#BoycottSnapchat trending on social media after Snap’s CEO alleged cavalier comments

Snapchat faced a fierce backlash after an unsubstantiated report that CEO Evan Spiegel had disparaged India and Spain as “poor countries” that he wasn’t interested in, because the “app is only for rich people.” Snap vigorously denied the allegation, made by a former employee. But #BoycottSnapchat became a trending topic — and even hackers are threatening the company.

Whether Snap’s CEO made a cavalier comment doesn’t matter to the internet. A day after news broke out regarding Snapchat’s CEO Evan Spiegel’s disinterest in expanding the business to “poor countries” like India, the rating of the popular app dropped to a “single star” from an apparent “five star” on the App Store.

According to the app info on App Store, the “Customer Ratings” of the current version of the app was “single star” (based on 6,099 ratings) and all versions rating was “one and half star” (based on 9,527 ratings) as on Sunday morning. The rating for the app on Android Play Store was “four star” (based on 11,932,996 ratings). As the ratings of the app dropped, the criticism of the CEO and the app increased.

The claims emerged last week when documents were made public from a lawsuit by a former employee against Snapchat’s parent company, Snap. The ex-employee, Anthony Pompliano, was fired in 2015 after only three weeks at the company.

Among a litany of allegations against Snap, Pompliano says that CEO Evan Spiegel once shot down his suggestion to pursue growth in certain international markets. Pompliano alleges that Spiegel said Snapchat is “only for rich people” and that he didn’t want to “expand into poor countries like India and Spain.”

The alleged comments spread widely on social media in India over the weekend, prompting furious posts from many outraged users on Twitter with the hashtag #boycottsnapchat. Some called on people to delete Snapchat from their phones.

These alleged comments by Evan Spiegel are a knock on the head for the already struggling application. Last week on Thursday, Facebook’s photo-sharing app Instagram surpassed Snapchat in daily active users of the Stories feature, though the format was first launched by Snapchat in 2013. Instagram’s Stories feature was now used by more than 200 million people every day — an increase of 50 million since January. On the other hand, Snapchat who launched the Stories format in October 2013, had 161 million daily active users in February. The Stories feature is an ephemeral chain of photo and video clips with filters and special effects. More recently, Facebook and WhatsApp also introduced the feature, imitating Snapchat.

Snapchat has more than four million users in India.

Snap dismissed the claim as “ridiculous.” “Obviously Snapchat is for everyone! It’s available worldwide to download for free,” a spokesperson said in a statement. “Those words were written by a disgruntled former employee. We are grateful for our Snapchat community in India and around the world.”