Privileged whitey here. My main gripe against Snapchat is that on Android at least, it seems to be a badly written application: it drains battery, slows down my phone and makes it heat up like no other social media app ever has. That was my main reason for uninstalling it.

But okay, even I’ve been doubtful about some of their lens choices.

That’s how they monetize the app, though: with in-app purchases for lenses. The business model requires them to produce lots of lenses. Inevitably, some of them are going to come off as crass.

I’m surprised, given the reach of Snapchat, that they don’t have a little more sanity checking of the new features: even without diversity among the developers, maybe a diverse focus group or a more culturally sensitive product manager could catch some of the wrong ’uns before they get released and create bad publicity.