Some teenagers say French social networking app Yubo, which has 18M downloads in the US, ignored reports that the Uvalde shooter threatened violence on the app

Young people who met the alleged gunman online said he had threatened to kidnap, rape or kill.

Washington Post 2022-05-30

Context & Ripple Effects

Yubo arrives at this moment as a growth story: the French app raised a $47.5M Series C in late 2020 and its Protocol profile a year later noted engagement up nearly 400%, built on letting teens connect with strangers. The Washington Post's reporting now attaches the Uvalde shooting to that same stranger-connection design — teenagers who encountered the gunman online say their reports of his threats went nowhere.

The story lands two days after the paper documented how young gunmen use private and disappearing messages across Snapchat, Instagram, Discord, and Yubo to plan violence out of moderators' reach, making this less an isolated app failure than the second data point in one week about where youth-violence planning actually happens.

First-order effects

Yubo's trust-and-safety pipeline is directly implicated: if user reports of explicit kidnap, rape, and kill threats were ignored on an app marketed to minors, the company faces immediate scrutiny of how reports are triaged and whether it can credibly serve its 18M US download base.
The teenagers who reported the threats become witnesses in a public accountability fight, shifting the burden from 'the platform didn't know' to 'the platform was told.'

Second-order effects

Investors who backed Yubo's expansion — including Iris Capital and Gaia Capital Partners from the Series C — now hold exposure to a safety failure rather than just a growth curve, raising the cost of capital for stranger-connection apps aimed at teens.
Rivals named in the disappearing-messages coverage, Snapchat, Instagram, and Discord, face the same question about ephemeral and private messaging being used to evade moderation, forcing defensive investment in reporting responsiveness across the category.

Third-order effects

The pattern runs back to Kik in 2016, where anonymity for teenagers and predators alike made the app a law-enforcement concern; if every growth phase ends in a violent-incident reckoning, minor-safety reporting obligations move from voluntary policy toward regulatory requirement for apps serving minors.
Stranger-matching features may become structurally untenable for under-18 products unless paired with verifiable escalation paths, reshaping which social formats can legally or reputationally target teens.

The trend: Teen-focused social apps built around anonymous stranger connection keep outgrowing their safety infrastructure, with each violent incident converting a funding-round narrative into a liability narrative.

Discussion

@donie @donie on x
Instagram says it is removing any accounts that praise or represent the shooter — and yet there's a ton of copycat accounts on the platform this morning. https://twitter.com/...
@drewharwell Drew Harwell on x
New: The Uvalde gunman had threatened to rape, kill and kidnap girls in online messages before the attack. But teens who reported it were ignored, and some saw his angry misogyny as just “how online is” https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... @SilviaElenaFF @Cat_Zakrzewski @NaomiNixW…
@milesklee @milesklee on x
Uvalde shooter tagged a young woman in an Instagram post of his guns. She didn't know him and doesn't live in Texas but replied to a few of his DMs that seemed to cryptically refer to his plans because she felt targeted and was scared. Today she posted the exchange and then this.…
@_jessicadavies Jess Davies on x
This is surprisingly common for girls and women to experience online. We've been saying for a long time now this misogynistic online behaviour is going to seep out onto our streets. Young men are being radicalised online and no one is doing a damn thing about it. https://twitter.…
@xiomaraz4 @xiomaraz4 on x
@K_Cashh ... WTF @instagram?? However they'll flag you and shut you down for a perceived fcken insult? JFC but harassment or threaten that's OK? What are they saying to this?
@milesklee @milesklee on x
Woman tagged by the Texas shooter on Instagram before the attack shared a new story denouncing those pretending to be him on social media: [Image that reads: all the people posing as him are sick you're disgusting]
@beautybind Jillian Hurley on x
If the police have time to sit endlessly with a speed gun aimed at us, they have time to check out internet threats of murder and rape. https://twitter.com/...
@govkathyhochul Governor Kathy Hochul on x
Warning signs for violence — whether online or offline — must be taken seriously. From strengthening our Red Flag law to working with @NewYorkStateAG to hold social media platforms accountable, we'll keep doing everything we can to stop rhetoric from becoming deadly action. http…
@kayvan_hosseini Kayvan Hosseini on x
The photo of a transgender woman which 4chan trolls introduced wrongly as the Texas shooter is all over the Facebook. I guess Meta is busy with deleting Iranian oppositions videos and accounts from instagram and not have enough resources to moderate the other platform.
@evelyndouek @evelyndouek on x
I'd never heard of Yubo before I read this story abt how it repeatedly failed to enforce its rules or respond to reports abt the Uvalde gunman's posts https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... So I looked up its guidelines and, well, as is often true, it's the gap btw rules & enforceme…
@drjesstaylor Dr. Jessica Taylor on x
I wish we would stop ignoring blatant red flags in men. So many women try to report dangerous men online and will be told there is nothing anyone can do, or that it's not a crime at all. https://twitter.com/...
@vabvox Victoria Brownworth on x
When these girls reported threats of rape and assault, they were told this is just how things are online. Yet every single mass shooter has a history of abuse of women and girls. Uvalde gunman frequently threatened teen girls online. No one stopped him. https://www.washingtonpost…
@smellycat2sunny @smellycat2sunny on x
Why didn't Instagram turn the shooter in when he bragged about getting ready to shoot up a school??!
@hughhowey Hugh Howey on x
We should learn to recognize misogyny as an early indication of psychopathy and future violence in the same way we collectively know that harming animals in youth is a serious red flag. https://twitter.com/...
@marshallk Marshall Kirkpatrick on x
The tweet comments on this headline, about abuse and threats on social media, are powerful and important https://www.techmeme.com/...
@doubleemmartin Melissa Martin on x
Newsrooms could probably just keep a Mad Libs version of this story in their drafts and fill in the blanks with fresh specifics as needed (often) https://twitter.com/...
@elikasadeghi Elika Sadeghi on x
I've had someone create about a thousand accounts across platforms just to follow and message me, asking if I've ever been stabbed and beaten and left to die. I went to the cops. One smirked and said “he must really like you.” Another asked why I haven't just deleted Twitter. htt…
@brianfishman Brian Fishman on x
This. Start with this. But (and this is the hard part) guarantee that the accounting is appropriately granular by defining the units of disclosure. This will be a royal pain, but only way to make it work. https://twitter.com/...
@marshallk Marshall Kirkpatrick on x
The tweet comments on this headline are powerful and important. https://www.techmeme.com/...
@milesklee @milesklee on x
While you're here, maybe report this new Instagram account where some sicko is pretending to be the shooter: https://www.instagram.com/...
@saracivian Sara Civ on x
I once had a man with a gun in his profile pic tell me he was going to skin me alive and then told me my license plate number. The police said good luck, take a different route home and consider moving https://twitter.com/...
@ceonyc Charlie O'Donnell on x
Instagram will take down a video if it detects copyrighted music playing or a woman exposes a nipple, but when the Texas school shooter's friends comment two months ago, “are you going to shoot up a school or something?” moderation and flagging accounts is suddenly really hard.
@nataliapetrzela Natalia Mehlman Petrzela on x
Threats of sexual assault, misogyny so common online they're not even considered red flags of IRL violence, by authorities OR recipients When ppl said shooter had “no apparent ideology” my 1st thought was prob just ambient misogyny we all take for granted https://www.washingtonpo…
@martinsfp Martin Sfp Bryant on x
Someone needs to do an explainer about why so many ‘popular with young people’ social apps like Yubo, BeReal, and Zenly have come out of France. Europe has traditionally struggled to get international cut-through for social apps. https://twitter.com/...
@jax_metelica @jax_metelica on x
@FrankFigliuzzi1 Twitter and Facebook allowed the shooter to act and say on Instagram what I could not say or be banned. I said, “ I'd cut off Johnny Depps finger too.” Banned 30 days. Uvalde gunman was playing in Instagram and that's Facebook
@k_cashh Katie Cash on x
@Phil_Lewis_ I recently reported the people copying his accounts, including those reposting pics of the guns he used, on @instagram and they wrote back to each message sharing it does not violate their terms of service, and left each account up. The cycle continues
@iamsophianelson Sophia A. Nelson on x
This happens a lot. @YouTube is a cesspool of that garbage. You report it. They do nothing. I finally got law enforcement involved on my stalker and it stopped. But social media platforms are not protecting women and children, communities. Congress needs to ACT. #UvaldeMassacre h…
@evelyndouek @evelyndouek on x
It's stories like this that make me believe regulation that makes platforms give an account of the systems they have in place to enforce the rules they *already have* could create meaningful reform https://papers.ssrn.com/...
@thespinzone Lauren Mexican Pizza Euphoria on x
Wait so this shooter posted a picture on Instagram 10 days before the massacre of his AR's with the words “10 days” and no one said anything? But Instagram flags your account if you post something with a song on it. #priorities
@sarah_boxer Sarah Boxer on x
When the NRA and Republicans tells you these incidents are standalones and due to a “lone” psychopath ... >> https://twitter.com/...
@steveolson Steve Olson on x
seriously, my fellow dudes... you do not understand what it is like being not-us online. https://twitter.com/...
@silviaelenaff Silvia Foster-Frau on x
NEW: We interviewed teen girls who met the alleged Uvalde gunman online and said he had threatened to kidnap, rape or kill them. But either their reports were ignored or they said that's just “how online is.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
@drjengunter Jennifer Gunter on x
We receive so many creepy threatening messages from men. When we report them almost always nothing happens. https://twitter.com/...
@melissajpeltier Melissa Jo Peltier on x
“Just how online is.” All mass shooters have raging misogyny in common. @laurarichards99 https://twitter.com/...
@sarahlerner Sarah Lerner on x
“They went mostly ignored.” Violence against girls & women is at the root of so many mass shootings, and this issue itself is never taken as seriously as it needs to be. https://twitter.com/...
@briannawu Brianna Wu on x
“It's just online.” https://twitter.com/...
@guinz Amanda Guinzburg on x
I don't know a woman with any sort of public presence on the internet who isn't somewhat if not entirely numb to rape & death threats from men/boys because that's how our nervous systems allow us to continue existing in a place where those threats are routinely ignored. https://t…
@jillboard Jill Gutowitz on x
i tweeted this *one time* and the literal FBI showed up at my *home* https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@deardara Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl on x
Such a perfect slice of this moment of life. A school shooter sends misogynist abuse & death threats to women online, but it's such a “normal” part of life reporting it does nothing so the women ignore it. We live in such dark times. https://twitter.com/...
@tessalaprofessa Tessa Brown on x
This is so important. We ignore violent threats toward girls and women online and off, even as we know they're meaningful signals. + https://twitter.com/...
@heatherbarr1 Heather Barr on x
The Venn diagram of: 1) men that women have raised alarms about, over abuse or violence against women; and 2) mass shooters, is damn close to a circle. https://twitter.com/...
@domskyern Social Distancing Dom on x
The fact Kiwifarms doxes people and has similar clowns posting sh!t like this shooter, and literally nothing gets done ever. Several of us even received handwritten threats MAILED to us. @fbi and US Postal Inspection were all involved, police reports made, and literally nothing h…
@cdespinosa Chris Espinosa on x
“Red-flag laws” are useless so long as moderators and participants on message boards see so many red flags they just ignore them after a while. https://twitter.com/...
@wordofgreen Becca Green on x
We don't treat womens safety seriously at all. I covered crime for years and every DV homicide I ever covered had a blazing bright row of red flags leading up to the violence that were dismissed as trivial. We treat stalking and harassment lightly to our massive detriment https:/…
@transscribe Katelyn Burns on x
This keeps happening https://twitter.com/...
@melissakxly4 Melissa Luck on x
Find me a mass shooter who doesn't have a history of proven misogyny. They're the rule, not the exception. https://twitter.com/...
@doreencaven Doreen Caven on x
Imagine if misogyny was treated like the threat to all of society that it has been and is. Imagine if it wasn't seen as women's problem to endure silently. Society sacrifices women to violent men, in hopes that they remain preoccupied with us and don't set their sights on them. h…
@ambermcreynolds Amber McReynolds on x
“Many of his threats to assault women, the young women added, barely stood out from the undercurrent of sexism that pervades the Internet — something they said they have fought back against but also come to accept.” https://twitter.com/...
@amandacarpenter Amanda Carpenter on x
Threats against women are always a red flag. 🚩 https://twitter.com/...
@steveschmidtses Steve Schmidt on x
Ignoring this is lethal. Deadly. The magnitude of societal reform we need is on the same level as where this country was between 1890 and 1915. Social Media Companies, school officials, cops, politicians, ect. The Bayeux Tapestry isn't big enough for the failure list. Disgraceful…
@letahong @letahong on x
“One teen who reported Ramos on the social app Yubo said nothing happened as a result...Some also suspected this was just how teen boys talked on the Internet these days — a blend of rage and misogyny so predictable they could barely tell each one apart.” https://twitter.com/...
@briannawu Brianna Wu on x
Hatred of women expressed online is the most common denominator of these mass killings. https://twitter.com/...
@kelleyroot Kelley Root on x
“Some also suspected this was just how teen boys talked on the Internet these days — a blend of rage and misogyny so predictable they could barely tell each one apart. One girl, discussing moments when he had been creepy and threatening, said that was just ‘how online is.’” https…
@phil_lewis_ Philip Lewis on x
Teen girls had frequently reported the #Uvalde gunman's social media accounts for harassment and bullying. But they said their reports were ignored. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
@drewharwell Drew Harwell on x
Yubo, the group-hangout “Tinder for teens,” won't say whether the company received reports of abuse about the gunman. One teen told us dozens were sent, and nothing happened. “I witnessed him harass girls and threaten them with sexual assault” https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...

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