Snap said it has concluded an investigation into reports of racially insensitive incidents.
In June, former Snap employees spoke out on Twitter and gave their account to Mashable of what they claim was a racially biased culture on the content curation team at Snapchat between 2015-2018. Snap subsequently launched an investigation to look into the allegations. Now, Snap says it has concluded that report.
“We recently concluded our investigation into allegations of potential racial bias raised by former employees from our content team,” the company said in a statement. “We did not find a widespread pattern of behavior across the broader content group, but there were findings that will help us as we work to build a more diverse and inclusive environment for all members on our content team.”
A source familiar with the matter said that management shared the news with staff at an all-hands meeting. At the meeting, they announced that organizational changes would be coming to the content team to accommodate its growth in the future.
Additionally, one manager that former employees said was at the center of the racially biased incidents has now left Snap. On Tuesday, leadership announced in an email to the content team that the manager was leaving. Snap has confirmed the departure, but would not comment on whether or not it was related to the incidents or the ensuing internal investigation.
One former Snap employee claimed that the manager said a curated story was “too Black-heavy.” Other team members described a “whitewashed” culture and managers who lacked racial sensitivity. The managers involved in the 2015-2018 incidents were still at Snap at the time of Mashable’s reporting in June.
In response, Snap said that it would investigate the incidents. Business Insider reported in July that Snap hired a law firm to investigate. Snap did not comment on those reports at the time.
Beyond structural changes to the content team, it’s not clear what action has resulted or will occur as a result of the investigation.