PostSecret App Discontinued Because of 'Malicious' Posts (Mashable)

The secret is out: PostSecret has killed off its iPhone app just three months after putting it on the market in September. PostSecret founder Frank Warren says abusive content --- pornographic, gruesome and threatening material -- from a small group of users forced him to shut down the app.

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"Bad content caused users to complain to me, Apple and the FBI," Warren wrote in a blog post this week. "I was contacted by law enforcement about bad content on the App. Threats were made against users, moderators and my family. As much as we tried, we were unable to maintain a bully-free environment. Weeks ago I had to remove the App from my daughter's phone."

The $1.99 app allowed users to anonymously post secrets, discover other users? hush-hush thoughts and react to their submissions. The anonymity made it hard for Warren to remove contributors who posted content with "malicious intent."

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"99% of the secrets created were in the spirit of PostSecret," Warren says. "Unfortunately, the scale of secrets was so large that even 1% of bad content was overwhelming for our dedicated team of volunteer moderators who worked 24 hours a day 7 days a week removing content."

Warren also says he and his team fought hard to find a solution to this problem. One attempt involved prescreening 30,000 secrets each day.

"Deciding to remove the App from the App Store last week and holding back the release of the Android version cost us money but we feel it was the right thing to do," he says.

PostSecret plans to keep its website and blog in operation. The company has built a hefty following that likely will stick around despite the app's absence: PostSecret more than 1 million Facebook fans, 460,000 PostSecret blog.

In case your missed the promo video about the app from August, here it is:

This story originally published on Mashable here.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/applecomputer/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/mashable/20120102/tc_mashable/postsecret_app_discontinued_because_of_malicious_posts

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