Remember how Facebook sells artist names as advertising keywords and how Google had to pay the Department of Justice a $500,000,000 forfeiture for promoting the sale of illegal drugs?
The plot sickens–now it turns out that reports say Snapchat’s ad sales team was trying to shakedown a little gun safety nonprofit by threatening to run National Rifle Association ads against their gun safety collateral.
Because that’s what Silicon Valley IPOs are all about, right? (“Snap jumps more than 40% in debut trade on Wall Street“).
Snapchat told a gun safety charity it might run NRA ads on the charity’s anti-gun violence awareness campaign — which would have featured videos starring families who lost their loved ones to firearms — if the charity didn’t pay Snapchat for advertising, emails provided to Mic by a source close to the exchange show.
Everytown for Gun Safety, a nonprofit backed by Michael Bloomberg and devoted to curbing gun violence and decreasing fatalities from firearms, reached out to Snapchat in early 2016 about advertising on the messaging service’s massive platform for its #WearOrange event on National Gun Violence Awareness Day, a day of advocacy organized by the charity in conjunction with families who have lost loved ones to gun violence.
Rob Saliterman, Snapchat’s head of political sales, responded with an advertising quote of at least $150,000 to allow Snapchat users to participate in the event using custom filters and lenses.
Artist Rights Watch--News for the Artist Rights Advocacy Community 