The girls who spoke with The Post lived around the world but met Ramos on Yubo, an app that mixes live-streaming and social networking and has become known as a “Tinder for teens.” The Yubo app has been downloaded more than 18 million times in the U.S., including more than 200,000 times last month, according to estimates from the analytics firm Sensor Tower.
The Washington Post reviewed videos, posts and text messages sent by Ramos and spoke with four young people who’d talked with him online, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of further harassment. They’d been seen by strangers, many of whom had never met him and had found him only through the social messaging and video apps that form the bedrock of modern teen life. In the aftermath of the deadliest school shooting in a decade, many have asked what more could have been done - how an 18-year-old who spewed so much hate to so many on the Web could do so without provoking punishment or raising alarm.īut these threats hadn’t been discovered by parents, friends or teachers.
