Diaspora social network's 22-year-old founder has died

Diaspora homepage The homepage offered a simple tribute to Mr Zhitomirskiy
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Ilya Zhitomirskiy, the co-founder of Facebook rival Diaspora, has died.

The 22-year-old was one of four New York-based students who launched Diaspora as a "privacy-aware, user-controlled" social network.

It was set up in response to criticism that Facebook was not handling the privacy of its users well.

The cause of Mr Zhitomirskiy's death is yet to be determined. The San Francisco coroner's office said it will have details in several weeks time.

In tribute, the home page of Diaspora featured a giant dandelion seed head next to an image of Mr Zhitomirskiy.

Public memorial services are being planned for Mr Zhitomirskiy in San Francisco later this week.

A statement by co-founder Peter Shurman said: "We'll all miss Ilya more than we can say. Ilya was a great friend and a brilliant person, a visionary whose work for a better future online brought hope to many people."

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