Snapchat 'not for poor India and Spain', former employee claims in suit
The social messaging app Snapchat copped widespread boycotts after its creator allegedly said countries like India and Spain were "too poor" for the company's concern.
The allegations surfaced on a Hollywood gossip site and were picked up in the Indian media, leading tens of thousands of users in India to barrage the app with poor reviews.
An Indian arm of the hacking group Anonymous even claimed it "leaked" the data of 1.7 million Snapchat users in response.
But the allegations against Snapchat founder and CEO, Evan Spiegel, are at this point just that.
They surfaced in a lawsuit from former employee Anthon Pompliano who is suing his former employer Snap Inc over a range of things after he was fired just three weeks into the job.
Details of the suit filed in a California court became public as Snapchat dropped efforts to keep the complaint under seal and released it in a public filing.
Pompliano, a former Facebook employee, is suing Snap Inc for trying to "destroy his career and reputation".
In the recently unsealed complaint, Pompliano alleges that he was abruptly cut off by Spiegel as he tried to propose ideas to drive international growth.
Spiegel allegedly told Pompliano that he had no intentions of expanding the messaging app into countries such as India and Spain as they were too poor.
Pompliano also said that the company had inflated its user data while many of the top executives were misled about key metrics.
Pompliano further alleges Snap executives spoke of him in a negative light to future prospective employers, therefore making it difficult for him to find employment.
One last allegation was that Snap tried to "violate his confidentiality" agreement with his former employer Facebook.
The first thing Snap Inc, the parent company of the messaging app, did was to file a counter complaint saying the employee was "disgruntled".
They later dropped this complaint, but have filed a motion seeking to force this case into arbitration.
"This is ridiculous. Obviously Snapchat is for everyone!" the response stated.
"It's available worldwide to download for free."
Snap also slapped down Pompliano's "panoply of alleged bad acts that litter" his complaint, which the companies intends to demolish "at the appropriate time in the appropriate forum".
