Online video sharing site LiveLeak has shut down after 15 years, according to its co-founder Hayden Hewitt.
The site was infamous for hosting explicit and violent content, including executions. Now, anyone visiting the old web domain Liveleak.com will be redirected to a new site called ItemFix.
ItemFix says on its website that it is a platform that allows users to post and edit video and audio files. It is currently in beta mode.
Unlike LiveLeak, ItemFix states users may not post any media which "contain[s] excessive violence or gory content."
ItemFix's website also features a statement from Hewitt, explaining why LiveLeak shut down. In it, the LikeLeak co-founder writes: "The world has changed a lot over these last few years, the Internet alongside it, and we as people.
"On a personal level you have fascinated and amused me with your content."
Hewitt tweeted that the closure of LiveLeak will be discussed on his "extreme centrism" YouTube vlog Trigger Warning, which will air on May 6 at 5:30 p.m. EDT.
He added further details on Twitter after users requested more information on why LiveLeak had been shut down.
Responding to one user, Hewitt wrote: "I'm not sure what else anyone needs to know. Fifteen years of fighting tooth and nail seemed like enough."
He also suggested that there were financial pressures, writing: "[Liveleak] wasn't exactly a Wordpress blog on $2.99 hosting… donations would not have covered it, nor would we ask."
Of course they will. As they should if that's what they're after. ItemFix isn't a replacement. As for keeping LL up, the very pressures of doing what were a large part of the reason for moving on. It wasn't exactly a Wordpress blog on $2.99 hosting :)
— Hayden Hewitt (@HaydenHewitt) May 6, 2021
Newsweek has contacted Hewitt for comment.
Hewitt is involved in other projects including the AltFeed blogging platform which he said in 2020 allows people to "create in a cancel culture free environment."
In 2019 LiveLeak was among a number of sites blocked by Australian internet provider Telstra, alongside other controversial sites such as 4Chan, because footage of the Christchurch terrorist attack was circulated, Australia's 9News reported.
LiveLeak said in a statement that it would not host the footage because "we don't want to be a vehicle of choice for those who carry these events out. This is a very important distinction for us."
The site also made headlines in 2008 after it removed a film by far-right Dutch politician Geert Wilders that was critical of Islam.
LiveLeak claimed it had received threats to staff, while Jan Peter Balkenende, then the Dutch Prime Minister, said the government was concerned the film could provoke backlash. Wilders stood by the project, CNN reported that year.
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