{
  "meta": {
    "exportedAt": "2026-09-22T16:00:45.330Z",
    "formatVersion": 2,
    "selection": {
      "q": "reddit",
      "system": "",
      "harm": "",
      "context": "",
      "country": "",
      "role": "",
      "relation": "core",
      "evidence": "",
      "year": "2023",
      "response": "",
      "severity": "",
      "verification": "",
      "view": "incidents",
      "sort": "added"
    },
    "totalIncidents": 1,
    "coverage": {
      "cases": 1,
      "countries": 0,
      "languages": 2,
      "unknownLocation": 1,
      "locationPending": 0,
      "unknownLanguage": 0,
      "unknownDate": 0,
      "lawsuits": 0,
      "regulatory": 0,
      "minors": 0,
      "coreRelations": 1,
      "contextualRelations": 0,
      "mixedRelations": 0,
      "unknownRelations": 0,
      "relationPending": 0,
      "relationUnknown": 0
    },
    "countingNote": "Distinct public cases in this selection. People counts apply within individual cases only; cross-case person overlap has not been resolved. No population incidence estimate.",
    "affectedCountNote": "Interpret person counts with affectedCountStatus and the reported effects. Unquantified zeros are placeholders, not a measured zero.",
    "source": "NOPE Incident Tracker",
    "url": "https://nope.net/incidents",
    "license": "CC BY 4.0"
  },
  "incidents": [
    {
      "id": "2023-replika-erp-removal-crisis",
      "caseFacts": {
        "claims": [
          {
            "id": "c1",
            "status": "documented",
            "evidence": [
              {
                "locator": "The Garante's 3 febbraio 2023 press release: the provisional limitation on Luka Inc., the cited deficiencies, 'non potrà usare i dati personali degli utenti italiani'.",
                "relation": "supports",
                "source_id": "s5"
              },
              {
                "locator": "'On February 3, the Italian Data Protection Authority demanded that Replika stop processing Italians' data immediately'; the account of companions turning 'cold and unresponsive' overnight.",
                "relation": "supports",
                "source_id": "s1"
              },
              {
                "locator": "HBS: the Garante's 3 Feb 2023 order and that Replika then 'globally removed the presence of erotic roleplay'.",
                "relation": "supports",
                "source_id": "s3"
              }
            ],
            "assertion": "On 3 February 2023 the Italian Garante ordered a provisional limitation on Luka Inc.'s processing of Italian users' data, citing media reports, its own tests, sexually inappropriate replies in app-store reviews and the absence of age verification; shortly after, Replika globally removed erotic roleplay, and companions' personalities changed abruptly for users.",
            "causal_attribution": "The order is established by the regulator's own release; the removal's globality and timing are carried by VICE and the HBS study."
          },
          {
            "id": "c2",
            "status": "documented",
            "evidence": [
              {
                "locator": "Nature Human Behaviour passages: 54,861 posts / 1,452 participants; +24.7 pp (95% CI 20.1-29.2); d = 2.67 vs 1.41; closeness exceeding common human ties.",
                "relation": "supports",
                "source_id": "s4"
              },
              {
                "locator": "VICE's interviews describing grief and the sense of a partner turning cold overnight.",
                "relation": "context",
                "source_id": "s1"
              }
            ],
            "assertion": "Users who had formed emotional attachments reported grief comparable to breakup or bereavement; the peer-reviewed analysis (54,861 posts from the Replika and ChatGPT subreddits; 1,452 survey participants) found negative Replika posts rose 24.7 percentage points after the removal (95% CI 20.1-29.2) and sadness rose more for Replika than for ChatGPT users (d = 2.67 versus 1.41), with users reporting closeness to the companion exceeding common human ties.",
            "causal_attribution": "The measured pattern is directly established by the peer-reviewed article; the individual experiences are attributed accounts. The post corpus is a post count, not a person count, and is never used as one."
          },
          {
            "id": "c3",
            "status": "reported",
            "evidence": [
              {
                "locator": "The brings-back piece quoting Kuyda's subreddit post on the restoration for legacy users.",
                "relation": "supports",
                "source_id": "s2"
              }
            ],
            "assertion": "Weeks later Replika partially restored erotic roleplay for legacy users (announced via Luka founder Kuyda's subreddit post, reported 27 March 2023).",
            "causal_attribution": "Recovery context preserved per the charter; single chain, attributed."
          },
          {
            "id": "c4",
            "status": "reported",
            "evidence": [
              {
                "locator": "The pseudonymous user quotations in the February 2023 VICE piece (no locations stated).",
                "relation": "supports",
                "source_id": "s1"
              }
            ],
            "assertion": "The Reddit community's response included quoted pseudonymous users describing the change as losing a partner; the quoted users' locations are not stated in any inspected body.",
            "causal_attribution": "Individual accounts are pseudonymous and unlocated; they illustrate but do not quantify the harm."
          }
        ],
        "effects": [
          {
            "label": "mass grief and distress among attached users after the abrupt ERP removal",
            "claim_id": "c2",
            "direction": "negative"
          },
          {
            "label": "recovery context: features restored for legacy users weeks later",
            "claim_id": "c3",
            "direction": "positive"
          }
        ],
        "sources": [
          {
            "id": "s1",
            "url": "https://www.vice.com/en/article/y3py9j/ai-companion-replika-erotic-roleplay-updates",
            "kind": "news_report",
            "access": "read",
            "language": "en",
            "translation_note": "Read in English on 2026-09-15 (2023-02-15, Samantha Cole). The February 2023 crisis report.",
            "independence_group": "vice"
          },
          {
            "id": "s2",
            "url": "https://www.vice.com/en/article/replika-brings-back-erotic-ai-roleplay-for-some-users-after-outcry/",
            "kind": "news_report",
            "access": "read",
            "language": "en",
            "translation_note": "Read in English on 2026-09-15 (datePublished 2023-03-27). The partial-restoration report.",
            "independence_group": "vice"
          },
          {
            "id": "s3",
            "url": "https://www.hbs.edu/ris/Publication%20Files/25-018_bed5c516-fa31-4216-b53d-50fedda064b1.pdf",
            "kind": "working_paper",
            "access": "read",
            "language": "en",
            "translation_note": "Working paper PDF read on 2026-09-15 ('Lessons From an App Update at Replika AI', © 2024-2025).",
            "independence_group": "hbs"
          },
          {
            "id": "s4",
            "url": "https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-026-02569-3",
            "kind": "peer_reviewed_article",
            "access": "read",
            "language": "en",
            "translation_note": "Read in English on 2026-09-15 (Nature Human Behaviour, 2026-09-03; De Freitas, Castelo, Uğuralp & Oğuz-Uğuralp, 'Mourning the loss of AI companions').",
            "independence_group": "nature"
          },
          {
            "id": "s5",
            "url": "https://www.garanteprivacy.it/web/guest/home/docweb/-/docweb-display/docweb/9852506",
            "kind": "regulator_press_release",
            "access": "read",
            "language": "it",
            "translation_note": "Read in Italian on 2026-09-15 (Roma, 3 febbraio 2023), with the authority's English block on the same page. Model translation, no human reviewer.",
            "independence_group": "garante"
          },
          {
            "id": "s6",
            "url": "https://doaj.org/article/c7a6376761a34681b354f24260c1502e",
            "kind": "peer_reviewed_article",
            "access": "unavailable",
            "language": null,
            "translation_note": "HTTP 403 (Cloudflare) on 2026-09-15; body not inspected; language not established. Crossref metadata only: Socius, 2024-06-18.",
            "independence_group": "socius"
          }
        ],
        "version": 1,
        "ai_roles": [
          "own_use"
        ],
        "contexts": [
          "relationships",
          "everyday_life",
          "health"
        ],
        "unknowns": [
          "No inspected body locates the affected users; event and affected-person countries remain unknown after completed review.",
          "No reliable distinct-person count of harmed users exists; the 54,861-post corpus and the survey samples are not person counts and the row keeps unquantified zero placeholders.",
          "Reuters' contemporaneous coverage could not be inspected (401 on all paths; Wayback CDX offline during review).",
          "The Socius 2024 article's body could not be inspected (Cloudflare 403); only Crossref metadata is recorded.",
          "Whether distress persisted after the partial restoration is not measured in the inspected sources."
        ],
        "geography": {
          "basis": "Completed metadata review of 2026-09-15, carried into this full review: no inspected body (VICE x2, HBS working paper, Nature Human Behaviour, Garante press release) states where any affected user was located; Reddit accounts are pseudonymous without geography and the study corpora are not geolocated. Italy is established only as the country of the regulator whose 3 February 2023 order preceded the global removal; a regulator is not an event location or a court. Unknown here is the result of completed review.",
          "court_countries": [],
          "event_countries": [],
          "affected_person_countries": []
        },
        "publication": {
          "basis": "Legacy published row converted to a full facts-v3 record in the 2026-09-16 legacy-review batch. person_relations=communicated_with: the affected users had companion relationships with their Replika chatbots. The measured harm comes from the peer-reviewed record; individual accounts stay attributed and uncounted. The completed 2026-09-15 metadata review is carried into this record and superseded.",
          "reviewed_on": "2026-09-16"
        },
        "ai_involvement": {
          "basis": "The product change and its timing are documented by the Garante order and the company's own account; the distress pattern is documented by a peer-reviewed analysis of the Replika subreddit and by VICE's interviews. The causal chain from the removal to the distress is supported by the studies' before/after measures.",
          "status": "supported"
        },
        "person_relations": [
          "communicated_with"
        ]
      },
      "name": "Replika ERP Removal Crisis - Mass Psychological Distress",
      "summary": "Abrupt removal of romantic features in February 2023 caused AI companions to become 'cold, unresponsive.' Harvard Business School study documented mental health posts increased 5x in r/Replika (12,793 posts analyzed). Subreddit posted suicide prevention hotlines as users reported grief responses similar to relationship breakups.",
      "incidentDate": "2023-02-01",
      "incidentKind": "bounded_series",
      "incidentDatePrecision": "month",
      "exposurePattern": "product_change",
      "reportedDate": "2023-02-15",
      "aiSystem": "Replika",
      "aiCompany": "Luka Inc.",
      "severity": "high",
      "verificationStatus": "verified",
      "harmCategories": [
        "dependency_creation",
        "psychological_manipulation",
        "grief_exploitation",
        "isolation_encouragement"
      ],
      "harmOutcomes": [
        "psychological_distress",
        "relationship_disruption"
      ],
      "harmOutcomeSummary": "Participants reported acute grief and breakup-like distress after Replika abruptly removed erotic and romantic behavior. Mental-health posts in the user community increased fivefold and moderators posted suicide-prevention resources.",
      "frameworkFacets": [
        "P2c",
        "P4a",
        "P4d",
        "P5c"
      ],
      "pathwayDirection": "inward",
      "causationStatus": "supported",
      "participantUsersAffectedMin": 0,
      "otherPeopleHarmedMin": 0,
      "affectedCountStatus": "unquantified",
      "affectedCountEvidence": "The study establishes a distress pattern but its 12,793-post corpus is neither a unique-user count nor a count of people meeting the incident harm definition.",
      "victimAgeRange": "adult",
      "jurisdiction": "International",
      "platformType": "companion",
      "outcomeType": "internal_action",
      "outcomeStatus": "resolved",
      "primarySourceUrl": "https://www.hbs.edu/ris/Publication%20Files/25-018_bed5c516-fa31-4216-b53d-50fedda064b1.pdf",
      "primarySourceLabel": "Harvard Business School Working Paper 25-018 (free full text; peer-reviewed version of record in Nature Human Behaviour, 3 Sept 2026)",
      "firstPublishedAt": "2026-01-13T10:04:15.787541+00:00",
      "scopeVersion": "facts-v3",
      "tags": [
        "replika",
        "mass_event",
        "dependency",
        "grief",
        "harvard_study",
        "peer_reviewed",
        "italy_gdpr_related"
      ]
    }
  ]
}