CALIFORNIA — On July 7, Snapchat’s live feed focused on Tel Aviv, with various people who lived in the city sharing their daily experiences.
The live Snapchat story quickly received criticism and sparked outrage on Twitter because the focus on Tel Aviv occurred during the one year anniversary of the 50 day war between Israel and the Gaza strip.
Last year’s war left 1,450 Palestinian civilians dead, 1,500 children orphaned and more than 500,000 displaced during the conflict.
The outrage on Twitter included users tweeting at Snapchat, calling out their mistake. The feedback lead Snapchat to feature the West bank in a live story the next day.
The live feed in the West Bank was filtered, as are all live feeds, to show only a couple pictures and videos of the Apartheid Wall and checkpoints. The feeds appeared to focus on more of a cultural perspective.
The West Bank story included the cities of Bethlehem, Ramallah, Jerusalem, and refugee camps in the West Bank.
Snapchat also featured a feed about the holy city of Mecca on July 14.
The live feed at Mecca grabbed the attention of many non-Muslims who showed fascination and appreciation for the unity of so many people.
One Twitter user tweeted, “I’m not Muslim, but seeing #Mecca_live made me think twice. It is beautiful. People have really changed my perspective of Islam.”
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