On November 8th, Omegle's creator posted a final note and this artwork of a gravestone reading "Omegle 2009-2023."

Video Chat Omegle Shuts Down After 14 Years Of Connecting Strangers

The well-known video chat service and site Omegle, a popular platform that spawned too many viral videos to count and has been a prime destination for all sorts of pranks and trolling since its conception, has suddenly shut down.

On Wednesday evening, the anonymous video chat Omegle shut down its service after 14 years online. Launched in 2009 as an online chat service and then introducing its video chat feature in 2010, Omegle.com now displays a final message from the service's founder and owner Leif K-Brooks on its front page.

Comegle 2009-2023 "Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." —- C.S. Lewis "In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move." — Douglas Adams


In a lengthy farewell message, K-Brooks, who founded the site when he was just 18 years old, quoted C.S. Lewis and said that in the past years, the public pressure on the site became too much to handle, writing that "recent attacks have felt anything but constructive" and that "the only way to please these people is to stop offering the service."

Adding that operating Omegle became no longer sustainable, both financially and psychologically, K-Brooks also argued for a less sanitized internet, stating that "a healthy, free society cannot endure when we are collectively afraid of each other to this extent."

In the past few years, Omegle repeatedly drew public attention over reports of grooming, indoctrination and verbal abuse happening on the platform. Some of the most infamous trolls who achieved their popularity in part due to their activity on the platform are alt-right streamers GypsyCrusader and CatboyKami.

Considering the controversial status of the platform, the shutdown of Omegle was lamented by some and celebrated by others as word of its sudden shutdown spread across the internet last night.

Macaiyla @macaiyla A sad day. Memories are flooding. This website was a blessing and a curse. Many people will never understand what this site was about. That's what made it so special. We won't ever have something even close to this for generations to come. Farewell. 9:50 PM - Nov 8, 2023 50K Views :

Hurt CoPain @Saeed DiCaprio this is like 9/11 for pedophiles Dexerto @Dexerto 12h Omegle the video chat site has officially shut down forever Talk to strangers! Comegle 8:34 PM . Nov 8, 2023 13.1M Views Comegle 2009-2023 :


Omegle has also been a prominent tool for content farming among prankers and TikTokers, and has just recently spawned a meme known as Omegle Rizz.




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