The following letter was published by Snap’s CEO, Evan Spiegel, as an introduction to our third annual CitizenSnap Report. Read the executive summary and the full report here.
We published our first CitizenSnap Report in 2020 as a way to better explain the way we operate our business and support our team, our community, and our partners – as well as, more broadly, our society and planet. As we continue to learn, grow, and iterate, we have published a report every year to increase transparency and hold ourselves publicly accountable in these areas. In a year that has been defined by change and global uncertainty, we have focused our efforts around building trust, scaling empathy, and leading with our values.
We build trust with our community by continuing our ongoing efforts to create technology that serves humanity, from augmented reality experiences that help Snapchatters learn American Sign Language to civic tools that help our next generation of leaders make a positive impact by running for public office.
We scaled empathy with our team and partners by working to integrate diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) into our core business, launching our first content accelerator to support minority-owned creatives and media companies, and helping to launch the Action to Catalyze Tech (ACT) Report to bring over 30 technology companies, DEI experts, advocates and researchers together to drive industry-wide accountability. And because our shared prosperity depends on our ability to address the environmental crisis, we upleveled our commitments to reduce our business impact and used our platform to help Snapchatters better understand how to take action.
We led with our values by sharing how we build safety and privacy into the design of our platform and products, and more importantly, how we’re improving in areas where we fall short. Since our early days, we have taken responsibility for the impact that our technology can have on society, and constantly think about changes we can make when we see our products being used in ways that aren’t aligned to our values.
There’s no doubt that we still have an overwhelming amount of work to do, and we will keep striving to live up to our values of being kind, smart, and creative in all aspects of how we operate. We know our responsibilities extend far beyond the compliance laws we are required to abide by, and will keep doing our part to make a positive impact on our broader world. We believe that this isn’t just the right thing to do, it’s the only way for Snap to succeed in the long-run.