09/26/2019

Kik, A $1 Billion App, Closes

The company's shuttering the app as it fights with the SEC

It was one of Canada's most promising social media apps. But Kik, once valued at $1 billion, is to be closed, in large part because of a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation into a crypto-currency created by the app's owners.

Though not mentioned in the closure announcement released late Monday by CEO Ted Livingstone, the anonymous messaging app faced consistent criticism it had become a crime haven. Harassment and child exploitation, for instance, were constant problems.

In one shocking case, a 13-year-old was murdered by the man with whom she was communicating over Kik. A Forbes investigation later found that grooming and sharing of child abuse material was rife across the app. And earlier this year, it emerged the FBI had taken control of a Kik user's account to run groups sharing such illegal imagery for over a year as investigators sought to ensnare pedophiles.

Please select this link to read the complete article from Forbes.