The nonprofit that initially took credit for 'launching' the Iowa caucus app developer quietly changed its website to distance itself from the controversial tech
- New details are surfacing about Shadow, the mysterious company that built the app at the center of the Iowa caucus debacle that has delayed results.
- Shadow has ties to Acronym, a progressive nonprofit staffed by veterans of Hillary Clinton's and Barack Obama's presidential campaigns.
- Acronym's website previously said it "launched Shadow." but is now distancing itself from the company, stating that it merely funded Shadow and has no connection to its operations.
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The results of the Iowa Democratic caucus were delayed by more than 12 hours as of Tuesday morning, thanks to "coding issues" with the smartphone app embraced by state party officials.
The vendor that made the app was initially kept a secret by the Iowa Democratic Party, but it has since been revealed that the app maker was Shadow, a DC-based tech startup that makes communication and data tools for Democratic and progressive politics.
Shadow is closely tied to Acronym, a nonprofit that has poured millions into progressive causes and has a board that includes Democratic campaign veterans such as David Plouffe, who managed Obama's 2008 campaign. Plouffe was asked about Shadow by MSNBC's Chris Hayes early Tuesday morning, and responded that he knew little about the company.
Acronym attempted to distance itself from Shadow in the wake of the caucus debacle. The nonprofit released a statement Tuesday morning stating that it was merely an investor in Shadow and did not oversee Shadow's technology. It also claimed that Shadow was an "independent, for-profit" company.
But that contradicts previous statements by the nonprofit. Acronym's website said as recently as September that it "launched Shadow" in January 2019, according to archived screenshots. The nonprofit's website recently changed, and now states that it "invested in Shadow" with no mention of launching the company. Inspecting the site's HMTL on Tuesday revealed that the site had most recently been updated early Tuesday morning.
In January 2019, Acronym founder and chief executive Tara McGowan also confirmed Shadow's launch in an announcement on Twitter.
In a blog post made in January 2019, Acronym's Chief Technology Officer Gerard Niemira wrote, "Acronym is thrilled to announce the launch of Shadow, a new technology company that will exist under the Acronym umbrella." That blog post has since been deleted, but is saved in the Internet Archive.
Acronym and Shadow did not respond to Business Insider's requests for comment.