Snapchat Loses $800 Million Following Rihanna Ad Backlash

Don’t mess with RiRi.

Shortly after Rihanna and others criticized Snapchat for running an insensitive ad about domestic violence, the messaging app’s stock dropped nearly 4 percent, losing $800 million in market value, according to CNN.

As reported, Snapchat ran a “Would You Rather?” ad that asked users to pick between slapping Rihanna and punching Chris Brown, a reference to the fact that Brown assaulted Rihanna in 2009.

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

Shortly after the ad was taken down, Rihanna addressed the matter on Instagram. “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,” she wrote. “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!!!”

Snapchat, which had already been dealing with criticism over a redesign, apologized for the incident. “The advert was reviewed and approved in error, as it violates our advertising guidelines,” said the company. “We immediately removed the ad last weekend, once we became aware. We are sorry that this happened.” Rihanna replied: “Shame on you. Throw the whole app-oligy away.”

Rihanna is just the latest star to create this type of impact on the platform. Kylie Jenner recently indicated that she no longer uses the app, reportedly resulting in a 6 percent drop and a loss of $1.3 billion in market value.

“Sooo does anyone else not open Snapchat anymore?” tweeted Jenner. “Or is it just me… ugh this is so sad.”