A transformative piece of technology is supposed to “disrupt” the unwieldy ways that came before it. On Monday evening, an app built to deliver quicker caucus results took the Silicon Valley term of art literally, contributing to massive delays in reporting the results in Iowa. Hours after the caucuses ended, the state Democratic Party, citing inconsistencies in the reporting data, still has not publicly reported any results. It stressed there was no “hack or intrusion.”

Over the past hours a disheartening game of electoral tech support, conducted by journalists across the internet, has unfolded. And in place of definitive results, an information war has broken out, unleashing reckless speculation, conspiracy theories and deep anxiety.

First came the reports — trickling in from caucus leaders, precinct captains and observers — that the app wasn’t working properly. On Monday evening a precinct captain told me by text that their caucus manager was “unable to get the app from the Democratic Party to work” and “had to do the math to figure out delegates ‘long hand.’” FiveThirtyEight’s Amelia Thomson-Deveaux spoke to a frustrated caucus leader who suggested the app itself wouldn’t download. “We could not problem-solve getting the app onto one of our devices,” he told her. NBC News reported some caucus leaders had missed the window to download the app altogether. The Biden campaign issued a letter to Iowa party leaders suggesting the app had failed.

Reckless speculation followed about possible security problems with the technology. Stories from late last month raising concerns about the caucus app’s vulnerabilities recirculated on Twitter. Among the chief fears: The app was to be downloaded directly to the phones of caucus volunteers, making it difficult to ensure the safety of the devices.