Ask.com, the also-ran search engine owned by IAC/InterActiveCorp, is pushing into social media with the purchase of notorious cyberbullying site Ask.fm.
Ask.fm, which relies on a question-and-answer format, is popular with teens for its ability to interact anonymously.
The service, which Ask.com purchased for an undisclosed amount, boasts 180 million monthly unique users in more than 150 countries around the world.
Latvia-based Ask.fm has also been linked to more than half a dozen teen suicides. In those cases, the teens were dealing with anonymous bullies lurking on the site.
Polk County, Fla., sheriff Grady Judd blamed cyberbullying on sites like Ask.fm for the death last September of Rebecca Ann Sedwick, a 12-year-old girl who jumped from an old cement factory.
“You seriously deserve to die,” read one message on her Ask.fm page.
As a result of the deal, Ask.com pledged to ramp up safety measures to guard against harassment.
The founders of Ask.fm, who took a mostly hands-off approach, are leaving the company.
In connection with the acquisition, Barry Diller-owned IAC announced agreements with New York state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and Maryland Attorney General Doug Gansler to implement “a set of best practices focused on increasing the safety of its services.”
Under the terms of the deal with Schneiderman, Ask.fm agreed to review user complaints within 24 hours and remove users who have been the subject of multiple complaints.
An independent safety and security examiner will also be appointed to examine the changes and report on compliance to the AG for three years, IAC said.