The Shadow Inc. saga continues to get weirder — and even more damning for the Democrats who thought Shadow’s app would be perfect for the Iowa caucus:

The details of Shadow's epic fail keep getting worse. They deployed the Android app through a free version of TestFairy, which caps the number of users at 200. https://t.co/8Xq3WRWA7v pic.twitter.com/fogUbRxJ9k — Adrienne (@AdrienneRoyer) February 4, 2020

More from The Verge:

Testing platforms are common for mobile apps, and are one of many ways in which independent app developers and large software makers can deploy test software without going through the sometimes rigorous App Store and Play Store review processes. This is primarily to let developers squash bugs and ensure the app can run on a variety of different devices, some of which may be using outdated operating systems and powered by older, less powerful components that may render the app sluggish or just plain inoperable. In this case, however, it looks like Shadow used a test platform for the app’s public distribution, at least for Android users. (TestFairy provides an iOS installer platform, but it is not clear if Shadow used TestFairy for the iOS version of the Iowa Recorder App.) Installing software through a test platform or sideloading onto your device manually both come with security risks, as app store review processes are designed to discover whether a piece of software is hiding malware or does something behind the scenes it’s not supposed to. In the event you do sideload an app or try installing an unofficial version, your smartphone typically warns you of the risks and asks if you want to proceed. It’s also a less stable model for deploying software at scale, which might explain the difficulty precinct chiefs had in downloading the program.

That would certainly help to explain it, yes.

Oh come on https://t.co/6D0sgr4V9C — Lachlan Markay (@lachlan) February 4, 2020

Well, if we can’t trust companies named Shadow or TestFairy, who can We trust?! https://t.co/Y0j7cs7gi2 — jon gabriel (@exjon) February 4, 2020

Ha!

Seriously, though. What the hell.

That's an F5 tornado of incompetence. https://t.co/yGazTvONzS — Cam Edwards (@CamEdwards) February 4, 2020

None of this is comprehensible. What were any of them thinking? https://t.co/TA5y72m6Hl — Seth Mandel (@SethAMandel) February 4, 2020

That they could get away with it, maybe?

So what you're saying is that this Shadow company was just a big grift. https://t.co/QePMwVKnmY — RBe (@RBPundit) February 4, 2020

It certainly doesn’t reek of legitimacy, that’s for damn sure.

I really hope that The Verge is mistaken in that detail because that's a level of incompetence that I can't imagine. — Adrienne (@AdrienneRoyer) February 4, 2020

When you’re dealing with the Democratic Party, no level of incompetence is truly inconceivable.

The IA Dems paid them $60K so they slacked off and went on the cheap. — Sean Hackbarth (@seanhackbarth) February 4, 2020

Mindboggling. It’s a presidential election! — Seth Mandel (@SethAMandel) February 4, 2020

wow. — craig carpenter ? (@ccarp87) February 4, 2020

omfg — geeberry (@_geeberry) February 4, 2020

I've worked in tech for over 20 years. I've heard of testing in production to which leads to a resume generating event. Never in my life have I heard of a serious effort to use a test platform as your production platform. That's some serious galaxy brain shit. — LaDinosaur Jones ? ?? ⚜️ (@ladinosaurjones) February 4, 2020