MANILA, Philippines – Snapchat is celebrating the annual day of pranks and tricks, April Fools’ Day, by throwing jabs at Facebook, who’s still reeling from the backlash of the Russian influence on US elections problem.
The app introduced a new filter that puts the Facebook user interface around your photo and makes it look like you just changed your profile picture on the platform. The difference? All the text is written in the Russian Cyrillic script and the photo is liked by “your mom, a bot, and 2 others.” Here are a few examples:
Omg the Snapchat April Fool's filter pic.twitter.com/moiufUQufT
— Casey Newton (@CaseyNewton) April 1, 2018
Snapchat’s April Fools joke is a filter that dunks on Facebook’s Newsfeed, and I love it. pic.twitter.com/px7wHPM0EL
— Daniel Sinclair (@_DanielSinclair) April 1, 2018
Snapchat back with the April Fools Jokes lol pic.twitter.com/CECsoYdBGV
— Jonathan (@Jonocto) April 1, 2018
The joke filter is a clear reference to the news of Russian bots using the Facebook to spread propaganda which influenced the results of the 2016 US election.
Snapchat and Facebook’s rivalry is not news at this point. After pulling a similar stunt during last year’s April Fools’ Day, Snapchat seems to be taking every opportunity to get back at Facebook for allegedly stealing its features and ideas.
The filter is no longer available, as of writing, and was only available during April Fools’ Day. – Rappler.com
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