PostSecret Shelves The PostSecret App

2.1.12 The Reporter 0 Comments

This just in: PostSecret has announced the shelving of the PostSecret App.

This means that the PostSecret App for the Android will never be released. At least, until Frank Warren and his team at PostSecret.com may be able to figure out a way to filter bad content properly.

PostSecret is a website and online community built around people mailing in their secrets in the form of postcards. Frank Warren came across the idea to build PostSecret from a strange lucid dream, and a series of strange events that started on a trip to Paris, France. THIS may better explain why and how he built the community that is PostSecret.

The app was shelved due to bad content and people bullying, threatening, and maligning others, most likely in an attempt to defame, manipulate, threaten, or otherwise hurt the people for whom the "secrets" were for. Since I'm not an iOS user, I've never gotten to take a peek at what the PostSecret app had dished out. But I could imagine how ugly and bitter some of the "secrets" sent in had gotten.

PostSecret was intended to be an avenue to release the demons of the past. Definitely, some bitterness and anger would be carried by some of the members who send in their secrets. However, despite the nature of being a place to release bitterness, this should never have been turned into a venue to harass and abuse other members.

Cyber-bullying is a crime in the US, and a law is being processed here in the Philippines. Meanwhile, harassment, slander and libel are already crimes here in Philippine shores. The nature of cyber-bullying is such that the perpetrators tend to feel like it's "okay" to do it, simply because they are shrouded by a sense of anonymity: how long would it take to create an anonymous account, then post maligning content about someone else, or even their contact details, online?

However, no evil deed goes unpunished. For those who have enough faith in divine justice, justice does, indeed, happen. And for those who have faith in the legal venues of justice, justice can and will happen, as long as you persist in seeing your case to completion. And in these shores, just as long as you're not up against a powerful person.

Bullying, cyber-bullying and the act of hurting other people should never be condoned. It may be sad that Frank Warren had to censor his own app and take it down. In fact, according to his account, he had to take it down from his own daughter's phone. This is the saddest part. However, it may be for the best. Even if people will cry that "Censorship is evil," enabling people to hurt others is even more evil.

I respect and even support Frank Warren's decision to take down the PostSecret App, even if I and the hordes of Android users have never tried it. It's a sad day for the freedom of speech. But while there is abuse, some controls need to be imposed. And in this case, it's the demise of what could have been one excellent Android App.

Till the day that people no longer have an urge to hurt others, I guess this is how it will be.