Rihanna has accused Snapchat of “intentionally” shaming victims of domestic violence and making fun of them.
The singer was responding to an advert on the social media platform that asked users to choose if they would rather “slap Rihanna or punch Chris Brown”.
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
Brown was convicted of assaulting Rihanna in 2009 when they were in a relationship.
Pictures of her bruised face later surfaced, and Rihanna said she felt like she has been “punished over and over” by the attention surrounding her assault.
She previously told Vanity Fair: “For me, and anyone who’s been a victim of domestic abuse, nobody wants to even remember it. Nobody even wants to admit it.
“So to talk about it and say it once, much less 200 times, is like… I have to be punished for it? It didn’t sit well with me.”
Brown was sentenced to five years of probation following the assault.
Rihanna posted a lengthy statement on her Instagram story, writing: “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! 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!!
“This isn’t about my personal feelings, cause I don’t have much of them… but all the women, children and men that have been victims of DV in the past and especially the ones who haven’t made it out yet… you let us down!
“Shame on you.
“Throw the whole app-oligy away.”
A spokesman for Snapchat said: “This advertisement is disgusting and never should have appeared on our service.
“We are so sorry we made the terrible mistake of allowing it through our review process.
“We are investigating how that happened so that we can make sure it never happens again.”