Matthew Steeples suggests complaints about founders of ask.fm are unfounded
Ilja and Mark Terebin, the Latvian founders of ask.fm, have hit the headlines for sipping champagne and being pictured whilst at a wedding. That these successful businessmen have been pilloried for enjoying a glass or two whilst celebrating a happy occasion is ludicrous and the Mail Online should be ashamed to have so prominently featured this so called “story”.
In their report, the paper reports that David Smith, the father of the late Hannah Smith, a teenager who committed suicide after being “targeted by cyber bullies” on ask.fm, stated:
“They are going round shamelessly living the high life while I’ve lost my daughter and had to sell my home… They have blood on their hands but couldn’t care less. This is money they made on a site that killed my daughter, Hannah, so I don’t how they can live with themselves”.
Lorry driver Mr Smith’s loss is indeed tragic but blaming the founders of ask.fm entirely for his daughter’s death is ridiculous. Miss Smith, it transpires, allegedly sent much of the abuse to herself and equally, if she didn’t like what she read, she and her parents had a perfectly easy option: There’s always an “off” button.
Subscribe to our free once daily email newsletter here:
It is not just the death of Hannah Smith, but others linked to this site.
The two brothers’ refused to respond or react when the news about these deaths first entered the public domain demonstrated a total disinterest.
They have deservedly lost the vast bulk of their business…not necessarily because their site was a contributory factor to this and other suicides, but because they seem so indifferent.
But then in the last war there was no more enthusiastic recruiting ground for concentration camp guards and Nazi death squads than the Latvians, so sensitivity is not a national trait. Sorry, Matthew you are on the wrong side on this one.