Snap Inc., Maker of Snapchat, Releases Report Revealing Diversity Shortcomings

Snap Inc. has released a report called “Citizen Snap” that contains its workforce demographics, and the findings reflect a diversity issue prevalent in much of the tech industry: In the U.S., where the majority of Snap’s employees work, 51% of employees are white, 33% are Asian, 6.8% are Latinx, and 4% are Black, the Los Angeles Times reports.

It turns out that Snap is less diverse than Twitter, which is 57% male and 41% white.

While the overall gender and racial diversity of employees has been taken into consideration for social media companies, another major issue remains: diversity in employees with disabilities, which can be crucial to making apps more inclusive and accessible.

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Outside of the office, social media offers a way to enhancing one’s social life as well as perform necessary daily tasks. Consulting with disabled users or employees early in the design process of updates of old and new apps can put more weight on accessibility rather than aesthetics.

For now, Snap will reportedly be focusing on its gender and race diversity issue among its ranks, especially after former nonwhite Snap employees revealed to tech publication Mashable that managers of the company’s editorial products attempted to limit the number of Black people featured in Snapchat stories.

“It is clear that we have a choice: Allow these inequities to be perpetuated in the United States or do our part to better fulfill the shared values we seek to uphold as a society,” Snap Chief Executive Evan Spiegel wrote in a blog post released with the report. “There is no doubt that today we fall short of our aspirations. We have an overwhelming amount of work to do, and our team feels strongly that it is important to hold ourselves accountable publicly.”

According to the company, it plans to interview job candidates from different backgrounds and change job requirements to allow for equivalent work experience instead of a bachelor’s degree. Snap also announced a fixed minimum of a $70,000 “living wage” salary for its workers in the U.S.

Spiegel has also indicated that the company’s international short-term diversity goals are to double the number of women working in technical roles by 2023 and double the number of employees from underrepresented racial and ethnic minorities at the company as a whole by 2025.

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