Snapchat Sets Itself Apart With $5M Pledge For LA Fire Aid

With some political leaders and heads of major social media platforms using social apps to direct blame at people and/or policies regarding the ongoing wildfires that are ravaging Los Angeles, Snapchat and its CEO Evan Spiegel are setting a different example.

In a public letter addressed to the city of Los Angeles, Spiegel writes that he and his company have already given $5 million in immediate aid to those fighting to stop the fires raging across L.A., adding that Snapchat has plans to donate more.

The money, according to Spiegel, is helping feed evacuees and first responders and offering space for those who lost their homes to dwell temporarily, while leaders of the company are “listening to experts on megafire recovery.”

Unlike Elon Musk, who has used his social-media platform X to point blame at California governor Gavin Newsom and spread misinformation about decriminalized looting, Spiegel addressed the natural disaster by mourning his childhood neighborhood – the Palisades – and writing a love letter to the city and its people.

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“For every coward, there is courage overflowing,” Spiegel writes. “For each finger pointed in blame, thousands of hands are hard at work to heal and bring hope.”

Spiegel says that more than 150 Snap team members have been displaced, “not counting their families and friends.” The fire, he says, also burned his father's home, in which Snapchat originally became a company.

As the social media landscape has evolved over the past 20 years, Snapchat has set itself apart from larger competitors like Meta and X, formerly known as Facebook and Twitter, respectively. The app has provided users and brands with leading-AR technology, remaining popular among younger users and true to its objective: foster human connections in a positive way.

Like all major social media platforms, Snapchat has faced its share of content and user-based issues, but has recently avoided heated political debate in regards to free speech and censorship, unlike Musk and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who have both made moves to align themselves and their platforms with president-elect Donald Trump.

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