employee” who was fired from the company making false remarks. “This is ridiculous. Obviously, Snapchat is for everyone! It’s available worldwide to download for free,” he was quoted as saying.

Can we not open our minds for a teeny-tiny second to consider the possibility of that being true? How is it fair to lash out at the CEO’s fiancee for something that she is not even part of. The outrage went on to a level where Snapdeal had to pay the price for having “snap” in its name. Because some of them are so smart that they didn’t bother to fact check and went on to uninstall Snapdeal app in place of Snapchat. Are we that easy to trigger? Also, for once let’s just assume since we already are that he did make the statement. Why can’t we be open to someone’s opinion? The only solution is to hurl abuses and go the extreme way?

Most importantly, do we have the time to outrage over something that may not even be true? Seldom have we come together for something meaningful and worth outraging over. Wouldn’t it be better if we didn’t have the herd mentality and actually came together to find an appropriate solution instead of blindly going on a bashing spree? The unnecessary show of collective nationalism is uncalled for and not worth it to be honest. Poor or not, the entire fiasco has only proved how ignorant, egoist and stupid some can be.

Cut him slack, if you may.