Snapchat removed its Juneteenth filter asking users to 'smile' to break chains

• Snapchat removed its Juneteenth filter on Friday after critics said it was tone-deaf, per CNBC.
• The filter asked users to smile, after which chains appeared and then broke.
• Juneteenth commemorates the effective end of slavery in the U.S.

Snapchat's Juneteenth filter has been removed after receiving criticism, per CNBC.

The filter displayed a Pan-African flag and read "Juneteenth, Freedom Day."

Like many other Snapchat filters, the Juneteenth filter promoted users to smile, after which chains appeared and then broke in the background of the filter.

The filter began to receive attention and criticism after Mark Luckie, a digital strategist and former journalist, tweeted about it.

—Mark S. Luckie (@marksluckie) June 19, 2020

Business Insider previously reported that Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel announced that the company would keep its diversity report private on June 11.

Juneteenth celebrates the day that the news of the Emancipation Proclamation reached Texas, the most confederate state in the U.S., freeing enslaved African Americans, on June 19, 1865. June 19 recognizes the effective end of slavery in the U.S.