‘Poor Indians’ Continue To BoycottSnapchat; Hackers Leak User Data 

Enraged by the derogatory comments of Snapchat CEO about the Indian market, thousands of users of the social networking app are downgrading and uninstalling it all over the country.

The social media was on Sunday abuzz with criticism against Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel after a report quoted one of the company's former employees as saying that the top executive told him that the "app is only for rich people" and that the CEO was not interested in expanding the business to "poor countries" like India and Spain.

Reacting on the issue of poor and rich, India's richest man Mukesh Ambani's fans tweeted:

Dear @Snapchat Ur total worth is US$ 4.6 Billion.. nd our beloved poor Mukesh Ambani Ji's house cost US$ 1 Billion.. LOL

Mukesh Ambani's networth is $27 billion; he can buy your company sever times over, says another Indian.

Snapchat, on its part, has rubbished the allegations.

However, soon after the controversy erupted, #BoycottSnapchat became one of the top trending topics on Twitter and people began to uninstall the app and give it poor ratings and reviews on various app stores.

"Dear CEO of Snapchat...why don't you come to India and check out Indians' phones," wrote a user in review of Snapchat's app. Many also went on to highlight that CEOs of top tech firms like Microsoft and Google are Indians.

Interestingly, a section of Internet users mistook Snapchat to be Snapdeal and uninstalled the e-commerce app of the latter. This came to light after netizens started posting pictures of the blunder on Twitter.

Many users also went on to explain how the two apps were different.

"Time to balance the ratings...guys its Snapchat's CEO who said bad things. You are making Snapdeal pay that...please change your ratings," wrote one of them.

Snapdeal, which has been in news for a potential sell out to larger rival Flipkart, has faced a similar downgrade in 2015 when its then-brand ambassador Aamir Khan made a comment on growing 'intolerance in the country.

Indian Hackers Leak Data Of 1.7 Million App Users

Meanwhile, anonymous Indian hackers claim to have leaked database of 1.7 million Snapchat users, which they hacked last year.

In retaliation to Snapchat CEO's Evan Spiegel's alleged uncomplimentary comments on the restrictive mushrooming of the app's domain in India, some hackers claim to have leaked data of 1.7 million users.

The move by Indian hackers came in retaliation to Snapchat's CEO Evan Spiegel's remark on expanding the business to "poor countries" like India. According to Indian hackers, they had found vulnerability in Snapchat database last year and had siphoned details of 1.7 million users. Hackers leaked and made this data based available on the darknet to mark their resentment against company's remark for India.

Indian hackers are among the top bugbounty hunters in the world working of IT giants finding bug in their system. Hackers said that they had found the bug earlier but never used the data but "arrogance" of the Snapchat CEO had miffed them. They have further threatened to carry out intensive strike against company on the virtual world till the CEO apologies for his remark.

Snapchat Denies Leakage Of Data

However, Snapchat has not confirmed any successful hack and leak yet. The incident also set social media on fire where the app was trolled. Venting out their anger, Indian users have started negative campaigning against the app due to which the rating of the popular app dropped to a "single star" from an apparent "five star" on the App Store. After the reports of Spiegel's alleged claims surfaced, Snapchat faced heavy backlash from users and #Uninstall-Snapchat and #BoycottSnapchat started trending on Twitter. Those who haven't even used the app are going to app stores to give it a 'thumbs down' vote after Variety magazine quoted a former employee claiming that Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel had said in a meeting in September 2015 that this app isn't meant for poor countries like India and Spain.

Following the controversy and massive outrage online, Snapchat said the employee who made the claim was "fired for poor performance," three weeks ago and has been involved in a lawsuit with the company".

"This is ridiculous. Obviously, Snapchat is for everyone! It's available worldwide to download for free," an international spokesperson of Snap said in a statement. "Those words were written by a disgruntled former employee. We are grateful for our Snapchat community in India and around the world," the statement added.

Snapchat may not be as big as Facebook or WhatsApp in India, but is quite popular. According to several media reports, Snapchat's user based in India is around 4 million. Currently, Snapchat is under immense pressure to improvise as its several iconic features are being ripped off by social networking giants - Facebook and Instagram.