Just three months after launching the official iPhone app back in September, PostSecret has killed off their application in the iTunes App Store due to malicious content.
PostSecret founder Frank Warren says that users posting pornographic, gruesome and at times threatening material with malicious intent is what ultimately forced his decision to close down the wildly popular iPhone app.
"Bad content caused users to complain to me, Apple and the FBI," Warren wrote in a community blog post. "I was contacted by law enforcement about bad content on the App. Threats were made against users, moderators and my family. (Two specific threats were made that I am unable to talk about). As much as we tried, we were unable to maintain a bully-free environment."
The $1.99 app allowed users to anonymously post their secrets, which followed a similar model as the website. The key difference was that secrets posted by iPhone users were absolutely anonymous, making it impossible for Warren and his team of volunteer moderators to keep up with prescreening some 30,000 secrets per day. What looked like a good idea at the time quickly turned bad.
"Like many of you, I feel a great sense of loss from this decision but please know that we fought hard behind the scenes to find a permanent solution." Warren wrote.
The PostSecret website founded by Frank Warren in 2004, emerged as an ongoing community art project where users could post their secrets anonymously by mailing in post cards directly to Warren. He would then currate the submissions and post his 20 favorites each week under the heading "Sunday Secrets".
PostSecret rapidly grew into a worldwide success, pulling in roughly six million visitors a month. From day one the website has remained free of advertising with new content populating the home page for an entire week before being replaced. Since the website does not support a typical archive model, once a user's content has been replaced by Warren's new post card picks, it's gone.
That very model has contributed to the success of the PostSecret books, with the first title, "PostSecret: Extraordinary Confessions from Ordinary Lives" released in November of 2005. Since that time several more titles have been published.
While it's easy to imagine that creating an iPhone app made perfect sense as the next natural progression for collecting secrets, the mobile concept has quickly backfired due to a small percentage of users abusing their freedom of expression. In my opinion, willfully polluting a community with gruesome and pornographic content while hiding behind a cloak of anonymity is a deliberate act of cowardice that has little to do with personal expression.
Having followed Frank Warren's work on PostSecret since the fall of 2005, I am equally saddened by the loss of his iPhone app. The news is especially dreadful since the Android version was close to being launched as well. If you can grasp the brilliance behind PostSecret or not, it's difficult to deny that Frank Warren has given a meaningful voice to those things that some would rather remain hidden in the shadows and kept secret for all eternity.
I consider the PostSecret legacy to be a triumph in our disconnected digital age and I'm certain it will endure long after the iPhone app is forgotten. American writer Elbert Hubbard said; “Secrets are things we give to others to keep for us.” For now, we shall continue to entrust them solely to Frank Warren to hold.
"To the vast majority of people who shared their earnest secrets and compassionate replies on the App, you inspired us with your honesty, humor and humanity." Warren wrote to his iPhone community of users.
"Even though this good faith experiment has come to an end what you shared lives on."
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