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Just hours before New York City starts chilling out for New Years celebrations (hopefully) at home, Alexandar Dimcevski walked into the grocery store, wondering how he had become the last COVID-19 villain of 2020.
“We were canceled by liberal media,” Dimcevski said, days after news of his home party planning app, Vybe Together, sparked new fears that users would turn to social media apps. clandestine to party indoors on New Years Eve. As the virus rages in the United States, “Apple shot us down in hours. But we’ll be back.
As Los Angeles emerges from its most severe COVID-19 wave to date, with 10,000 dead in LA County and one county resident now dying every 10 minutes from the disease, Vybe Together has become the face to the both the opportunism of the tech scene and the recklessness of the nightlife when New York Times reporter Taylor Lorenz tweeted details of a circulating first draft.
“We didn’t have a voice, we didn’t have a channel to express our side of the story,” Dimcevski said. “Within hours,” he asserted, “the articles had headlines that weren’t true.”
Vybe Together, during its brief life available to residents of New York and Miami, joined a coterie of ticketing sites like Eventbrite and social media platforms that, knowingly or unknowingly, facilitated the types of parties in influence, hip-hop shows and praise that city officials believe contributed to the latest murderous wave. Vybe Together was built before COVID-19 but, more than most, it openly carried its outlaw intent as the disease increased.
On Friday, just before New Year’s Eve, the app – which allowed users to organize and market rallies to selected candidates and hold private indoor parties to “engage your rebel” – did was no longer available on major app platforms, and TikTok canceled their account.
Before the Vybe Together site was updated with a brief mea culpa (“Our intentions are that people enjoy small gatherings in their apartments NOT illegal parties”), it had a “And COVID” section explaining its approach. of the pandemic: “We are aware that Covid is a major health problem for the country, our communities, our friends and our family. … Organizing large-scale parties is very dangerous. That is why we do not support it. But Vybe is a compromise, not big parties but small gatherings. We could live, at least a little during those times with Vybe.
While no more than a few thousand users have never successfully downloaded the app, and its founder claimed that these users organize “no more than two or three” events per week, it quickly gained notoriety as its elusive owners had sought.
“I admit we mislabeled it,” Dimcevski said, when asked if he understood why, as overwhelmed hospitals put patients in gift shops and ran out of oxygen and supplies. , people were outraged by the premise of the app. “We didn’t allow a lot of people to be in it. We understand that now is not the right time to generalize.
Even though Dimcevski’s company got the App Store guillotine for its obvious threat to public health, he didn’t think he was the worst offender.
“If people want to throw illegal parties, they go to Eventbrite because you can be anonymous,” he said. (Eventbrite had been the favorite local ticketing platform for parties ranging from rap shows to orgies during the COVID-19 shutdown in Los Angeles.) “There was nothing illegal about our app, it was was only for small gatherings in apartments. They can be anything from board games to twerking with the girls next door.
Beverly Hills’ La Scala restaurant has tested the waters of hosting a clandestine indoor party in New York City; an infamous LA Party traveling series called Spanky’s had similar plans. Christian singer-songwriter Sean Feucht drew dozens of counter-protesters as he led his maskless fans into a possible singing super-broadcaster through the vulnerable homeless camps of Skid Row and Echo Park .
The new city rules state: “All public and private gatherings and events with people from more than one household are not permitted except for outdoor church services and outdoor political expression.”
But many residents and city officials fear that apps like Vybe Together will make the party culture at home even more underground on big nights like New Years Eve. LA County Supervisor Hilda Solis, told The Times: “From what we’ve seen with so many people who have attended rallies and trips, we remain very concerned about a new wave on top of the current surge. Mayor Eric Garcetti wrote in a tweet: “Los Angeles, my message could not be clearer: do not get together with people outside your home today. Don’t organize or attend a party in person. Don’t travel. Please virtually celebrate and welcome the New Year with your household members. Stay safe, save lives. “
Dimcevski (a since-deleted LinkedIn listed him as a New York University graduate and originally from Sweden) seemed torn between taking advantage of the new global attention and turning back the clock on his app’s sudden reputation. He wouldn’t give out more information about himself or Vybe Together, other than that the app was based in New York City and, perhaps surprisingly, he said he received funding two years ago from a New York State Technology Grants Program. “This is the craziest part because they gave us money,” he said. “But no one has been in contact yet.”
The app, he said, was never operational in Los Angeles, the global heart of influencer culture. The parties that Vybe Together facilitated would have violated public health orders here if that had been the case. But Dimcevski has said that as soon as Vybe Together rolls out of App Store jail, he may want to try again – the site is asking fans to stay in touch for its planned return.
“We would never tolerate illegal parties. Big underground raves, no, no, no, ”said Dimcevski. “It was only for the coolest people in town. We were using the app process to find out if you had the sauce. “
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