OMEGLE has revealed that it will shut down its operations after 14 years.
The popular video chat service was known for connecting strangers for conversation but quickly found itself under criticism over social media safety regulations.
GETTYOmegle has officially shut down after over a decade of service[/caption]
Founder Leif K Brooks noted in a statement posted to the Omegle site that there were other considerations to the shutdown decision, explaining that the service was “no longer sustainable, financially nor psychologically.”
Brooks added that fighting to keep Omegle from being used inappropriately was “simply too much.”
“Virtually every tool can be used for good or for evil, and that is especially true of communication tools, due to their innate flexibility,” the owner said of the site.
“The telephone can be used to wish your grandmother ‘happy birthday,’ but it can also be used to call in a bomb threat.”
“There can be no honest accounting of Omegle without acknowledging that some people misused it, including to commit unspeakably heinous crimes,” Brooks continued.
Even with the acknowledgement of the potential misuse of Omegle, Brooks still argued that safety regulations were in place to mitigate threats.
AI was supposedly in place to assist those efforts.
“I believe in a responsibility to be a ‘good Samaritan,’ and to implement reasonable measures to fight crime and other misuse,” he wrote.
“That is exactly what Omegle did. In addition to the basic safety feature of anonymity, there was a great deal of moderation behind the scenes, including state-of-the-art AI operating in concert with a wonderful team of human moderators.”
He added: “Omegle punched above its weight in content moderation, and I’m proud of what we accomplished.”
“Omegle’s moderation even had a positive impact beyond the site. Omegle worked with law enforcement agencies, and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, to help put evildoers in prison where they belong.”
“There are ‘people’ rotting behind bars right now thanks in part to evidence that Omegle proactively collected against them, and tipped the authorities off to,” Brooks claimed in the statement.
Despite the security efforts, Omegle’s owner explained that he felt the only way to stop crime from occurring on the service altogether was to cease operations.
“I have always welcomed constructive feedback; and indeed, Omegle implemented a number of improvements based on such feedback over the years. However, the recent attacks have felt anything but constructive,” Brooks said.
“The only way to please these people is to stop offering the service.”
“The battle for Omegle has been lost, but the war against the Internet rages on,” the founder continued.
“From the bottom of my heart, thank you to everyone who used Omegle for positive purposes, and to everyone who contributed to the site’s success in any way.”
“I’m so sorry I couldn’t keep fighting for you.”
Omegle’s shutdown announcement comes not long after it ran into legal struggles after a lawsuit was filed accusing the service of pairing a sexual predator with an 11-year-old girl, per The Verge.
It’s unclear if the case was specifically what Brooks was referencing in the statement about “recent attacks,” but the timing of the shutdown follows not long after the Protecting Kids on Social Media Act bill was introduced by a few United States senators earlier this year.
The United Kingdom also officially implemented its own online safety bill in an effort to protect children from sexual exploitation.
For more on social media, check out The U.S. Sun’s coverage of why WhatsApp’s new major change may be “the end of the app” according to some users.
The U.S. Sun also has the story on why Facebook’s key button allegedly stopped working and caused users to rage online.
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