Omegle has announced that it is shutting down with an image of its logo on a gravestone.
In an emotional letter to users, founder and CEO Leif K-Brooks, 32, who founded Omegle at 18 and was an avid Wikipedia editor said, “As a young teenager, I couldn’t just waltz onto a college campus and tell a student: “Let’s debate moral philosophy!” I couldn’t walk up to a professor and say: “Tell me something interesting about microeconomics!” But online, I was able to meet those people, and have those conversations.”
On the decision to shut down Omegle, K-Brooks said, “there can be no honest accounting of Omegle without acknowledging that some people misused it, including to commit unspeakably heinous crimes. As much as I wish circumstances were different, the stress and expense of this fight – coupled with the existing stress and expense of operating Omegle, and fighting its misuse – are simply too much. Frankly, I don’t want to have a heart attack in my 30s.”
In the letter, K-Brooks also reveals that he is a childhood rape survivor and that Omegle through its content moderation, has assisted authorities with evidence to put pedophiles behind bars.
He said the platform’s moderation had 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,” he shared.
Read the full text of his announcement on omegle.com.
