Snapchat's Spiegel angrily responds to leaked e-mails

CEO says he's "angry" and "devastated" but vows to "keep doing exactly what we are doing"

Last night it was revealed that the Sony hacking scandal had reached Snapchat,  through Michael Lynton, who is Sony Entertainment CEO, and a Snapchat board member.

Specifically, e-mails revealed two purchases that the company has  made: Vergence Labs, a company that is working on a Google Glass-like device called Epiphany Eyewear, for $15 million, and Scan.me, a QR scanning and iBeacon startup, for $50 million.

It also revealed that the company was in talks to bring music to the app. Nothing too bad, but still, not stuf that the company wanted out there.

Snapchat would not comment on the e-mails at the time, but now CEO Eval Spiegel has decided to responde, posting a letter he wrote to his employees on Twitter on Wednesday.

I shared this with our team today and I wanted to share it with our partners and friends bc I think it's important. pic.twitter.com/eN5HpAhp42

— Evan Spiegel (@evanspiegel) December 17, 2014

I know that it's kind of small, so allow me to summarize Spiegel's feelings for you (be careful not to roll your eyes too much, they might get stuck that way!)

First, he starts out by saying how "angry" and "devastated" he is by the leak.

"I felt like I was going to cry all morning, so I went on a walk and thought through a couple of things," he wrote. "I  even ran into one of my high school design teachers. She gave me a huge hug. I really needed it."

There's so much snark flowing through me after reading that. So. Much. Snark. 

He then spends the majority of the rest of the letter talking about "secrets," how hard they are to keep and how important they are to Snapchat.

He wrote that he wants to give his employees a hug because "keeping secrets is exhausting," and "it means coming home late, after working all day and night" and then "not being able to share all of the incredible things you're working on." This, he says, is both "painful" and "tiring." 

But secrets are important because "we love surprising people" and because "it's the best way to keep showing the world that growth is not only possible, it's necessary." (Uh... can anyone explain what exactly this means? How would keeping a secret show the world anything? The point of a secret is that no one else knows about it!)

"We keep secrets because it's the right thing to do, not because it's the easy thing to do," said Spiegel

Secrets also keep their work "free from judgement" as well as "space to change your mind until you're really sure you're right." (Ok, I'll give him this one. We do tend to jump down the throats of companies before they even officially do something, so maybe keeping secrets is a good thing!)

They also, he says, help the company "feel safe in our expression and creatvitiy" by putting distance between it and the public. 

In the last part of the letter, Spiegel puts his Braveheart face on, and really starts to rally the troops. Here it is, in full:

"It's not fair that people who try to build us up and break us down get a glimpse of who we really are. It's not fair that people get to take away all the hard work we've done to surprise our community, family and friends.

It's not okay that people steal our secrets and make public that which we desire to remain private.

When we're done being mad and angry and upset we're going to keep doing exactly what we are doing. And then we're going to do it ten times better."

We're going to change the world because this is not the one we want to live in."

I guess it all depends on how you feel about Spiegel, as to whether he comes across as petulant or as inspiring in this letter. That being said, he does not exactly have the best public image after previous e-mails were leaked from his time in college, in which he refered to women as "bitches" and "sluts."

A sample e-mail read, "LUAU FUCKING RAGED. Thanks to all of you. Hope at least six girl [sic] sucked your dicks last night. Cuz that didn’t happen for me.” Signed affectionately, “fuckbitchesgetleid. Spiegel.”

So perhaps Spiegel's, some might say, over the top tone in this letter has something to do with him having previously been burned by an e-mail leak. 

(Image source: mashable.com)