Evaluating only Geofeedia’s profile at its peak — without knowing the outcome — the model ranked Competition as the #1 likely cause. Documented cause: Platform dependency.
Key Events Timeline
FOUNDING
Geofeedia founded in Chicago to provide location-based social media monitoring for brands.
FUNDING
Raised $12M to expand law enforcement and government intelligence customer base.
FRAUD EXPOSURE
ACLU exposed Geofeedia's sale of surveillance tools to police targeting BLM activists.
SHUTDOWN
Twitter, Facebook, Instagram cut API access; company shut down within months.
Full Analysis
Free · no account needed
Documented cause
Geofeedia, a Chicago-based social media location intelligence platform, was exposed in October 2016 by the ACLU for selling geotagged social media surveillance tools to law enforcement to monitor Black Lives Matter protests and Muslim communities. Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram immediately terminated Geofeedia's data access. Having raised $17M from investors including Origin Ventures, the company lost its core data supply overnight and was effectively destroyed by the scandal, shutting down by mid-2017.
Lesson
“Location intelligence tools sold to law enforcement create existential ethical risk; vet use cases ruthlessly.”