Snapchat removes Juneteenth filter after critics slam it as tone-deaf

Snapchat removed a Juneteenth filter after critics slammed it as tone-deaf, reports said Friday.

The filter, which shows chains appearing and breaking when a user smiles, included the Pan-African flag in the background and was criticized as out of touch, CNBC reported.

“@Snapchat who on your diversity team cleared that #Juneteenth filter of breaking the chains? It’s offensive and it’s a no,” Twitter user @_Ayoo_Ki wrote Friday.

The firestorm was started after digital strategist and Pulitzer Prize finalist Mark S. Luckie posted a video of himself trying out the filter with a sarcastic caption decrying it as “…interesting.”

“Smile to break the chains? Okay then,” Luckie wrote on his Twitter account.

The filter was subsequently yanked.

A spokesperson for Snap apologized for the insensitive filter in an emailed statement to The Post. 

“We deeply apologize to the members of the Snapchat community who found this Lens offensive. A diverse group of Snap team members were involved in developing the concept, but a version of the Lens that went live for Snapchatters this morning had not been approved through our review process. We are investigating why this mistake occurred so that we can avoid it in the future,” the spokesperson said.

The gaffe comes as the app’s CEO Evan Spiegel said the tech giant will keep its diversity report private because releasing the data would reinforce the idea that minorities aren’t properly represented in the industry, CNBC reported

Juneteenth is one of America’s oldest holidays and is seeing renewed interest in 2020 among Black Lives Matter demonstrations.

It marks the official end of slavery in the US, two and a half years after President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, when the last remaining slaves in Texas were freed by Union soldiers on June 19, 1865.