First Dani Mathers, now Taylor Swift. This week’s headlines are a reminder to be wary of what you say on Snapchat.
On Thursday, Playboy model Dani Mathers posted a photo of a naked woman in an L.A. Fitness locker room to her Snapchat account with the caption, “If I can’t unsee this then you can’t either.” While Mathers claims that she intended to sent the snap privately to a friend, the court of public opinion has ruled that her actions constituted as body-shaming, with Twitter users calling for Mathers’s gym membership to be revoked (which it now is), and the model now potentially facing criminal charges, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Https://twitter.com/ktms1/status/753606571477786629
A few days later, Kim Kardashian West posted to her own Snapchat account a recording of her husband, Kanye West, talking to speakerphone to Taylor Swift about the lyrics to his then-unreleased song, “Famous.” In the video, we hear Swift allegedly approve of West’s controversial lyrics about her (“I made that b***h famous”). “Go with whatever line you think is better,” Swift says in the video. “It’s obviously really tongue in cheek, either way…and I really appreciate you telling me about it, that’s really nice.”
Cue the drama. Because Swift had previously said that West did not ask her permission to include her in the song—and that she had even cautioned him against using such misogynistic lyrics—many took to social media to call the 1989 singer dishonest, making the hashtag #KimExposedTaylorParty go viral on Twitter.
The pop star responded to the video with a social media post of her own, claiming that West never played the entire song for her, that she was “falsely painted as a liar,” and that the whole debacle was akin to “character assassination.”
Https://twitter.com/taylorswift13/status/754894689900359680
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Kim Kardashian and Kanye West may now be subject to a lawsuit, but the entire episode is yet another reminder to Swift and the rest of us that Snapchat is not to be underestimated—no matter how casual and “in the moment” it seems. As of June, the app has more daily users than Twitter, and it’s not just teens and Millennials who are using it: According to Tech Times, it is “rapidly growing” in popularity among users older than 35. Even Michelle Obama has one.
A few words of advice that will sway some more users than others: Don’t say anything on Snapchat you wouldn’t say at the VMAs.