Evan Spiegel

In April 2023, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel said a U.S. ban on TikTok would be beneficial, stating 'We'd love that in the short term.' The comment raised concerns about anti-competitive motivations behind supporting the ban on a major competitor.

At a 2022 Senate hearing, Evan Spiegel apologized to parents for exposing minors to harmful content on Snapchat. Senators demanded accountability and compensation for child safety failures. In 2023, Spiegel was subpoenaed to testify again in a January 2024 Senate Judiciary hearing to explain Snapchat's 'failure to protect kids.'

In June 2020, Evan Spiegel stated that Snap was exercising its First Amendment right to free speech when deciding not to amplify President Donald Trump's content to a broader audience on Snapchat's Discover page. Spiegel said if Trump wanted to promote violence and racism on Twitter, Snapchat didn't need to post his views. He expressed surprise that other social media sites weren't willing to do the same.

In May 2018 at the Code Conference, Evan Spiegel acknowledged workplace culture problems after former Snap software engineer Shannon Lubetich told Cheddar that the company was a 'toxic' and 'sexist' place to work. Lubetich cited a Santa Monica party with 'scantily clad women' and Snap VP Tim Sehn making a 'penis enlargement joke' as examples. Spiegel called it a 'wake-up call' and said 'we need to do more and do it faster,' noting Snap had brought in outside consultants.

In May 2014, emails sent by Evan Spiegel during his time at Stanford fraternity were leaked to Gawker. The emails included misogynistic and homophobic comments and openly encouraged getting women heavily drunk in an attempt to convince them to have sex. Spiegel issued an apology stating 'I'm obviously mortified and embarrassed that my idiotic emails during my fraternity days were made public. I have no excuse. I'm sorry I wrote them at the time and I was a jerk to have written them.'