Rihanna attends the conference 'GPE Financing Conference, an Investment in the Future' organised by the Global Partnership for Education in Dakar on February 2, 2018.
Ludovic Marin/Getty
Snapchat has removed an advert from its platform after admitting it "makes light of domestic violence." The ad in question asked users if they would "rather slap Rihanna or punch Chris Brown."
In an apology issued to BBC News, a spokesperson for Snap said the ad violates the social network's guidelines and appeared "in error." The ad only appeared to users in the U.S. but was shared on Twitter by users questioning the "tone deaf" nature of its content.
Is it just me, or is this ad that popped up on my Snapchat extremely tone deaf? Like what were they thinking with this? pic.twitter.com/7kP9RHcgNG
— Royce Mann (@TheRoyceMann) March 12, 2018
Snap said: "The advert was reviewed and approved in error, as it violates our advertising guidelines. We immediately removed the ad last weekend, once we became aware. We are sorry that this happened."
Earlier this year a reported $1.3bn was wiped off the value of Snap when influential user Kylie Jenner said she was "soo over" the app. Her criticism came in the wake of a controversial update which makes adverts more prominent to users.
