Social App IRL, Which Raised $200 Million, Shuts Down After CEO Misconduct Probe

Last year, the CEO of messaging app IRL repeatedly said it had 20 million monthly active users, who chatted about shared interests and planned real-world events together. Today, a spokesperson for the startup said an investigation by the board of directors concluded 95% of those users were "automated or from bots." The Information: As a result of the probe, the spokesperson said the company would shut down and return capital to shareholders, two months after it suspended the founder and CEO, Abraham Shafi, for alleged misconduct. IRL raised $200 million from SoftBank's Vision Fund, Founders Fund and others, before coming under scrutiny in a series of articles in The Information, which questioned its user number claims.

Paywall

[Anonymous Coward]

There's a paywall on the article, or at least a registration wall. Just to save you the trouvle, a quick search suggests that site has the story exclusively for now.

IRL Shut Down?

[Motleypuss]

Well, that's a relief, especially as it was mostly bots anyway. Does this mean I can leave the house and go for a walk now?

Re:

[NobleNobbler]

You have my permission, yes

Ironic

[paugq]

Social application IN REAL LIFE shuts down becuase it's full of bots, AKA not-real-life users

Re:

[sound+vision]

Add it to the pile with Truth Social and Pravda...

Re:

[GameboyRMH]

It also reminded me of Ashley Madison, where nearly every woman on the site was a fake profile.

Article is behind paywall

[BritBot504]

Can there please be a rule about not posting articles that are being paywalls? Can we downvote this practice please??

Re:

[ceoyoyo]

Yes: https://slashdot.org/recent [slashdot.org]

IRL, the CEO was a crook!

[tomatoguy]

Heh. Had to add something here.