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A decade ago, Whisper looked like it might be the next big thing in Silicon Valley tech. But in recent months, with no announcement or farewell note–and after a string of cases where pedophiles had used the app for child grooming–Whisper quietly went offline.
Backed by $60 million in venture capital and at one time valued at $200 million, Whisper’s promise of a place to share their secrets anonymously had drawn millions of users. Then came the bad news: media reports questioning just how well protected those secrets were. One report, from The Guardian, was especially damaging. It claimed that the app was monitoring users’ locations even when asked not to do so and that it was sharing personal information with the Department of Defense. The Guardian later significantly walked back on its claims, acknowledging that locations were only tracked via IP addresses, which can be inaccurate, and the DOD info-sharing agreement did not include personally identifiable information and was for a suicide prevention project.
Since then, Whisper has been riddled with a bigger problem, according to case files reviewed by Forbes: child predators. Most recently, a federal search warrant detailed a case from mid-2024 where three different undercover agents were posing as minors on Whisper as part of stings to catch men planning on grooming underage kids. All three were contacted by the same suspect, according to the warrant, and asked to move over to Signal for more private chat where the offender initiated sexual conversations with the undercover accounts. Forbes discovered numerous other cases over the last five years where similar operations took place.
Whisper was owned by MediaLab.ai, which has acquired a number of apps over the years that have had significant problems with child sexual abuse, most notably Kik Messenger. Forbes has previously reported on the rampant child abuse imagery trade on that platform, which numerous cases indicate still continues today. In one warrant from 2024, an investigating agent put it bluntly that Kik was a "preferred choice" among pedophiles and is "a prominent meeting place for individuals seeking to share child pornography and engage in child exploitative dialogue."
Unlike Whisper, Kik remains online. MediaLab.ai did not respond to requests for comment. Why and when Whisper was shut down, or how it became a hangout for child abusers, has gone unexplained by its owners.
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THE BIG STORY:
NSA Chief Ousted After Trump Gets Visit From 9/11 Conspiracy Theorist
National Security Agency director General Timothy Haugh. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
Getty ImagesGen. Timothy Haugh, NSA director and head of U.S. Cyber Command, was fired last week. The sackings came after President Trump had been visited by far-right activist Laura Loomer, who once described 9/11 as an inside job, and who’d advocated for Haugh to be given his marching orders.
Haugh’s civilian deputy at the NSA, Wendy Noble, was also let go. On X, Loomer wrote that both Haugh and Noble had been “disloyal to President Trump.”
Stories You Have To Read Today
Google has released a paper outlining the risks of AGI, or Artificial General Intelligence, which promise to have the same or greater reasoning abilities than humans. It’s partly a terrifying warning about an AI future in which the machines turn malicious, but also a guide on how we might stop that happening. Google has also released a new tool, Sec-Gemini v1, using AI for good, in supporting cybersecurity teams in dealing with the glut of threats facing organizations and individuals the world over.
The FBI took over the online identity of an alleged prolific money launderer to get an insight into their operations, while allowing criminal movement of funds, 404 Media reports. As part of the operation, first reported by Forbes, the FBI demanded Google provide identifying information for all viewers of some select YouTube videos, which they believe the launderer had watched.
Two Iranian nationals have been charged for acquiring U.S.-origin parts for Iranian military drones. The charges are tied to an investigation into how Iranian-made drones containing U.S. parts had been acquired by Russia and shot down in Ukraine, according to the Justice Department.
Winner of the Week
Human rights and media organizations have won a fight with a U.K. court to ensure that a hearing about planned backdoors in Apple’s iCloud aren’t held in secret. The government will now have to openly explain its reasoning behind an order that demanded Apple give it access to encrypted backups.
Loser of the Week
A global law enforcement operation has taken down one of the largest pedophile platforms in the world, Kidflix. The State Criminal Police of Bavaria, Germany, led the operation against Kidflix, which saw 1.8 million users login between April 2022 and March 2025, according to Europol’s figures. It hosted around 72,000 videos before it was shuttered. As many as 1,400 suspects have been identified worldwide.