Black creators say Snapchat unfairly revoked their verification status after promising to support them

This story was originally published on Passionfruit.

A number of Black influencers say they have lost income and career opportunities after Snapchat removed their verification status for actions that white influencers have purportedly gone unpunished for.

Prasuna Chekru, an influencer manager at Diversifi Talent, told Passionfruit that at least seven of her Black clients had their verification status on Snapchat—which enabled them to access monetization opportunities—removed. According to a Snapchat spokesperson, these users’ stars have been revoked for violating aspects of Snapchat’s Terms of Service including sexually explicit content, impersonation, and spam. However, screenshots obtained by Passionfruit suggest that these rules have been enforced inconsistently.

According to Chekru, she was introduced to Snapchat staff by someone at a different management agency during the July TikTok strike, wherein Black creators refused to create content in protest of what they said was an unfair enforcement of community guidelines by TikTok. 

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