14 years after its launch, Omegle is closing its doors. It does this with a statement from its creator, Leif K-Brooks, in which he explains the challenges faced by a platform of this nature.

Brooks explains that “this is not financially or psychologically sustainable.” The decision comes amid an ongoing storm of lawsuits and calls for the website to be shut down. According to the complainants, it was not uncommon for profiles to be found for sexual exploitation purposes.

The end of an era. If you don’t know Omegle, we are talking about a website whose main purpose is to: meet and chat with strangers or talk to them via video call. You opened the website, connected, and a random match was automatically made. According to Semrush data, at the beginning of 23, the site had received more than 70 million visits.

Minimum age to use 13 yearsa strong barrier that allows minors to interact with adults. In February 2023, an anonymous case went viral via the BBC. The young woman explained that she was harassed through the application when she was 11 years old and that she filed a lawsuit against the platform for matching her with a random harasser. This is not the first case; Omegle is involved in more than 50 cases of alleged pedophilia.

Brooks appears to have caved to the pressure after weathering the storm. Omegle’s cover features a sincere statement from its creator, explaining that the website was born with the idea of ​​”meeting new people.”

“I founded Omegle when I was 18 and still living with my parents. My goal was to capitalize on the things I love about the internet, while also introducing a kind of social spontaneity that I don’t think exists anywhere else. A manifestation of the “global village,” Omegle is the equivalent of walking down a street in that village and walking along the road. “It was a way to chat with the people you met along the way.”

Brooks explains that users have used Omegle for good over the years. But he doesn’t deny that there are “downsides” too. An artificial intelligence has been implemented for content moderation, which he claims to be proud of, although not enough.

“If something as simple as meeting new people casually is banned, what next? This is a far cry from anything that could be considered a reasonable compromise to the principle I have outlined. Analogies are a limited tool, but it is an analogy to the physical world. It might mean closing down Central Park.” “Because crimes are committed there, or perhaps more provocatively, the universe is destroyed because it contains evil. A healthy, free society cannot last as long as we collectively fear each other so much.”

“Unfortunately, what is right does not always prevail. While I wish the circumstances were different, the stress and expense of this fight (along with the current stress and expense of running Omegle and combating its abuse) is too great. It is no longer financially possible to run Omegle.” “Nor is it psychologically sustainable. Frankly, I don’t want to have a heart attack when I’m 30.”

Following the announcement, Omegle closed its doors permanently and said goodbye to the website, which has been active since 2009.

Image | Omegle (replaced by Photoshop Generative AI)

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