 | |
Type of site | Video sharing |
|---|---|
| Founded | 31 October 2006; 18 years ago (2006-10-31)[1][2] |
| Dissolved | 5 May 2021; 3 years ago (2021-5-5)[3] |
| Headquarters | London ,United Kingdom[4] |
| Area served | Worldwide |
| Owner | None |
| Founder(s) | Various co-founders including Hayden Hewitt[2] |
| URL | www (redirects towww |
| Commercial | no |
| Current status | Defunct/Inactive |
LiveLeak was a Britishvideo sharing website headquartered inLondon. The site was founded on 31 October 2006, in part by the team behind theOgrish.comshock site which closed on the same day.[2] LiveLeak aimed to freely host real footage of politics, war, and many other world events and to encourage and foster a culture ofcitizen journalism, although later became known to host videos with gore and extreme violence.[5][6][7]
It was eventually shut down on 5 May 2021, with the URL changed toredirect to ItemFix, another video sharing site.[3][8]
LiveLeak first came to prominence in 2007 following the filming and leaking of theexecution of Saddam Hussein. This, among others, earned the site a mention fromWhite House Press SecretaryTony Snow as the likely place to see updates or stories from active American soldiers.[9]
On 30 July 2007, theBBC programmePanorama broadcast a show on how street violence between children as young as 11 was being posted on websites including LiveLeak.[10] WhenPanorama queried the "extremely violent videos" that were posted to LiveLeak's website, co-founder Hayden Hewitt refused to take them all down, stating: "Look, all this is happening, this is real life, and this is going on, and we're going to have to show it."[11]
LiveLeak was again in the spotlight in March 2008 when it was hosting the anti-Quran filmFitna, made by Dutch politicianGeert Wilders.Fitna was taken down for 48 hours as personal threats against Hewitt, the only public representative of the site, peaked. It was reposted on 30 March 2008 after arrangements for Hewitt's family and safety had been improved. However, the video was soon removed again over a copyright claim.[2]
On 24 March 2014, LiveLeak andRuptly announced a content partnership.[12]On 19 August 2014, a video depicting the beheading of U.S. journalistJames Foley was posted byIslamic State terrorists onYouTube and other sites. When it was reported on byU.S. News & World Report, YouTube andFacebook deleted all related footage and implemented bans, demand increased for LiveLeak's footage as they permitted the content at that time.[13] In response to the James Foley video, Hewitt posted that LiveLeak's content policy had been updated to ban allbeheading footage produced by the Islamic State.[14][2] The website continued to host the original video that depicted the aftermath of Foley's execution for its historical relevance as it did not depict the beheading itself.
On 30 March 2019, Australian telecomTelstra and other Australian ISPs[15] blocked the websites4chan,8chan,Voat,Zero Hedge and LiveLeak as a response to the video of theChristchurch mosque shootings in New Zealand spreading.[16] LiveLeak responded that they didn't carry the video and were removing uploads of it. The ISPs in question didn't respond.[citation needed]
At the beginning of June 2020, LiveLeak temporarily disabled users' ability to log into the website, and it also only suggested videos from other sources, such as YouTube orDailymotion. After 14 June 2020, it became possible to log into the website and view LiveLeak's hosted videos again. Those who did not want to log in to LiveLeak would only see suggested videos that were hosted by YouTube, Dailymotion andVK.[citation needed]
On 5 May 2021, the LiveLeak website closed, with site visitors beingredirected to ItemFix.com, a website that bans users from uploading media containing “excessive violence or gory content”.[3]
The website [Ogrish.com] was incorporated into LiveLeak.com on 31 October 2006
