Snapchat removes Juneteenth filter that prompted users to smile to break chains

Snapchat apologized for its insensitive Juneteenth filter that asked users to smile to break chains and removed it from the platform on Friday. 

Juneteenth commemorates the end of slavery in the United States. Celebrated on June 19, it marks the day Major General Gordon Granger and Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, with federal orders that declared enslaved people free. 

It carries extra weight this year as protests against systemic racism this month have amplified calls for it to become a federal holiday. In response, several major companies have given employees a paid day off, but it's still not an official holiday.   Read more...