--- title: "Social Media App Shuts Down After Admitting 95% of Users Were Bots" description: "An internal investigation at the unicorn social media startup IRL has revealed that 95 percent of the app's users were \"automated or bots.\"" date: "2023-06-28" modified: "2023-06-28" authors: - name: "Maggie Harrison Dupré" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/mharrison" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/app-shuts-down-95-users-bots" categories: - "Future Society" tags: - "social media" - "Startups" - "the digest" --- # Social Media App Shuts Down After Admitting 95% of Users Were Bots ![An internal investigation at the unicorn social media startup IRL has revealed that "95 percent" of the app's users were "automated or bots."]() *\Image: Getty / Futurism\* ## Bot Party Social media startup IRL was at one point valued at around [$1.2 billion](). But now, as [*The Information*]() reports, it's shutting down after an internal investigation found that a staggering 95 percent of its users were "automated or from bots." According to the report, app founder and CEO Abraham Shafi repeatedly claimed over the course of several years that the app boasted roughly 20 million users. The company raised nearly $200 million from the likes of SoftBank's Vision Fund and Peter Thiel's Founders Fund, among others. Following a [series]() of [reports]() by *The Information,* which questioned the app's advertised number of users, the company's board of investors [suspended]() Shafi and launched an investigation, ultimately revealing that IRL user figures were almost entirely fudged. As a result, the app is to shut down entirely, and capital is to be returned to investors. "Based on these findings," an IRL spokesperson told *The* *Information*, "a majority of shareholders concluded that the company's going forward prospects are unsustainable." ## Writing on the Wall There's a lot going on here, the least of which is the irony of an app called IRL having only a tiny proportion of real-life users. Twenty million users is a staggering number to fabricate, and the extent to which Shafi was able to fool veteran investment funds is almost impressive. Per [*TechCrunch*](), IRL, which was first founded in 2018, had billed itself as a Gen Z-focused event-organizing app, which prioritized offline, interpersonal connection. "If you look at the Internet, there's so much research around social media creating more separation and creating more walls and otherness," Shafi [told *Forbes*]() in an October 2022 profile. "What we're focused on with IRL... is helping more people be together, become friends, or build community off of shared interest. It's the exact opposite of otherness." But according to *TechCrunch*, the app has been mired in controversy for quite some time now. In April of last year, amid claims that it had enough cash to last through 2024, IRL abruptly [laid off 25 percent of its workforce]() — a surprising move, considering the company had raised [$170 million]() from SoftBank about a year earlier. In retrospect, those layoffs look a bit like the writing was already on the wall. **More on the Forbes-profile-to-alleged-wrongdoing legacy:** [*SBF and Friends Apparently Joked about Their "Tendency to Lose Track of Millions of Dollars in Assets"* ]() ## Author At Futurism, I've reported extensively on the rise of AI as a cultural and business force shaping the media industry, and more broadly how those dynamics are changing how we all consume and share information and relate to one another. I'm also fascinated by public health policy and ethics, the role of emerging tech in politics and governance — and the powerful people and forces at those intersections — climate change, and the environment. My investigation on Sports Illustrated's use of AI-generated authors with fictional biographies won a 2024 Mirror Award for "Best Story on Media Coverage of Artificial Intelligence in Journalism and the Media" from Syracuse University's SI Newhouse School, I contributed to Niemen Lab's 2025 Predictions for Journalism series, and I've discussed my work for Futurism during appearances on NPR, CNN, the BBC, the CBC, and more. I grew up in rural Pennsylvania and attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where I played Division I field hockey for the Minutewomen as a midfielder. Since then, I've lived in New Orleans, Louisiana and Manhattan, New York. I spend my free time running, reading, perusing archival fashion, and searching for the world’s best negroni. I also have a debonair tuxedo cat, Westley, who's named after "The Princess Bride." ### Author social links [Bluesky]()