At some point last week a rumor swirled around the iOS and Android app Fling that it was shutting down. The app immediately went from a fairly safe place for people to send videos and photos to a mess of men and women exposing themselves. It's one of the most interesting social media disintegrations I've witnessed.
I first became aware of Fling some time ago when a PR person pitched it to me for review. The content of that pitch was that Fling had been reworked as a social network that was safe for all ages. The information I had was that it was able to detect human body parts and prevent nudity from appearing. Important because the app stores don't like that sort of thing, and having a rating of 13+ is important to grow quickly.
In the initial tests I found that it was indeed fairly safe. There were the usual thirsty men trying to hook-up with women as well as people who need validation of their physical appearance posting selfies and asking for reactions or reflings. Reactions are photos of videos sent back, and reflings are where users send a message to their followers. Fling has a "World" feed at its core too, which allows you to discover new people.
I used the app a bit, and thought it was okay. It felt young, which meant that I didn't really enjoy it. Teenagers don't want to see photos of men in their (late) thirties and certainly wouldn't want them "reacting" to their photos and videos. Also, I'm an introvert so I can't think of anything worse. None of that precluded me reviewing it, but I also found the app a little lacking. It looked good, but functionally it was quite dire.
Now back to last week when I fired it up again out of boredom. The trending hashtags were different to usual. A couple I ignored but two were interesting - they were "#ByeFling" and "#ThanksFling". A look at some of the videos and photos in #ByeFling suggested the app was shutting down. I hadn't heard this, I looked online and I saw nothing about the app closing. I spoke to the PR contact who asked me to look at it initially and he told me that he was no longer involved. Had he heard anything, I asked, "no" he said.
In the app though things went down fast. News of the closure seemed to trigger a sudden global shortage of inhibitions, clothes and taste. There were plentiful nude images of both men and women. I found this interesting in itself - why did the closure of one service suddenly trigger people's nudity? Perhaps like a meme this sort of exhibition is contagious. For one thing, it's quite low risk for the people showing their bodies. You don't have to show your face, you can hide behind an assumed name and such.
And honestly, I'm not a prude, but I'm also of the opinion that people should know what they're getting when they use an app. I wouldn't want my kids being shown sexually explicit images, so therefore I'm not cool with it happening to other people either. Fling has that all-important iTunes rating that means it's okay for kids to download. And that's very worrying for a lot of reasons. For one, under-18s could be exposed to nudity, but more concerning was the sort of more sexual content in the app. This isn't naked people, it's sexual content.
Even ignoring that, there's an even bigger worry. Unlike the adult entertainment industry, there is no one making sure that the people showing their bodies on Fling are old enough to do so. There's no age validation in the app of any kind, so what might seem like harmless nudity shared with adults takes on a much more sinister dimension if those people aren't adults.
As part of this story I've looked into Fling to try and work out why this has suddenly happened. It's likely that adult content was always submitted, but blocked by the filters to moderators. In fact, the sudden collapse of the system suggests to me that the app was entirely moderated by humans, rather than a clever algorithm.
Checking the company records for Fling, which is a product from a company called Unii. This firm recently went into insolvency, and is being guided through bankruptcy by a firm called Resolve Partners. I called to ask the firm about the status if Unii, and its apps and staff. I couldn't speak to anyone working on the case. I left my number and asked for a call back, but none came in time for this article's publication.
So it seems that Fling and its parent company Unii are dead. The servers are still running, but with no staff to process inappropriate images or respond to users complaints and content flags. The app then will carry on as is, but eventually the complaints to
For now, if your kids have Fling, I'd urge you to ask them to delete it, or do it for them.
