Menshn Closes Down As Founders Bozier and Mensch Fall Out

Menshn, an “on topic” microblogging platform launched by former Tory MP and ‘chick lit’ author Louise Mensch, has terminated its services after she fell out with co-founder Luke Bozier.

The dissolution of the start-up MenschBozier Ltd was announced by Bozier on his blog after the website went down. Bozier wrote: “Louise and I no longer have anything resembling a working relationship, and she no longer wishes to run a company in which I own shares.”

In December, a hacker broke into former Labour digital adviser Bozier’s email and published lurid details, which Bozier says are lies spread by a “malicious hacker”. Bozier says he had no choice but to shut down the platform, since Mensch has refused to work with him.

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Menshn was launched in June 2012, hailed by its creators as an alternative to Twitter, designed to focus on real-time political debate in 180 characters or less.

The website featured elements of a social game, where users could get Menshn points when someone followed them, they added a room to ‘favourites’, or ‘rated’ a post. This had led to a high number of ‘ghost’ users that had thousands of points, but no visible activity. The site had been widely criticised for its complexity, messy design and security flaws.

Bozier says that he retained 50 percent of the shares in MenschBozier Ltd, but the scandal has ruined any chance of the platform being successful.“I think we call this sort of business practice summary justice. Louise is judge, jury and God all rolled into one, and made a sweeping knee-jerk business decision based on something written online by a malicious hacker,” added Bozier.

“Menshn still has a dedicated community of users, and I thank them for their dedication. I’m sorry we weren’t able to turn it into something more sustainable,” concluded the post.

Bozier has also announced that he plans to publish a book in 2013.

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