DeleteMe acquires social media security tool Block Party

Block Party founder Tracy Chou announced on Wednesday that the company has been acquired by DeleteMe, an online personal data removal service.

A software engineer and advocate for diversity in tech, Chou founded Block Party in 2018 as a tool to help people stay safe from targeted harassment on Twitter, inspired by her own experiences on the platform.

Chou raised a $4.8 million seed round in 2022 to expand the tool to other social networks, which turned out to be really good timing — soon after, Elon Musk would buy Twitter. Under his ownership, the company began charging for access to its API, but the costs were too steep for a startup like Block Party to operate, so Block Party was forced to quickly pivot and launch tools for other platforms.

Over time, the company evolved into a browser plug-in to “deep clean your social media,” integrating with more than a dozen other platforms, like TikTok, Instagram, Venmo, Facebook, and yes, even X.

“In a prior life, I was briefly and mildly Internet famous for my activism and advocacy work,” Chou wrote in a blog post. “The subsequent intrusions on my life and physical safety became a shocking revelation in how exposed I was, and I found myself scrambling to lock everything down.”

That was when she learned about DeleteMe, which could help her remove personal information from data brokers and people search sites. But there wasn’t an equivalent product to help people protect themselves on social media, which is what prompted her to create Block Party. It’s only fitting that Block Party will now become part of DeleteMe.

“Until now, enterprise customers and consumers alike have had to go to different companies to cobble together separate solutions,” Chou wrote. “This acquisition brings both our products under the same roof, and gives everyone who’s been asking for it somewhere to go.”

For current Block Party users, nothing will change for now — as the tool becomes more integrated into DeleteMe at large, the company says it will share more with customers.

“I used to be more open about my life online. Many of us were. But for too many people, that openness has come at a real cost,” she wrote. “We don’t have to choose between having a voice and being safe. That was always the point.”

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.