Snapchat is news again and this time for all the wrong reasons. Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel’s alleged statement expressing his disinterest in expanding the reach of the app in the ‘poor countries like India and Spain’ has caused a furore in India’s digital space that is hard to miss. From hashtags like #UninstallSnapchat and #boycottSnapchat to a vast majority of people uninstalling the popular photo-sharing app, the situation seems to be getting worse for the company. Even though Snapchat has pinned the blame on its ‘disgruntled employee’ Anthony Pompliano calling the statement quoting Spiegel ‘ridiculous’, things don’t seem to be moving in the right direction for Snapchat. Indians are angry and the evidence can be seen everywhere including Twitter, Facebook and even in the reviews section on the Google Play Store.
However, Indians have no right to react this way and reasons for it are many.
To begin with, ours is a country where the citizens are fighting to get the ‘Other Backward Class’ (OBC) status. From Jat agitation in Haryana to the Patidar protest in Gujarat and Jat stir in Rajasthan, past couple of years have witnessed record number of communities fighting to get the minority status. Burning vehicles, blocking water supplies and attacking the innocent countrymen is how these so called minorities have forced the state governments into caving into their demands. Are Patidars or the Jats really a minority in their respective states? No. Do they really deserve special treatment (with an exception of the financially weak families)? No.
Next, while the citizens are quoting the example of a few rich and affluent families like the Ambanis and the Birlas to ‘prove’ that India is not a poor country, it is worth mentioning that 30 percent of India’s total population is still below the poverty line. According to a 2016 World Bank report, India has the largest number of people living under the international standard of $1.90 (Rs 122 approx) a day, which is the highest in the world. How many times have you conveniently ignored the people who sleep on the sidewalks? How many times in a day do you encounter children and elderly people begging for food? How many times have you encountered a disheveled person in tattered rags on road who seems to have no clue of what’s going around? Still think India is rich?
Last but not the least, Indians are known for their temperament. If only it had a base in this case. For those of you who are familiar with the app know that Snapchat doesn’t support a ‘Lite’ mode (on the one that works swiftly even with slow network connections). The app consumes a decent amount of data and requires a steady network connection to work. A country, which is still struggling with its data connectivity issues and is transcending from 3G to 4G, a stable network connection is difficult to find if not rare. If the company feels that India is not a target market for it yet, it has a sound basis for it i.e. the fluctuating network connection, which is a must for any Internet-based app to work.
In case you forgot, Spiegel also mentioned Spain as a ‘poor nation’, but do you see Spaniards losing their cool? No.
It’s high time that Indians get their act together and give out a unified impression instead of maintain dual standards on basically everything!
