Anonymous video chat service Omegle shuts down, founder cites 'unspeakably heinous crimes'

Omegle, a popular video chat service that randomly paired strangers to connect, has shut down after 14 years, its founder announced in a statement on its website Thursday, acknowledging the platform was widely misused.

Omegle has come under fire over the years for being an online hunting ground for sexual predators, a reputation that Omegle's founder Leif K-Brooks didn't refute in his post that otherwise defended the service.

"There can be no honest accounting of Omegle without acknowledging that some people misused it, including to commit unspeakably heinous crimes," K-Brooks wrote.

Still, K-Brooks largely defended Omegle and his actions to "implement reasonable measures to fight crime." The site's founder also condemned at length what he viewed as "a constant barrage of attacks" from opponents who have long called for the site to shutter.

"When they say Omegle shouldn’t exist, they are really saying that you shouldn’t be allowed to use it; that you shouldn’t be allowed to meet random new people online," K-Brooks said, addressing the site's users. "That idea is anathema to the ideals I cherish – specifically, to the bedrock principle of a free society."

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What is Omegle?

K-Brooks was an 18-year-old programmer living with his parents in Vermont when he founded Omegle in 2009.

The platform was envisioned as a way to foster "social spontaneity that I felt didn’t exist elsewhere," while building upon "the things I loved about the internet," K-Brooks wrote.

"If the Internet is a manifestation of the 'global village,' Omegle was meant to be a way of strolling down a street in that village, striking up conversations with the people you ran into along the way," K-Brooks wrote.

The site's function was to randomly match up users from around the world in private video calls or text chats, with each caller able to end the conversation any time and connect with someone else.

Omegle gained reputation for hosting sexual predators

However noble K-Brooks' intentions were, it wasn't long until the site, which grew to have millions of daily users, became notorious as a realm for sexual predators and neo-Nazis to commit crimes, spout hatred and groom victims.

The announcement of Omegle’s closure came about a week after the platform settled a lawsuit accusing the platform of randomly pairing a then-11-year-old girl with an adult man who sexually abused her online for three years, the Associated Press reported. Filed in 2021 in an Oregon court, the lawsuit said the man had already pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography in a criminal case.

In another account from 2020, a man reportedly threatened to reveal the home address of a juvenile girl and hack her phone if she refused to strip for him on camera, according to past USA TODAY reporting.

While Omegle is hardly the only social media site susceptible to such misuse, the anonymity baked into its model is what set it apart.

In his post, K-Brooks insisted that the ability for users to remain anonymous has never meant that those acting maliciously can hide from justice. Omegle, he said, has regularly worked with law enforcement agencies and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to investigate crimes committed on the platform.

K-Brooks also touted the "great deal of moderation" implemented behind the scenes, including the use of artificial intelligence.

"Omegle punched above its weight in content moderation, and I’m proud of what we accomplished," K-Brooks said.

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Founder said operating Omegle is no longer sustainable

The site's infamy caused it to come under public scrutiny from lawmakers and online safety regulators. And the mounting pressure, K-Brooks said, forced his hand after he said operating Omegle became no longer financially sustainable.

"The only way to please these people is to stop offering the service," K-Brooks said. "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."

As of Thursday morning, the Omegle website remained live with Brooks’ statement and an image of a gravestone, but its online video chat function was no longer visible.

Contributing: The Associated Press

Eric Lagatta covers breaking and trending news for USA TODAY. Reach him at elagatta@gannett.com