Stolen! was a

mobile game A mobile game, or smartphone game, is a video game that is typically played on a mobile phone. The term also refers to all games that are played on any portable device, including from mobile phone (feature phone or smartphone), tablet, PDA to ...

released as a closed beta in November 2015 for

iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also includes ...

, in January 2016 the game quickly gained popularity on

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

and the internet in general. The goal of the game was to buy Twitter accounts and collect money from those accounts. If another person owned a Twitter account, the player could "steal" it from the person. The only way to play the game was to have an access code, either from another player or from the developers themselves. The game's servers were taken offline on January 14, 2016, and the game was removed from the

App Store An App Store (or app marketplace) is a type of digital distribution platform for computer software called applications, often in a mobile context. Apps provide a specific set of functions which, by definition, do not include the running of the co ...

, due to concerns about the game's potential to be used for harassment. An Android version was being tested prior to the cancellation of the app. On February 19, 2016, the developers revived the game as Famous.

Criticism

Shortly after the large rise in popularity during January 2016, several news outlets, including The Mary Sue and Gadgette published articles raising concern over the ability to use the mechanics of Stolen!, like the ability to edit the profiles of people you have 'Stolen' to harass other people, as well as having to opt out instead of opt into having their profiles in the app. Congresswoman

Katherine Clark Katherine Marlea Clark (born July 17, 1963) is an American politician who has served as the U.S. Representative for Massachusetts's 5th congressional district since 2013. She has been Assistant House Democratic Leader (officially Assistant Speak ...

sent a letter to both Apple and Twitter, urging them to strip the app developers from access to the App Store and Twitter API respectively. The developers have not stated whether Clark's actions were the reason they voluntarily took down the app.

References

IOS games {{Mobile-game-stub