Facebook Rival Diaspora Co-Founder Dies

Authorities believe it to be suicide.

Ilya Zhitomirskiy, co-founder of Diaspora, a Facebook rival, died in San Francisco over the weekend.

SFPD responded to the 800 block of Treat Avenue around 8:10pm, Saturday, after receiving a call about a possible suicide.

CNNMoney reports a source close to the company confirmed Zhitomirskiy had taken his own life.

SFPD Officer Alvie Esparza said, 

 "In this case it appears to be a suicide," adding. "however, the medical examiner's office will make the final decision" after conducting testing.

Diaspora an open-source social network, was founded by Zhitomirskiy and three other New York University students.

The founders raised $200,000 from 6,500 donors, including Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, however, last month, a blog post from the company said "PayPal mysteriously and arbitrarily decided to freeze everyone's donations." However, PayPal said it later released the funds.

Ilya Zhitomirskiy was 22.

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