Pinterest is doing their best to go diverse and get out of their white CIS male comfort zone, while Snapchat is avoiding the question of diversity entirely. Today, diversity and equality are among the most relevant social issues, and it is only fair that it also applies to the people who run social media.
Diversity in Snapchat and Pinterest
The team behind Snapchat have never given any specifics as to their staff body. The company had 30 in staff a few years ago, and the number has spread to over 300 since. Snapchat is one of the fastest growing platforms on the internet, but they’re quite secretive.
Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel has spoken mildly of diversity, declaring that he doesn’t count in numbers but in awareness. He has claimed diversity among the team, but hasn’t specified in numbers. The transparency could be interpreted as lying, but Snapchat is the kind of platform that needs to remain transparent.
In short words, all Snapchat does is provide with a way for people to communicate. The people who run the platform only need to worry about user safety and censorship where it is due. So far, Snapchat hasn’t received criticism for lack of diversity. In fact, its Discover tab displays snaps from all over the world. Regardless of what corners we see, Snapchat does work of putting the world in front of user’s eyes. Now, whether or not these stories are filtered is an entirely different story.
The truth is Snapchat hasn’t answered any questions about diversity in detail. It’s likely that they won’t, at least until the company grows a little bigger. Maybe then they will be more comfortable disclosing that information or the internet will come for their heads.
Pinterest Owns Diversity in 2016
Pinterest has just gotten their first head of diversity. This position will be in charge of giving the Pinterest staff body a way to get out of the white and male employee body. The new head of diversity is Candice Morgan, a black woman.
The announcement received positive response, unlike Twitter. The latter announced a white man as head of diversity, and they received serious negative backlash for it. Morgan’s plan is to hire women to make part of at least 30% of incoming engineers. She will also work on getting at least 18% of the engineering body from underrepresented ethnic backgrounds and implement a ‘Rooney Rule’. This means that at least one minority candidate and one female candidate will be interviewed for all leadership positions.
Pinterest is also auditing pay to make sure that there is fair payment for men and women. Now there’s some diversity done right. The firm will likely be getting a lot more support from its user base, who are women spread across all walks of life and races.
