Path CEO Says The Mobile-Only Social Network Doesn't Spam Users

Mobile-only social network Path became the subject of intense criticism last week.

A U.K.-based user accused Path of spamming his entire address book, sending text messages to his friends and family inviting them to sign up for Path.

That accusation raised questions about the source of Path's sudden growth. The private social network is growing by 1 million users a week, and has 12 million registered users.

But Path CEO Dave Morin maintains that the app does not spam users.

"Invites on Path are never sent without a user's consent — any allegations to the contrary are false," Morin told AllThingD's Mike Isaac.

Path, however, does have a new on-boarding process that encourages new users to "Promote My Path" on other social networks like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr. It also lets users opt-in to let Path scan their address books, and Gmail and Twitter accounts to invite their friends to the app.

It used to be possible to invite friends via Facebook, but Facebook recently restricted Path's access to its API following the controversy.