As Vero Blows Up, Backlash Builds Against Social Apps Shady Founder

Every few years a new viral social platform emerges to supposedly rescue us from the clenches of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and all their associated problems.

In 2014 we had Ello, in 2015 it was Peach. In 2018, its Vero, a buggy Instagram clone that promises to bring back meaningful connections.

Vero skyrocketed to the top of the app store this week, claiming the number one spot in the social media category and surpassing 1 million downloads, but already some users are calling for its deletion due to the problematic past of its founder and CEO, Ayman Hariri.

Hariri is a billionaire Lebanese businessman and son of the assassinated former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri. He told CNBC earlier in March that he founded Vero because he was frustrated with other social networks.

When I did join existing social networks, I found the options for privacy were quite limited and difficult to understand, and also when I decided to get on and connect with a few of my friends, I noticed that their behavior online was very different than their behavior in the real world, he told CNBC.

Hariri and his co-founders hired a team of Russian developers to build the social app and has since been on a media tour promoting it as the next Facebook.

The app actually launched back in 2015 billing itself as a relationship first social network. Though it looks almost exactly like Instagram but with a darker, more cluttered color scheme, the platform does have some notable differences that have fueled its recent growth.

Photographers like it because it doesnt make you crop your photos into any set dimensions. Influencers like it because it offers a chronological timeline free from algorithms. And other people like it because you have the option to delineate who is a close friend, who an acquaintance, and who is just a follower. You can set the audience for each post. Also, there are no ads. Instead, users pay a subscription fee to use the app.

In order to sign up, youre asked to provide a name, email address, and phone number. The app then requests access to your contacts. Vero only collects the data we believe is necessary to provide users with a great experience and to ensure the security of their accounts, the company explains, which doesnt say much.

We created a social network that lets you be yourself, hence the name Vero, meaning truth, Vero states on its website.

The website is littered with these types of platitudes, declaring Vero is a social network for anyone who loves anything enough to share it.

But Hariris shady past is enough to give many new users pause and think twice about trusting him with valuable data.

Before beginning his social media escapades, Hariri served as deputy chief executive officer and vice chairman of his familys now defunct construction company, Saudi Oger, a business that was the source of most of his familys wealth.

Throughout his time there, the company was plagued with problems and allegations of abuse and under Hariris watch over 31,000 complaints of non payment for wages were filed against the Saudi Oger.

The company was so negligent that in some cases the Saudi Arabian government had to step in and provide food and basic living supplies to workers spurned by the company.

Unpaid workers were forced to live in crowded dorms in labor camps constructed by the company, Reuters reported in 2016. Throughout their time working for the company many workers were denied access to food, water, and medical care.

So far, there have been no allegations of abuse or unpaid wages made against Vero, however many in the tech community have spoken out about against Hariri, imploring users not to download his app, with many voices citing his past infractions at Saudi Oger as a reason to delete Vero.

Just so everyone knows. The people behind this app are just about as awful as the app itself, one user tweeted, linking to a report on Saudi Oger abuses.

Dont download that thing unless youre using a burner phone, a Palo Alto-based artist named Mr. Fingg who previously founded his own social network called Fingg.com, told The Daily Beast.

Fingg said that it also made him uncomfortable how vague the company is about what it plans to do with user data and he, like many on Twitter, was frustrated when he discovered that he couldnt simply delete his account after signing up.

You cant just go in and just delete your account, you have to put in a request, he said.

Pasquale DSilva, an animator and software designer who has previously worked on social apps created a Twitter moment on Monday raising similar concerns.

The more I read the more I realize it wouldnt be a stretch to call the CEOs previous actions heinous, he tweeted.

DSilva also told The Daily Beast that the foreign development team was a huge red flag. Though plenty of startups outsource development, many dont have CEOs whose brothers are close with Putin.

The DNA of the team is absolutely influential in the shape of the product and network, DSilva said. Also, ideals from an all Russian production team will inevitably have an impact on the way stuff is done at the company.

I think this whole thing is insane, he added. I dont get why a billionaire wants to make a social network and a shitty social network at that what does he really want out of this shitstorm?

Vero has not responded to request for comment on its terms of service or founders past.

But despite Hariris shady past and Veros ambiguous terms, many users are still clamoring to join.

The barely capable social apps popularity suggests Facebook and Instagram may be facing a deeper backlash than we thought, Will Oremus wrote in Slate.

For every five Vero boosters, however, there is at least one person attempting to voice concern. By Tuesday night many former Vero users began tweeting with the hashtag #DeleteVero.

Been looking into the people and money behind Vero and its kind of shady. One of the founders previously started Epok, a cloud-based platform that streamlines sharing for law enforcement and intelligence agencies. this is what yall want to replace Facebook with? Lmao, one man said.

Im always wary of the shiny new social media platform, but this is appalling. #DeleteVero, Tweeted another woman, linking to a report claiming that Hariri had supported human trafficking.

Bye Vero, you shady bitches, tweeted another.

Read more: https://www.thedailybeast.com/as-vero-blows-up-backlash-builds-against-shady-social-app

Scroll to Top