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Snapchat CEO Apologizes for Explicit Frat Emails

2 minute read

Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel, 23, who runs an app that erases messages seconds after they have been viewed, has apologized after Gawker leaked emails demeaning to women that he sent as a fraternity brother.

The website’s Valleywag section published emails from 2009 in which Spiegel wrote “F–k Bitches Get Leid [sic]” and encouraged fellow members of Kappa Sigma at Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif., to receive as much oral sex from women as possible. He also offered a blunt to whoever saw the most breasts in one night.

In an email, Spiegel told Business Insider that he was “mortified” and a “jerk,” adding the emails “in no way” reflect how he views women today.

The leaked messages have surfaced at a time when discussion has come to the fore about whether men should feel entitled to sex. Elliot Rodger, a 22-year-old student at Santa Barbara City College, killed six and injured 13 before taking his own life last week because he was frustrated that he was still a virgin. And the prevalence of sexual assaults on U.S. college campuses is in part fueled by fraternities dominating the social scene and plying minors with alcohol at private parties.

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Write to Olivia B. Waxman at olivia.waxman@time.com