The video chat service Omegle has been discontinued
10. November 2023The video chat service Omegle has been discontinued
Berlin, November 10, 2023
Omegle, the video chat service that anonymously matched users with strangers, has been shut down after years of reports that it was being used by criminals. The company recently settled a lawsuit that accused the platform of connecting an 11-year-old girl with a sex offender.
The site, which did not have age verification, had 73 million monthly users in February. A BBC investigation found a rise in cases of users, including minors, exposing themselves in Omegle chat.
In a letter to the site, Omegle founder Leif K-Brooks attributed the shutdown to the „stress and expense“ of attacks from those who wanted the site down.
He acknowledged that some people were using the platform to “commit unspeakably heinous crimes.”
Omegle worked with law enforcement agencies and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to collect evidence against wrongdoers, he claimed.
The founder still argued that “every tool can be used for good or evil” and warned users that the closure was the beginning of the end of “active fake and real human connection” on the internet.