The creator of a company which suddenly found itself with the world's number one app for a short time has revealed how his fortunes were reversed when people started spreading fake news about the program's links to Russia. NewProfilPic was being used by millions of people around the world to create 'cartoon' versions of their profile pictures for use on Facebook and other social media platforms.
But a security expert pointed out that the company behind the app has links to Russia, and urged caution over using apps that send your data abroad. Russian-born CEO and founder of the app company Linerock Investments Ltd, Victor Sazhin, says that sparked an instant downturn in fortunes.
He said: "Initially our new beautiful photo effect got us instantly super-popular. We became the number one app overall in the UK, US, Australia, Canada, Ireland, and many more countries. However just a few days later the tabloid post about it being a 'Russian malware' with literally no grounds, and certainly no evidence, became even more viral, slamming our growth and making people uninstall our app and changing their 5-star 'obsessed with this amazing app' reviews to 1-star 'Everybody says it is Russian spyware' ones."
