Ask.fm's new owners vow to crack down on bullying or shut the site

The Q&A site connected with seven teenagers’ suicides has been bought by Ask.com, who has sworn to crack down on abuse of the platform. The new owners of Ask.fm, the social network implicated in the suicide of 14-year-old Hannah Smith in summer 2013, have sworn to end bullying on the platform, or shut it down entirely.


Doug Leeds, the CEO of once-dominant search site Ask.com, which bought the previously unrelated Ask.fm on Thursday, made the promise in an interview with Silicon Valley news site Pando Daily. He told reporter Paul Carr that “we’re not going to run a bullying site … If we can’t [fix Ask.fm] we’ll shut it down.”


As well as Smith, whose death sparked a backlash against Ask.fm that lead to an advertiser boycott, Ask.fm has been associated with six other teenagers’ suicides, a factor many observers, including Carr, have put down to the nature of the site itself.


Users of Ask.fm are able to set up profiles which they use to answer questions other members ask of them. While the answers must be given by a named user, the questions can be asked anonymously, which has led to the site being labelled a hotbed of bullying.

For Ask.com, the acquisition was a chance to bring “Ask.com’s Q&A brand leadership to Ask.fm’s massive mobile-focused social platform,” Leeds said in a statement shortly after the acquisition.


“Ask.fm has seen phenomenal usage and engagement because of its compelling take on social expression: describing yourself through the lens of what others want to know about you,” continued Leeds. “Now under Ask.com leadership, the plan for unlocking its true potential will focus on making the experience even more engaging, while significantly increasing the investment in safety.”


Once the acquisition was confirmed, Ask.fm’s founders were kicked out of the new organisation, and Ask.com brought in the attorneys general of New York and Maryland to aid the creation a set of best practices for Ask.fm, focused on increasing the safety of its services.


New York’s attorney general, Eric Schneiderman, said that he applauded Ask.com “in working with our office to design a program that protects Ask.fm users from cyberbullying and other harmful content.


“We would hope that this collaboration serves as a useful model for other companies in the digital space.”


The company now promises to respond to bullying allegations within 24 hours, and promises to revamp its safety and moderation policies and procedures within six months, including “putting in place filters to catch and remove violent, illegal, threatening or harassing content,” says Leeds.


The site has also appointed Annie Mullins, a former global head of content standards at Vodafone, as the UK and Europe safety lead for Ask.fm.


Ask.com is owned by IAC, an American internet firm which owns several major online brands, including OKCupid, The Daily Beast, and Urbanspoon. Its current market cap stands at $5.7bn, and its shares are trading at $68.38, up 4.5% from Thursday.



The guardian.com