Update | 5:38 p.m. Corrected post and headline to note that the state attorneys general had announced their intent to sue Tagged.com; they had not actually filed lawsuits.
Tagged.com, the San Francisco-based social network that was criticized earlier this year for deceiving people into signing up for the service, has settled two separate disputes with the attorneys general of New York and Texas.
From April to June of this year, the site sent 60 million messages to Internet users with personal entreaties to join the social network (e.g., “Brad has posted a private photo on tagged.com”). Many recipients say that when they clicked, Tagged.com sent the same invitation to everyone in their e-mail address books. After The Times wrote about the site in June, the two states threatened to sue, saying the company was engaged in illegal and deceptive practices.
Under the settlements, Tagged will pay a $500,000 penalty in New York, a $250,000 penalty in Texas and immediately cease and desist all misleading invitations.
So the company is properly chastised and repentant, right?
Well, in a blog post Monday, the founder of Tagged, Greg Tseng, was more begrudging than apologetic:
For much of the summer, we participated in spirited discussions with the attorneys general, arguing passionately that our business practices are honorable and that 3rd-ranked Tagged simply follows the same business model used by the top two social networking sites — which also rely on the popular ‘invite your friends’ practice to attract more users.
Despite differences of opinion about Tagged’s intentions, we did acknowledge that the membership drive aggravated some customers. We also agreed that Tagged had a responsibility to make sure people who interact with Tagged have a positive experience.
With this mess behind it, Tagged’s big challenge will to be convince people to voluntarily visit and join the site.